iPhone Ringtone Issues

After reading the tutorial from here I noticed that some of you have had the same issue as me where iTunes (in this case, I'm using 10 as I assume most of you are) doesn't display the option to create an AAC version of a track, and therefore doesn't allow you to create your custom ringtones.

After a little fiddling around, I have figured out why, and I will step you through how to change this.

Here's the short version:
Edit > Preferences > Import Settings... > Import Using: (drop-down menu) > AAC Encoder > OK > OK > Right-click > Create AAC Version

Here's a more detailed walkthrough with images. Things are labelled in green to make things easier to locate. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

Step One:

Initially, this is all that is displayed when you right-click.
BAD.

Step Two:

Click Edit > Preferences

Step Three:

Once that appears, click 'Import Settings...'

Step Four:

When that comes up, click the drop-down menu labelled 'Import Using:'
As you can see, mine is/was set to MP3 encoder.
You need to change it to 'AAC Encoder'.

Step Five:

Click OK.

Step Six:

Click OK.

Step Seven:

'Create MP3 Version' (or WAV Version, AIFF Version or Apple
Lossless Version depending on what you had it set to) should
now read 'Create AAC Version'

This now means that anything you import of a CD will be imported as an AAC, so if you're not keen for that, you'll need to remember to change the Import Settings back to MP3 before importing a CD, and back to AAC when creating a ringtone. I think this also applies for converting files like Windows Media Audio files (wma) etc. as well.

I think iTunes 10's default import setting is 'MP3 Encoder' for most, if not all people, whereas I think (not sure) that any version prior to 10 has it's default set to 'AAC Encoder', which would explain why a) so many people have had issues, and b) why I've never had this problem before - all my other ringtones were done in earlier versions of iTunes (I haven't made one for ages).

Now everything in that tutorial from where it says: " Now click “OK” and then right click on the song again, and select “Create AAC version” to create a new version of the song with the 30 second interval you specified." should make more sense.