Hi David,
If you are in the albums list of the browser you can select multiple
albums
and create a playlist from them the way Scott did (with Command-Shift-N
for new playlist from selection). In Tiger you could select multiple
albums
in the browser window for albums, stop interacting, tab to the Songs
outline
and select all (Command-A) and Add to playlist from the contextual menu.
I can't do that reliably in Leopard. Sometime it works and sometimes it
won't. If I can tab to the songs table from the album list in the
browser
where I've selected multiple albums, then I can select all the songs
from
the albums I selected in the browser with Command-A and add them to a
playlist. However, if I can't tab, I also won't be able to move my
VoiceOver
cursor with VO-right arrow to the Songs Table; I can VO-up or VO-down,
but
then I lose my selections.
The times that I can multiply select albums in the browser, say, where
I've
decided to select the first three listed albums, and I start at the
third album
and hold down the shift key and arrow up twice -- if I hear "two items
selected",
"three items selected" the way I would in Tiger, then I'm able to tab
to the
songs table and find all the songs from the combined albums, select
all and
add to a playlist. Most of the time I can't do that. In fact, under
Leopard I can't
reliably use tab to move between sources table search text field,
(browser
fields for genre, artist, and album if the toggled) and songs table.
I've only been using Leopard a few weeks, but I haven't found a way
around
this after trying multiple tracking combinations. It's definitely not
this way in Tiger.
Has leopard always behaved like this? This is like the focus issues
with the
iTunes browser that Chris reported a week ago. I' wondering whether
Tim or
other users also found this behavior.
Bottom line is that I can always create playlists containing multiple
selected
albums chosen in the browser. I can't always simply go to the
corresponding
songs table in Leopard to select all and add to a playlist in the
current version
of the OS, though this worked in Tiger, and will occasionally work in
Leopard.
Cheers,
Esther
On Sep 18, 2008, at 1:33 AM, David Poehlman wrote:
so if I am in the albums list, can I just ad a group of albums
instead of
having to select all the songs?
----- Original Message -----
Hi Simon,
Yes, you should be able to add all your album songs in a block to a
playlist. I'm finding Leopard's focus is finicky. This is a problem
that I've noticed with focus, where the VoiceOver cursor and/or the
mouse cursor doesn't always correctly move into the new area. What
happens is that unless you interact with a particular selection in the
Songs Table before you do the Select
All (Command-A), VoiceOver doesn't find the contextual menu and bring
it up. Sometimes if I turn on Mouse Cursor tracks VoiceOver Cursor I
get better results, but not always (at least, not under Leopard).
Control-Click seems more reliable than VO-Shift-M.
Anyway, try the following, When you bring up the browser and interact,
and then move to your Album selection, make sure that your are on the
Album selection in the Browser, then Stop interacting. VO-right arrow
twice, and interact with the Songs Outline. You'll hear that you're a
specific row -- probably the first one of the album. Only then do
your Command-A to select all. The try VO-Shift-M. If that doesn't
bring up the contextual menu with the "Add to Playlist" option, do a
Control-Click (where your hold down the Control key and press the
trackpad key of your MacBook) to bring up the contextual menu and add
the whole album to your playlist.
Incidentally, Scott's suggestion of making an album playlist by
selecting the album in the browser and doing a Command-Shift-N (New
playlist from selection) is robust against the current Leopard focus
finickiness.
The other thing you could do is use a smart playlist and chain
together rules like "Album is <your album>" and "Playlist is <your
playlist>", adding each rule one by one. Then, once you've added all
your rules, stop interacting with the rules section and VO-left arrow
back to the first line, which now has a pop up button so you can
either Match any or match all of the following rules. Change the pop
up button to "ANY", Then the smart playlist will include all tracks
that match any of the rule conditions you've given (album, playlist,
etc.).
I actually find it easy to just add my selections on in blocks with a
regular playlist, as long as I'm careful about the sequence of
interacting and stopping interacting so that I can get the contextual
menu to show up in the songs table.
Remember that you can check the total time and/or space of tracks in
your playlist by doing a VO-down arrow from the Songs table for your
playlist, once you've stopped interacting.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Esther
Scott wrote:
Simon.
the way i do it is to simply choose the album in the browser then do
a command shift n and it will automatically create a playlist with
that album and artist's name
.
Works fine here I know it's not exactly what you wanted but really
having an album in it's own playlist is the easiest way to go.
On Sep 17, 2008, at 10:59 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear All,
Here is my dilemma: I have an album which I wish to add to a
particular playlist in one fell swoop. How can I do this? Having
imported an album of songs or musical pieces, or having bought one
from the Itunes store, all the songs on the album get placed in the
Music Library of Itunes. I can find the album by activating the
browser and selecting the album. As a result of this, I get all the
songs listed in the song list. When I selecte them all with command
+A I thought I could press vo+shift+m for the contextual menu and
add them all in one go to the selected list. However, this doesn't
seem to work. I have to do it one song at a time. I was hoping that
in the browser, having selected an album, I could press the same key
combination for the contextual menu and add the album to the
selected playlist but i wasn't able to do so either.
So is there a way to do it? Or do I have to continue to add each
song individually? It's a bit long-winded to do this way. It's not a
major gripe of mine. Smile!
With best wisehs
Simon
