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dreamsharkTurns out what I REALLY wanted to do was to create and manage multiple discrete iTunes libraries. This is a new feature that is supported by iTunes 7, but only sort of. The basic support is there, but for some reason they haven't gotten around to exposing it in the user interface. It's essentially a hidden feature. Here's how to do it, if anyone is interested.
# iTunes must be closed and reopened to change Library Folders
# to create or access a new library:
1) create an iTunes shortcut icon on the desktop
2) click once to select the icon, but not open it
3) depress Right Shift key and hold it down
4) hit Enter - DO NOT RELEASE SHIFT KEY until you get a popup window asking which library
-- at this point you can choose to create a new library or access the existing one
# new library folder is created at the SAME LEVEL as the default "Itunes Music" folder,
e.g., C:\Documents and Settings\Sharon\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\ [library folder]
# apparently on a Mac, you use the OPTION key rather than the SHIFT key
Although it is obviously inconvenient that you have to close and reopen iTunes to change libraries, there are lots of reasons people want to do this. The most obvious is if you have more than one person accessing iTunes on the same computer and each one wants to maintain their own library. I wanted to do it so that I could have a clean repository for storing non-music audio files. Specifically, I wanted to load a whole audio-book in mp3 format (351 files!). I didn't want all those non-music MP3s cluttering up my iTunes music directory.
# iTunes must be closed and reopened to change Library Folders
# to create or access a new library:
1) create an iTunes shortcut icon on the desktop
2) click once to select the icon, but not open it
3) depress Right Shift key and hold it down
4) hit Enter - DO NOT RELEASE SHIFT KEY until you get a popup window asking which library
-- at this point you can choose to create a new library or access the existing one
# new library folder is created at the SAME LEVEL as the default "Itunes Music" folder,
e.g., C:\Documents and Settings\Sharon\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\ [library folder]
# apparently on a Mac, you use the OPTION key rather than the SHIFT key
Although it is obviously inconvenient that you have to close and reopen iTunes to change libraries, there are lots of reasons people want to do this. The most obvious is if you have more than one person accessing iTunes on the same computer and each one wants to maintain their own library. I wanted to do it so that I could have a clean repository for storing non-music audio files. Specifically, I wanted to load a whole audio-book in mp3 format (351 files!). I didn't want all those non-music MP3s cluttering up my iTunes music directory.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 08:10 pm (UTC)I made a separate library just for Christmas music because I have so much that it'd be annoying to have it all in my regular library. I imagine Kevin may want his own Library as well.
iTunes is neat, but a lot of the functionality isn't obvious or intuitive (which is unusual for an Apple product IMHO).
'Course I think it's target is for people who just want to play some tunes, I tend to want fancier things for managing a huge music collection, etc. It's easy to use for the simple stuff.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 09:17 pm (UTC)I'm guessing that the next iTunes release will allow you to create and switch libraries from within iTunes, at which point they may actually decide to TELL people about the feature.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 05:39 pm (UTC)Each book gets its own playlist as well, so I can use those to put all my music, plus one or two books at a time into the iPod.