I am assuming that you have the latest iTunes software installed in your computer, and preferably also the most recent quicktime player software. If you get through this and still have trouble, double check that these two peices of free software are up to date on your system.
1. Get iTunes software from apple. It is free, and available for both Mac and Windows. If you use some other system, or don't like iTunes, there are other podcast clients. I would recommend going to versiontracker.com and doing a search for 'podcast' to find appropriate software for your system. The rest of this step-by-step assume that you have the most recent version of iTunes and the most recent version of Quicktime installed on your computer (older versions may work, but if you have trouble you should update), and you are able to connect to the iTunes Music Store.
2. Find the appropriate page on the iTunes Music Store with the podcast you want to subscribe to. You can do a keyword search [See Figure 1], or go to the podcast section and browse. I recommend doing a search for 'Grush' if you are looking for anything I've done.
Figure 1. iTunes browser connected to iTunes music store. Box on left with 'Music Store' highlighted indicates that you are on the music store. Click on the text 'Music Store' to connect if you are not already connected to it. Red box in upper right indicates the search field. Enter desired search text and press 'enter'.
Figure 2:The result of a search for 'grush'. Red box indicates search results. Click on the result you want.
3. Press the 'SUBSCRIBE' button. A dialogue box will appear to confirm that you want to subscribe. Confirm that you do. If you don't press the 'SUBSCRIBE' button, but rather double click on one of the episode titles below, you will hear a 90 second preview clip of the podcast, and it will lack any accompanying artwork. You want to SUBSCRIBE.
Figure 3: Press the SUBSCRIBE button. If you just double click on one of the episodes in the main white window (there are 2 listed in the figure) you will hear a 90 second preview of that podcast, with no artwork, and will not be subscribed. Subscription is free, of course.
4. The most recent episode will begin to download into the iTunes library on your computer, and iTunes should automatically switch you from the Music Store to the Podcast section of your own music library. Make sure that you are in the Podcast section of your own music library by clicking on the 'podcasts' icon in the upper left of the iTunes window.
Figure 4:Your podcast library as listed in iTunes. When you click on 'SUBSCRIBE' iTunes should automatically open this window. The red square in the upper left indicates that the 'Podcasts' line is highlighted. If it is not, click on it to bring up your podcast library. The second smaller red box indicates the triangle to the left of the podcast you just subscribed to. If the triangle is pointing to the right, the individual episodes are hidden from view. Click on this triangle to bring up the full list of all episodes of the podcast (see next figure).
5. The main window will now have a list of all podcasts shows to which you are subscribed. If the show has multiple episodes (and most do), there will be a small triangle on the left hand side of the line listing that podcast. Click on this triangle to toggle the full list of episodes on and off.
Figure 5: Here all episodes of the podcast are listed. Note that the triangle to the left of the podcast listing is pointing down, and under the name of the podcast, all three episodes are listed. When you first subscribe, only the most recent episode is downloaded, all others have a GET button after the episode title, these are indicated in the centermost red box. Click on the GET buttons to download all episodes.
6. When you initially subscribe to a podcast, iTunes will only download the most recent episode to your computer (unless you set a preference for it to automatically download all episodes, but by default it only downloads the most recent). To get all the episodes, you need to click on the small triangle to the left of the podcast title so that the triangle points downward, and all the episodes are listed.
7. Any episode that is available but which you have not yet downloaded will have a GET button next to it. Click this button, and your iTunes software will retrieve that episode and add it to your podcast library.
8. To play an episode of the podcast, double click on its line in the main window of your iTunes podcast library. You will be able to pause, rewind, etc. by using the buttons at the uper left, or literally clicking on and dragging the dot on the player that tracks the progress of the podcast as it plays.
9. If the podcast is an enhanced podcast, then you need to have iTuens set to 'Show Artwork'. There are three ways to do this. i) go to the EDIT menu, and there is an option for either 'Show artwork' or 'Hide artwork'. If it says 'Show artwork', click it. If it says 'Hide artwork', then this means that it is already set to show artwork. ii) On a Mac, you can press command-g to toggle artwork on and off. iii), you can click on the 'show artwork' button which is one of a small set of buttons down at the very button left of iTunes -- it is a button with an icon of a square with a small triangle in it. If iTunes is set to show artwork, there should be a small window, about 1 to 1.5 inches square, at the bottom left of your iTunes browser.
Figure 6: While playing an enhanced podcast, or a video podcast, the visuals are displayed in a box in the lower left of iTunes. This box is not always open. To open it, either go to EDIT then 'show artwork', or more simply press the show/hide artwork toggle button, indicated at the bottom in a red box.
10. If you are listening to an enhanced podcast, the graphics will automatically dispaly in the artwork window, and will automatically change as they should. If you click on one of the graphics, a larger version will pop up in a new window. But this larger version will not automatically update as new graphics appear, so if you want to continue viewing larger versions of the graphics, you will need to continue clicking on them as they appear in the artwork window.
Figure 7: Clicking on the small version of the artwork that is displayed in the artwork box in the bottom left will bring up a full size version of the image.
11. If you are trying to watch a video podcast, you also need to have 'show artwork' on, as described in (9) and (10) above. When the artwork window is open, the video will play in that window. If you click on the video as it is playing, it will open in a new window by itself, and continue to play.
