Help with mp3 audiobooks on MacBook Air

[KentE]

I picked up some of the Sync audiobook titles (MP3 format, no DRM) for my goddaughter. She has a school-issued MacBook Air (current model), and I'm trying to figure out if there's a way for her to listen to those audiobooks. She can ONLY download/install programs from the Apple App Store (or whatever they call it for MacBooks). I don't have an Apple anything, and haven't found any way to browse the store without one. Does anyone have experience with a program that might work for this?
I think I understand that it's 'possible' to do this through iTunes, by converting file types,, and playing back through iTunes. I've read thru the process for some version of OSX, and it sounded difficult. I think I've also heard that iTunes is not a particularly friendly audiobook player (for files acquired elsewhere, at least. At least some of what I read indicated that tags might need to be changed or built-- I've done this before a few times for Sandisk players, but I'd prefer a solution that avoids that necessity since I don't have any way to test the results before handing off the files. (I think the Sync files have good MP3 tags, but I've read that iTunes may not keep them when converting file types....)
Any suggestions would be appreciated!
I asked her parents last year about giving her a Sandisk Clip Zip, or a un-activated android phone set up as a player, but they weren't that excited about either of those options.

KentE

[ATDrake]

I have a MacBook and unless the school has majorly locked down her MacBook Air, it should be a relatively trivial thing to play mp3 audiobook files on it.

If you're using iTunes, all you have to do is to drag and drop the files onto an open iTunes window (plain mp3s require no conversion at all) and it should automagically add them to the iTunes Library. You may want to fix the ID3 tags on the mp3s if they're not set correctly, and you can do that by selecting the tracks and doing Cmd-I (or File --> Get Info from the menus).

From there you can fill out the author/reader/etc. names properly in Details, and then under Options you can switch the Media Kind to Audiobook and check the box for Remember Playback Position, which will make iTunes (and any syncing iPods) remember where the track was last paused and resume it there for playback next time, IIRC (it's been a while since I ripped my audiobook CDs to the computer, so I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly I did last time).

It's also possible to join the tracks into one single file with bookmarkable chapters and do other advanced tricks.

If iTunes seems too unwieldy for just listening to audiobooks, you can play pretty much anything with VLC Media Player, X Lossless Decoder will rip/convert a whole bunch of file formats, and Tag will help you fix tags for many more formats (ETA: maybe not for MP3s, since I generally do mine as FLAC and then set the tags and convert, but properly filled out ID3 MP3 tags will be automatically recognized by iTunes anyway).

(ETA: also, it's possible to play mp3 and other media files right from the Finder, if it turns out she really can't add anything to her MacBook Air and has to run stuff off of a USB drive. Just set it to Column view, select the file, wait for the little preview to load, and click the play button. Just don't click away from that particular file in the Finder window while you're still watching/listening to stuff, but opening up other Finder windows and keeping your "listener" in the background works just fine.)

Incidentally, the way to open applications that are not signed by the Apple Store is to Ctrl-click on them to get the menu for Open, which will bring up a "warning dialogue the first time saying that this is an unrecognized developer do you want to proceed?" and once you've said yes, they should open just fine by regular double-clicking the next time. (There may be some kind of advanced setting to prevent this for non-admin accounts, though, but it can't hurt to give it a try to see if it works on hers.)

Hope this helps.

[KentE]

Thanks, ATDrake!
Playing in iTunes sounds easier than I had read (and feared). From what I understand, loading any program not acquired directly from the school, or from Apple, does require administrative rights (which won't be granted). There is no prohibition against adding data files, though, so we should be able to transfer via USB and load into iTunes.
I don't think I can get VLC, or a tag editor, on there. I do think the Sync titles have good tags, though (as opposed to some of the horribly, almost randomly, tagged MP3 files I've gotten on some of the local library audiobooks). I can modify tags with MP3Tag, but I don't do it enough to trust that I'll do it correctly without having a way to test on the same player (iTunes). I think I can handle setting the options & titling as needed on her notebook (well, since I've never used a Mac & she has, I think she can handle it if I tell her what we're looking for.)
I'll get a couple load on a USB flash drive, and give it a shot next week!

KentE

[pidgeon92]

Adding audiobooks to iTunes is indeed a trivial matter. It's where I store all of mine, and how I transfer them to my iPhone.

[KentE]

Thanks for the reassurances-- I'll have to give it a try.
I always assumed that non-DRM audiobooks would be a 'trivial matter' on any playing device that claimed to handle audiobooks-- much to my frustration, that hasn't proven true.
Combining that experience with my inexperience with Apple anything had me dreading the prospect-- especially if I get her excited about the audiobooks first, and then couldn't make it work.....

KentE

[ATDrake]

One minor consideration is to check under Preferences in iTunes and make sure that under the Advanced tab, the checkboxes for "Keep iTunes Media Folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to the library" is ticked. IIRC, this is the default, but it's possible that it may have been unchecked if your goddaughter was playing around with the settings, and it'll make things much easier for a newbie user to have everything auto-organized.

And in the newer iTunes 12.x version, in order to get an easy link to the Audiobooks tab, you have to click the ellipsis on the little bar below the Play controls and select the checkbox to have it show on the toolbar every time she opens iTunes (IIRC it's not one of the default picks for library display, which usually just shows Music/Movies/TV).

Also, you can use the Sorting tab under Get Info within iTunes to help set up more useful custom tagging/display in the library.

For example, right now the SYNC audiobooks I have put the Artist name like "Writer/Reader/Other Reader" in the ID3 tags, but you can rename that to "Writer, read by Readers" and then under Sorting, change it to "Lastname, Firstname" and then it'll display as "Elizabeth Wein, read by Narrator" but she'll be able to find all the author's books together under the W section of the library. (Although now that I think about it, it'd probably be better to do that with the titles, since there's a chance that there'll be future audiobooks with versions read by different narrators, so you could do "A Christmas Carol, read by Reader #1" and "A Christmas Carol, performed by full-cast audio of Theatre Production #2", and still have it sort under the Cs in the title list.)

The Finder can also play many media filetypes not just in column view, but also in the Icon and Cover Flow views, as long as you can see the little Play button when you click the icon for the selected file.