iTunes configured to manual data sync?

[SactoGuy18]

One of my major concerns with iTunes is that when you plug in an iPod nano, it will try to sync and copy every compatible audio file into the iPod automatically and fill up the nano's flash memory capacity before you know it.

Is there a way to configure the default settings in iTunes so you manually pick and choose the files to copy over to the iPod? This is important because I listen to quite a lot of podcasts with files in the 20+ megabyte range (ESPN Radio podcasts from ESPN Insider page plus automated podcast downloads configured through iTunes).

 

[mad jew]

In the iPod Preferences, you can opt to manually manage your music which means that you literally treat it like a second hard drive. You copy across the playlists and tracks that you want. Alternatively (and this is what I do), you can opt to only automatically sync certain playlists, rather than the whole library.