Hi Jane, Lou, Tim and others, For your problem playing back tracks in order, Tim Kilburn asked: >> did you name them as 001 to 411. If you have varying numbers of >> digits, they will be sorted in a fashion that would make 4 come >> after 399. If you make all the names three digits followed by a >> dash, you shouldn't have that problem.
Lou also mentioned the requirement for leading zeroes, and explained that on the default settings iTunes will import albums knowing the track order. He gave information on how to create playlists sorted by track or album order; you want to use album order for mulit-album audiobooks. >I assume you have all the book files as a playlist. So, be sure the >playlist is selected in the :"Source" pane. Then in the "Song" pane, >move to the "track" or "album" column with VO-Left (you can confirm >which column you are in with VO-Shift-C) and then use VO's sort >command (VO-Shift-\). The song list will be sorted by track. Now, >when you play the playlist, it will be in the correct order. And, you >did not have to rename anything! > >Note: "Album View" (Command-Option-4) is not the same as "sorting by >album" which is what I described above. A couple of other things to check when files play out of order, and some recommendations specifically for audiobooks: (1) Make sure shuffle play is not on. In fact, for audiobooks, check the boxes for "Skip When Shuffling" and "Remember Playback Position" since you'll never want to listen to books in shuffled order and you will want a bookmark kept of your last played position. (2) On multi-album CDs make sure to enter the disc number. Check it and don't rely on the automatic retrieval of track names from the internet to get this correct. The easy way to set "Skip when Shuffling" and "Remember Position" is to use Command-a to select all the tracks in your playlist and then use Command-i to edit the options for multiple tracks. Use VO-Down arrow to get to "Remember Position" and VO-Down arrow to its Pop-Up button. VO-space and down arrow to change this to "Yes". Continue to VO-Down arrow to "Skip When Shuffling" and change its Pop-Up button to yes, too. (You can ignore the "Remember Position unchecked checkbox" and "Skip When Shuffling unchecked checkbox" entries before the pop-up buttons -- the boxes automatically get checked when you make changes from the current settings.) Carriage return to leave the menu.. Now the audiobook tracks will never be played out of order as part of a "Party Shuffle" or other random play options. iTunes will also return you to your last played position if you've stopped your audiobook listening in the middle of a file. If you want to use fewer files you can import your audiobooks 1 file to a CD by joining tracks. This works fine with bookmarks in iTunes and on iPods, but won't work well on an mp3 CD player or other device that doesn't remember the last position. To join tracks on importing from a CD, select (all) tracks in the Songs pane with command-a after you've inserted the CD. Use VO-m to get to the menubar and VO-right arrow to the Advanced menu. Down arrow to select "Join CD Tracks". When you import, you will get a single file that you'll probably want to rename the track with a number at the end, e.g., "My Audiobook 1". You can also put these tracks into a playlist and sort by album. as Lou described. The easy way to check or enter the disc number, and other tags, is to use "Get Info" on multiple tracks, as we did for setting "Remember Playback Position" and "Skip When Shuffling". After you've inserted your CD and are in the Songs Pane, do the command-a to select all tracks and command-i to "Get Info". Minimal entries are Artist, Album, and Disc 1 of 7 etc. To enter the Disc number navigate with VO-down arrow until you reach "Disc Number". VO-down and enter the number of the current disc in the text box, then VO-right arrow 3 times to the text box for the total number of discs. As you navigate you'll hit the "Disc Number unchecked checkbox" first, and may not hear the end of the string. Ignore the checkboxes, since they'll be filled in when you make a change. I might type in "Books & Spoken" for genre, and enter the Narrator under Composer, but that's your choice. If this is a collection by several authors, I'll set the compilation pop-up box to yes. This means the album folder won't be listed as a subdirectory of a specific artisit. And as Lou said, "Album View" (Command-Option-4) is not the same as sorting by album -- it displays selections grouped by albums, but the order of tracks within albums is determined by your sort criteria. HTH Cheers, Esther
