iTunes Help

[Betateam]

I hope this is the right forum. Sorry if it is not. It says help and I do need help, but not on a Mac.

First off I'm sorry I'm a Windows user. I really do plan on buying a MacMini soon so I can explore the world of the Mac, but on to my problem.

Maybe I'm doing somethign wrong, but it is driving me nuts.
In iTunes I'm having a problem selecting songs...let me explain.

For the sake of discussion I'll just use 10 files.
I only want to select some of those 10 files.
In the Windows world I'll hold Ctrl and click file #1 and #2.
I don't want #3 so I skip it and hold CTRL and click file #4.
I want files #4-#8 so I then hold CTRL + Shift on file #8
I hold CTRL and hit #10
At this point file #1, #2, #4-#8 and #10 are highlighted
#3 and #9 are not highlighted.
I can now drag these files where I want.

Well in iTunes I'm trying to create a play list of songs. I only want to pic and choose the songs I want. How can I select a range of files?

When I do the above example in iTunes if I hold CTRL I can select individual songs, but when I want to select a range say from #4 to #8 it will select #1 thru #8 and highlight the files I don't want.

I know it sounds silly, but I have 8000+ songs in my library. It would be nice just to select all the songs I want and drag them to the folder once. Not have to stop and drag everytime I run in to a song in the list I do not want.


Also....how do I refresh my library? Lets say I add or delete an album. How do I get iTunes to find the changes I made? The way I have it organized is:
<drive letter>\mp3\<artist name>\<album name>

So in iTunes I have my library be the <drive letter>\mp3 directory.
So say I add or delete files to that directory how do I get iTunes to recoginze those changes?

Thanks

Edit: Oh another thing. Is there a way to have iTunes sort by directory? I like to select whole albums not just single songs. In the list if you sort by artist, it gets screwed up if they were on a complilation, and if you sort by album it is not in order by artist those are all mixed up. If I sorted by directory it would be in all nice order. I mean I can sort by Beats Per Minute.....why in the world can I not sort by something as simple as directory?

 

[dotdotdot]

Control-A is select all, this will select your entire library...

Clicking on a song and holding Control-Shift and clicking on the last song will select that whole row...

 

[iEdd]

Command click will select/deselect multiple songs as you click them. -The equiv of ctrl clicking in windows.
Shift clicking is for selecting lists, or items between points A and B.

 

[Mechcozmo]

iTunes will manage itself. You cannot place stuff in there and say "Adapt to ME!" but instead, tag your songs correctly and let iTunes sort itself out. The iTunes Library can be set in Prefrences->Advanced, and keep that "Keep Music Folder Organized" option on!

 

[Betateam]

Command click will select/deselect multiple songs as you click them. -The equiv of ctrl clicking in windows.
Shift clicking is for selecting lists, or items between points A and B.

This is hard to explain.
What I want to do it select multiple lists that have unselected items between them and keep the unselected items unselected.
So say select item 1-30 skip 31-40 and selected 41-60. And not have it select the whole list. Only between the items I choose.

I can do it in Windows, just not iTunes.

Understand I'm not picking on a Mac, I just need to understand how to do it differently. It just seems silly not not be able to do that simple task.

 

[Betateam]

iTunes will manage itself. You cannot place stuff in there and say "Adapt to ME!" but instead, tag your songs correctly and let iTunes sort itself out. The iTunes Library can be set in Prefrences->Advanced, and keep that "Keep Music Folder Organized" option on!

Why can't it "Adapt to Me?" I use it, it doesn't use me.

See here is my thing. I don't use iTunes to create my MP3's. I think there are other programs that do a better job. Then I use a second program to tag them the way I want. (Yes it is Windows and it takes 10 programs to get a job done)
Then I place them in my Library. So I can't simply just drag them to my folder when my songs are complete and have iTunes find those songs?

Seriosly, all it takes is a simple "refresh" to check every song. It might take a while, but it can't do that? It is not like it happens all the time.

So your saying if I check the "Keep music folder organized" it will not shuffle all my songs around they way IT wants, it will just keep them "updated"? So I can add and remove songs when I want to? I don't want to try it and have it mess up my organization.

Thanks for your help.

 

[balamw]

Then I place them in my Library. So I can't simply just drag them to my folder when my songs are complete and have iTunes find those songs?

If you have "keep my library organized" on, you could just drag the files to iTunes to add them to the library and have iTunes figure out where to put them. This is just as easy as draggin the folder to your Library.

Alternatively, you can just "Add Folder to Library" every time you add some files. It's really not that hard.

I think you'd enjoy iTunes more if you just try it the way it's intended to work and adapt your ways a bit to it. I was like you, manually managing my library, manually moving file to my iPod, etc... until I finally ripped all my CDs to iTunes and it got unwieldly. So I tried letting iTunes do it for me and haven't looked back.

That said, iTunes doesn't suit everyone, so maybe you should try one of the alternatives WinAMP plugins, etc...

B

 

[Betateam]

If you have "keep my library organized" on, you could just drag the files to iTunes to add them to the library and have iTunes figure out where to put them. This is just as easy as draggin the folder to your Library.

Alternatively, you can just "Add Folder to Library" every time you add some files. It's really not that hard.

I think you'd enjoy iTunes more if you just try it the way it's intended to work and adapt your ways a bit to it. I was like you, manually managing my library, manually moving file to my iPod, etc... until I finally ripped all my CDs to iTunes and it got unwieldly. So I tried letting iTunes do it for me and haven't looked back.

That said, iTunes doesn't suit everyone, so maybe you should try one of the alternatives WinAMP plugins, etc...

B

I'll try letting iTunes do it. I hope it doesn't F-up my organization.

Thanks

 

[balamw]

I'll try letting iTunes do it. I hope it doesn't F-up my organization.

It will definitely change your organization and even your filenames to the way it does it "Artist" or "Compilations" then "Album" then the individual tracks named as "01 Track Name.mp3". Unless that's the way you're already doing it.

This organization works OK for me. It still makes it fairly easy to find any individual file manually while still giving iTunes the best opportunity to shine.

B