Hi Jesper, For general information about making smart playlists, you can check this posted introduction to smart playlists in the Mail Archive for this list:
http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg01294.html Actually, since that post was written, improvements in iTunes 9 have made the construction of smart playlists more flexible, and you're no longer limited to making playlists that either match just any of your rules or all of your rules. However, to get on to your specific question, you can make your smart playlists in iTunes as follows: 1. Command-Option-N to create a new smart playlist (or find this option in the File menu on the iTunes menu bar if you don't remember the shortcut: VO-M to go to the menu bar, press "F" to go to the File menu, arrow down to "New Smart Playlist"; if there are shortcut keys they will be announced following the name of the command). 2. In the "Smart Playlist" dialog window you'll hear "Smart playlist, selected by". VO-Right arrow to the "Rules Section" and interact (VO- Shift-Down Arrow). 3. At the start of the first rule you'll be at a pop up button that is set to "Artist". VO-Space on this button and press "K" to change the pop up to "Kind" and press return. (You can navigate the pop up menu options with your arrow keys or by typing the first few letters of the keyword you want). 4. VO-Right arrow past the pop up button for "contains" (and leave this at this setting) to the text field. Type in the kind of music you want to select -- e.g. "AIFF" or "AAC". At this point I would usually press return to get out of the smart playlist dialog window by committing my selections and just choose a name for my playlist at the next prompt, however, you might want to explore the rest of the menu options. If you VO-Right arrow after typing in your text, you'll come to "Add" and "Group" buttons at the end of the rule. The "Add" button is for adding another rule -- for example, you might want this smart playlist to contain only music of a selected genre, or only recently added music. The "Group" button is a new feature of iTunes 9 that allows you apply groups of rule selections under your first rule. For example, let's say that you wanted a smart playlist that contained only AAC files in the Jazz and Classical genres. Before iTunes 9 you would have had to create two smart playlists, one that matched the two rules that "Kind" contained AAC, and that "Genre" contained "Jazz", and a second that matched the rules that "Kind" contained AAC and that "Genre" contained "Classical". Then you would have had to make a third smart playlist out of the two individual playlists with the rules that your music either fell into the Jazz playlist or the Classical playlist (e.g., you matched any of the two following rules: "Playlist" is <name of Jazz playlist> or "Playlist" is <name of Classical playlist>). Under iTunes 9, you no longer have to make smart playlists out of playlists; you can handle this with the "Group" button. After selecting the rule "Kind" contains AAC, you would press (VO-Space) the "Group" button. Again, you would hear "Artist" pop up button. However, if you VO-left arrow back through the entries, you'll find that the new, group rules section begins with a pop up button that is set to "all" (of the following rules), but which you can reset to "any" using VO-Space and your arrow keys. If I set that button to "any", and then VO-Right arrow to the "Artist" pop up button and change it to "Genre", I can type in the rule "Genre" "contains" Jazz (where "Jazz" is typed into the text field). I can add a second rule to the group by pressing (VO-Space) the "Add" button at the end of the first rule, and making this "Genre" "contains" Classical. If I then press return after typing "Classical", I'll have made a smart playlist which contains all AAC files that meet the group rules of either containing "Jazz" or "Classical" as part of the genre. If you don't want to create additional rules (or group rules), you can just stop interacting with the rules sections (VO-Shift up arrow) after typing in your text (e.g. "AAC" or "AIFF"), then VO-Right arrow to explore the other options in the smart playlist. For example, you can limit your smart playlist by size, total playing time, or number of items, Navigate to the "Cancel" or "OK" buttons to cancel or commit your changes. On dialog windows that I am familiar with, I tend to just press return at the place where I am finished instead of finding the "OK" button, and I press the escape key to cancel. When you save the smart playlist you'll be prompted to type in a name. Probably, there will be a suggested default name like "AAC" or "AIFF" which you can change. Hope this helps. If you want to edit the smart playlist, you can use the context menu after you select your playlist in the sources table. You can also use VO-J to easily jump between the songs table corresponding to your playlist and your selection in the sources table. HTH Cheers, Esther Jesper Holten wrote: > > Hi all. > I have just bought an ipod touch and now I need to put my library of > music > on the ipod. However, since I have my musuc collection in Aif format > I need > to convert to another format, either lossless or aac or mp3 in order > to fit > it on my ipod. > Thus far, I have converted to aac all my files, in the way that > there exists > one big library with all aif and aac files in the same library. > I would like to accomplish 2 smart playlists one containing all my Aif > files, the other containing my aac files. After research on the net > I have > found out that Maybe it can be done, but I just cannot get it to > work, when > I try to make a smart playlist. > After interacting with the rules section of the dialobogx what > parameters > to set. I have tried diffferent things, but after concluding the setup > Itunes says that nothing has been put into the rule. > If any of you could help me with some step-by-step instructions, I > will > greatly apprreciate your help. > Kindest regards, Jesper. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
