Understanding Why Smart Playlists Are Called Smart You create a smart
playlist by defining a set of criteria based on any number of tags. After
you have created these criteria, iTunes chooses songs that match those
tags
and places them in the playlist. For example, suppose you are a big-time
Elvis fan and regularly add Elvis music to your Library. You could create
a
playlist and manually drag your new Elvis tunes to that playlist. But by
using a smart playlist instead, you could define the playlist to include
all
your Elvis music. Anytime you add more Elvis music to your Library, that
music is added to the playlist automatically so it always contains all the
Elvis music in your Library.
You can also base a smart playlist on more than one attribute at the same
time. Going back to the Elvis example, you could add the condition that
you
want only those songs you have rated four stars or higher so the smart
playlist contains only your favorite Elvis songs. As the previous example
shows, smart playlists can be dynamic; iTunes calls this live updating.
When
a smart playlist is set to be live, iTunes changes its contents over time
to
match changes to the music in your Library. If this feature isn't set for
a
smart playlist, that playlist contains only those songs that met the
criteria at the time the playlist was created.
Finally, you can also link a smart playlist's conditions by the logical
expression All or Any. If you use an All logical expression, all the
conditions must be true for a song to be included in the smart playlist.
If
you use the Any option, only one of the conditions has to be met for a
song
to be included in the smart playlist.
You can create a smart playlist by performing the following steps:
1. Select File, New Smart Playlist or hold down the Option key and click
the
New Playlist button, which becomes the New Smart Playlist button when the
Option key is pressed down. You see the Smart Playlist dialog box 2. In
the
Tag menu, select the first tag you want the smart playlist to be based on.
For example, you can select Artist, Genre, My Rating, or Year, among many
others. The Operator menu is updated with operators that are applicable to
the attribute you select. For example, if you select Artist, the Operator
menu includes text operators such as Contains or Starts With, whereas if
you
select Bit Rate, the Operator menu includes numeric operators such as Is
or
Is Greater Than.
3. In the Operator menu, select the operator you want to use. For example,
if you want to match data exactly, select the Is operator. If you want the
condition to be more loose, select an operator such as Contains or Is Less
Than.
The Smart Playlist dialog box enables you to create playlists based on a
single tag or on many of them.
4. Use the Condition box to type the condition you want to match. The more
you type, the more specific the condition is. As an example, if you select
Artist in step 1, select Contains in step 2, and type Elvis in this step,
the playlist finds all songs that include Elvis, Elvis Presley, Elvis
Costello, Red Elvises, and so on. If you type Elvis Presley in the
Condition
box, instead, iTunes includes only songs whose artist includes the full
phrase Elvis Presley, such as Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley and His
BacCMD-up
Band, and so on.
5. To add another condition to the smart playlist, click the Add Condition
button. A new, empty condition appears. At the top of the dialog box, the
Match menu also appears.
6. In the second condition's Tag menu, select the second tag on which you
want the smart playlist to be based. For example, if you want to include
songs from a specific genre, select Genre on the menu.
7. In the second condition's Operator menu, select the operator you want
to
use.
If you want to remove a condition from a smart playlist, click the Remove
button (the minus sign) for the condition you want to remove.
8. Use the Condition box to type the condition you want to match.
9. Repeat steps 5-8 to add more conditions to the playlist until you have
all the conditions you want to include
Note: As you make selections on the Attribute menu and type conditions in
the Condition box, iTunes will attempt to automatically match what you
type
to tags in your Library. For example, if your Library includes Elvis music
and you use Artist as an attribute, iTunes will enter Elvis Presley in the
Condition box for you when you start typing "Elvis."
10. In the Match pop-up menu, select AH if all the conditions must be met
for a track to be included in the smart playlist, or select Any if only
one
of them must be met. For example, you could create a smart playlist based
on
multiple Artist conditions and the playlist would feature music by those
artists. In this case, you would choose Any so that if a song were
associated with any of the artists for which you created a condition, it
would be included in the playlist. As a contrasting example, if you want
the
playlist to include songs you have rated as three stars or better by a
specific artist, you would include both of these conditions and then
select
All in the menu so that both conditions would have to be met for a song to
be included (a song is both by the artist and is rated with three or more
stars).
11. If you want to limit the playlist, activate the Limit To check box. If
you don't want to set a limit on the playlist, leave the check box
deactivated and skip to step 15.
12. Use the Limit To pop-up menu to select the parameter you want to use
to
limit the playlist; by default, this menu has Items selected. Your choices
include the number of songs (Items on the menu), the time the playlist
will
play (Minutes or Hours), and the size of the files the playlist contains
(MB
or GB).
13. Type the data appropriate for the limit you selected in the Limit To
box. For example, if you selected Minutes in the menu, type the maximum
length of the playlist in minutes in the box. If you selected Items, enter
the maximum number of songs that can be included in the playlist.
Notes: If you include more than one condition based on the same tag, you
usually don't want to use the All option because the conditions will
likely
be mutually exclusive, and using the All option will result in no songs
being included in the playlist because no song will be able to meet all
the
conditions at the same time.
Limiting a playlist by disk space is useful when you want to do something
else with that playlist, such as burning a CD. You could set the playlist
to
be limited to 700MB to ensure all its songs will fit on one disc. (The
exact
limit depends on the specific drive and disc media you use.) 14. Select
how
you want iTunes to choose the songs it includes based on the limit you
selected by using the Selected By menu. This menu has many options,
including Random, Most Recently Played, and Most Recently Added.
15. If you want the playlist to include only songs whose check box in the
Content pane is activated, activate the Match Only Checked Items check box
with your spacebar. If you leave this check box deactivated, iTunes
includes
all songs that meet the playlist's conditions, even if you have
deactivated
their check boxes in the Content pane.
16. If you want the playlist to be dynamic, meaning that iTunes updates
its
contents over time, leave the Live Updating check box activated. If you
deactivate this check box, the playlist includes only those songs that
meet
the playlist's conditions when you create it.
17. Click OK to create the playlist. iTunes adds the smart playlist to the
Source list, and its name is ready for you to edit. Also, the songs in
your
Library that match the criteria in the playlist are added to it and the
current contents of the playlist are shown in the Content pane.
18. Type the playlist's name and press Return. The smart playlist is
complete.
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