Hi David and Chris,
Chris asked about using the Comments field for tracks in iTunes:
CG:
if you hit command I on an album in grid view, or a track in list
view, if you type something in the comments field, where does that
show up? I mean, I know if you hit command J and then check the
comment field, you'll see it in ITunes, but what is the purpose for
this field. Has anyone used it, and if so is there a good scenario
you can present us with where that field is kind of nice? Also,
the bigger part of the question is on the Nano 4th gen 16GB, will
it show the comment field anywhere, accessible to us with speech,
or not?
and David pointed to the searchable nature of this field:
DP:
The comments field is searchable so if you have audio tht has been
contributed byseveral people to your library for instance or want to
remember the date you added something or any other thing that ITunes
does not already keep track of, it goes in the comments field. you
can put memories or notes in there for instance, "this sounds like a
photo of a watter fall.".
Anyway, the nice thing about it is that if you use it enough, you
can search on it and build a nice list based on that search.
I'd like to expand on David's answer.
The comments field is really for user customizable data, and can be
used in a variety of ways for special entries. No, it isn't announced
anywhere in the Nano 4G menus, but here are some examples of how this
could be used (on your computer). Because the comments field is in
the iTunes database, you can use it to find and select entries
according to a personalized system in iTunes, and you can also locate
special tracks this way with Spotlight.
Examples:
• labeling the source of special files: like a recording or movie
made of a special event; if this was a file downloaded from a web site
you can paste in the URL into the comments field
• Publisher's information for audio books
• a friend's favorite tracks: add their name to the comments field
and use this to pull up selections when you make a playlist of music
for their birthday
• times of favorite sections: for audio books, if there are
occasionally sections I want to find again, I'll write in the times in
the Comments field with a short note; for movies, if there's a part of
the soundtrack you like and you don't have a separate audio recording,
write the start time here. If you get the "RestartAt" AppleScript from
Tim Kilburn's VoiceOver Downloads page at: http://homepage.mac.com/kilburns/voiceover/downloads.html
you can paste the time into RestartAt's dialog box and start the movie
or audio book there. Since the script displays the default start
time, you can play a track, pause it with space bar, then use the
AppleScript. When the dialog window opens, just use copy (Command-C)
to get the current time and press escape to exit the script without
entering a new time. You'll be returned to your paused track in the
Songs Table. Use get info (Command-I) and navigate to the comments
field to paste (Command-V) the time and add a note. Reverse the
process if you want to jump to this start time: look up the time in
the Comment field and paste it into the dialog query. You can display
your comments in the Songs Table by checking the box for "Comment"
under View Options, so you can copy directly from the Songs Table --
no need to Get Info again to get the time.
• notes for classes: if you record lectures you can add a few
references or keywords here so the tracks will come up in a Spotlight
search. You can also add PDF files of your notes about the lecture to
your iTunes library and add a note to the comment field about these.
Then tag your file with new "genre" keywords and use an AppleScript
called "PDFAdder" from Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes web site to add
these notes files to your iTunes library with the same keywords as
your selected recorded lecture.
Hope this gives some suggestions.
Cheers,
Esther
