I am creating this little tutorial to help out Marge with her experiment with ring tones

Note before we begin: I am using Windows XP and have the very latest version of iTunes and iPhone iOS.

Step 1: Create a folder where you want to save your ring tone file.
I have created “Ringtone” under my “My Music” folder.

Step 2: Make sure you can see the file extension of your files.
- Open Windows Explorer
- Go to Tools > Folder Options > “View” Tab > Uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”

Step 3: Open your iTunes and make sure the song you want is loaded.
In my example here, we will be creating from Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”

Step 4: You can only create up to 30 seconds of the tune. When it is over 30 seconds, the ringtone file becomes too big and the conversion process will not work. So search the track for that 30 seconds or less that you want to capture.
- Make note of the exact “start time” and “end time” (e.g. 1:25 to 1:55)
- In “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, my favourite portion is the first 24 seconds. If you play this song, you’ll know

Step 5: Right-click on the song, select “Get Info”

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Step 6: Click the “Options” tab

Step 7: Enter the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” in the minutes:seconds format (e.g. 1:25)
- In my example, I will start at 0:00 and end at 0:24

Step 8: Click “Ok”

Step 9: Right-Click the song again and select “Create ACC Version”.

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Notice this will automatically create a duplicate version of the song but only in the time frame you selected. Check the “Time” column, notice that you have the original length and the shorter length. That shorter length is the duplicate and that is your ringtone.

Step 10: Drag this ringtone from your iTunes to the folder you created for your ringtones.
- This will save an .mp3 copy of the ringtone.

Step 11: Rename the extension of this .mp3 file to .m4r

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In Windows when prompted during renaming, click “Yes”

Step 12: Back to your iTunes, click “Tones” on the left side menu.
- Drag the .m4r file from your folder to “Tones”.

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The tone should now be added to your list of Tones.

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Step 13: Plug your iPhone to your computer.

Step 14: To sync the tones, click “Tones” on the sync view, make sure the tone is checked, and hit “Apply” to start the Sync process.

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Step 15: When the sync is done, go to your iPhone and tap on Settings > Sounds > Ringtone
You will see the list of ringtones on top. Select the ringtone you just made and voila!

There you go. I hope this works for you Marge! Leave me a tweet or comment if you’re still having issues