Hi Holly, You wrote: >Hi Ester. If you do this isn't it sort of the same as opening the >files from your itunes music folder in itunes. I.e if you open the >files and itunes opens, won't it then add the file to your library >again? > >Just trying to understand how this works. :) >thanks. >Holly
No, this isn't quite the same as opening files and having them added to the iTunes library because the items placed in the dock are being referenced through symbolic links, I think. Think about the fact that applications (and probably Matt's Downloads folder, that started the discussion) that are in the dock don't disappear or get deleted if you remove them from the dock. The file or folder that you place in the dock this way already exists under iTunes (or maybe under another App). What's happening is that the contextual menu for these folders is giving you symbolic links to the locations of these tracks and folders in the hierarchical menu lists. This is something that comes with the special status of folders in the dock, and maybe it will help to think about the way the Downloads file in Leopard appears to work. I don't have to worry about podcasts that get added to the folder after I placed it in the dock -- they automatically show up in the hierarchical menus. And if you look at the smart playlist that corresponds to "PODTRUE" the live updating box isn't checked. I'd guess that the system naturally updates this smart playlist whenever I open iTunes. To play podcast books in order within the list I use the browser to select the "Album" (and sometimes I sort on the Album column if the downloads were issued in an odd sequence) once I'm in the iTunes library Songs list for "PODTRUE". That smart playlist was automatically created when I put the folder in the Dock -- I didn't do anything about naming it or creating it. This is what Josh was talking about in that early podcast you and Darcy and he did after the release in Leopard -- that he had liked this feature of Tiger's support of hierarchical menus and being able to play music from iTunes from the dock. One other quick comment. Greg Kearney also has an automator action to place folders and files into the dock that is basically a wrapper around the "additemtodock" command you can issue in terminal. When I use that workflow, or when I just used the additemtodock command from terminal, I couldn't get the hierarchical menu navigation behavior for the podcast folder that I describe here, although I could open the folders from the dock into finder. What's different about the automator workflow on Tim's downloads directory is that there's a line that uses: set chosenFile to the selection as alias for the Finder selection and also a specification of do shell script "additemtodock " & quoted form of POSIX path of chosenFile that specifies the POSIX path for each entry in the command that runs this action for each selected file or folder. This is based on a discussion I found on one of the AppleScript users forum lists, and it seems to make the difference in whether I can use the folders this way to play tracks in iTunes from this kind of easy navigation from the dock. YMMV. Hope this makes sense! Cheers, Esther >On Jun 1, 2008, at 11:57 PM, Esther wrote: > >> Hi Holly and Others, >> >> It there's anyone still running Tiger, you can use that Automator >> action to place, say, your folder of Podcasts under iTunes in the >> Dock and navigate the episodes very fast from there. You simply >> navigate to the dock (VO-keys+d), left arrow (or right arrow) to >> the "Podcasts Folder", then use the contextual menu command >> (VO-keys+shift+m) to display this as a hierarchical menu. Type >> the first few letters of the podcast subscription folder name to go >> to that folder (or use the up or down arrow keys), then press >> the right arrow key to get a submenu of the podcast episodes in >> that folder. You can either type the first few letters of the episode >> name or use the up and down arrow keys to navigate the >> submenu. When you carriage return, iTunes will open up (if it >> wasn't already open) and start playing the episode you selected. >> >> There are some neat features about this. For one thing, the >> hierarchical menu navigation is very fast if you have lots of >> folders -- faster than using the Finder because you're navigating >> aliases to each of the folders rather than opening up each folder. >> For a second thing, you can play podcasts continuously, because >> in the iTunes Songs list you're actually in smart playlist named >> PODTRUE (if you check the Sources Outline). The default order >> is the date added. >> >> If Leopard ever brings back hierarchical menus (in place of >> stacks), you could also do this in Leopard. >> >> Just to reiterate, you don't want to open this folder in the Dock. >> If you use VO-keys+space, VO-keys+shift+space, or carriage >> return after you've navigated to this folder, you'll simply open >> up this folder in finder. What you want to do is open the >> contextual menu with VO-keys+m, or with the down arrow, or >> Control-click. Then either type the starting letters of the folder >> or use the up and down arrow keys or some combination of >> both to navigate the menu. When you are at your selected >> folder use the right arrow key to enter the subfolder/submenu >> and again use your up and down arrow keys or typing of the >> start of the episode name to select the file. Press return to >> start playing your selection or escape to quit without making >> a selection. >> >> Hope this is of interest to somebody! >> >> Cheers, >> >> Esther >> >> On June 01, 2008, at 05:33PM, Holly Anderson wrote: >>> Hi. Thank you thank you thank you. I've been looking for a way to do >>> this. It works like a charm. Your instructions are brilliant. Nice >>> job. :) >>> Holly >>> On Jun 1, 2008, at 4:46 PM, Tim Kilburn wrote: >>> >>>>> Hi Matthew, >>>> >>>> You wrote: i somehow got this removed by mistake when i tried to >>>> open it up. how can i get it back in the doc? thanks in advance. >>>> >>>> TK: VO normally does not have that feature of dragging folder >>>> references to the dock. If you go to my web-site at >>>> http://homepage.mac.com/kilburns/voiceover >>>> and then click on the Downloads link. There is a download there >>>> that allows VO users to add folders and such to the Dock. All the >>>> instructions you need are within the download. >>>> >>>> HTH. >>>> >>>> Later... >>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> Tim Kilburn >>>> & Carter the Canine >>>> Fort McMurray, AB Canada >>> >>> >>> >>> > > > >
