iTunes tutorial
Mar. 24th, 2007 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cacahuateA while back, I made a tutorial for my mother explaining how to share playlists on iTunes so that the intended song order is preserved. Recently I forgot how to do it myself and used my tutorial to relearn it, and realized the tutorial is pretty good, so I might as well share it.
Since it was written for my mother, some of it is much more basic than most of you would need, and it refers to data CDs specifically, but the technique for keeping playlists in order applies just as well to uploaded zips and similar. It's also Mac-based but should be intuitive to do on a PC.
How to share a playlist in iTunes and preserve song order
A note about data CDs: The amount of data a CD can hold depends on how it is being used. For example, using iTunes, you can burn an audio CD that can be played using a CD player like the one in your car. Audio CDs like this can hold up to 80 minutes of music–––their capacity is based on playing time. Another option is to burn a data CD, which can hold mp3s, Word files, images, or any other type of file on your computer. While you can’t play a data CD in a CD player, it can hold up to 700 megabytes of files, meaning you can use a data CD to store a large amount of music.
You can use this type of CD to share song files and keep their titles, albums, genres, and other information intact. If you have a playlist that is in a specific order, you can preserve that as well.
1. First, make sure your playlist is the way you want it. Check that the songs are arranged by track number–––the column on the far left–––and not by artist or album; this way, you can choose their order by dragging them around. Once your playlist is perfect, make sure it’s small enough to fit on a CD by looking at its size at the bottom of the window. As long as it’s under 700 MB, it will work fine.
2. Insert your CD, and you should be given the prompt above. Select “Open Finder” in the drop-down menu, and click OK. This enables you to add files to the CD. Rename the CD on your desktop if you want to.
3. Open the CD by double-clicking on its desktop icon. Go to File > New Folder to create a new folder on the CD. For simplicity’s sake, name this folder “Files.”
4. Back in iTunes, click on one of the songs in your playlist, and press Command+A or go to Edit > Select All to select all of the songs in the playlist. Drag this whole selection to the Files folder on your CD. Wait for them to finish copying to the folder, and then make sure they’re all there.
5. In iTunes, control-click on the name of your playlist and select “Export Song List…” or go to File > Export Song List…. In the new Save window, expand your options by clicking the upside-down triangle. Make sure you select “XML” in the drop-down Format menu, and save this file to your CD.
6. Now that this XML file and your song files are on the CD, click “Burn” in the CD folder, or drag the CD’s desktop icon to the trash, to burn the CD.
7. Choose a burn speed and click “Burn."
How to open a playlist in iTunes and preserve song order
1. In iTunes, press Command+N or go to File > New to create a new playlist. This is a temporary playlist you’re creating in order to make sure you have all the song files you need, so call it something like “Temporary Playlist.”
2. Insert your CD and open it. You should find a file with the extension .xml and a folder called “Files” or something similar. Open it and you should find your song files.
3. Click on one of these song files and press Command+A or go to Edit > Select All to select all of the files. Then drag this selection into your temporary playlist in iTunes. When you do this you should see a green plus sign on your cursor (not pictured). After you’ve added these songs to the playlist, make sure the playlist contains the same number of songs as there were in the Files folder.
4. In iTunes, go to File > Import… In the window that appears, find the XML file on your CD, and click Choose.
5. Look in your list of playlists for the new one that has just been generated. Ta-da! You should find it in order, exactly as it was originally intended. If you want, you can now delete your temporary playlist.
There you have it. Of course, if you know of a better way to do this, let me know!
Since it was written for my mother, some of it is much more basic than most of you would need, and it refers to data CDs specifically, but the technique for keeping playlists in order applies just as well to uploaded zips and similar. It's also Mac-based but should be intuitive to do on a PC.
How to share a playlist in iTunes and preserve song order
A note about data CDs: The amount of data a CD can hold depends on how it is being used. For example, using iTunes, you can burn an audio CD that can be played using a CD player like the one in your car. Audio CDs like this can hold up to 80 minutes of music–––their capacity is based on playing time. Another option is to burn a data CD, which can hold mp3s, Word files, images, or any other type of file on your computer. While you can’t play a data CD in a CD player, it can hold up to 700 megabytes of files, meaning you can use a data CD to store a large amount of music.
You can use this type of CD to share song files and keep their titles, albums, genres, and other information intact. If you have a playlist that is in a specific order, you can preserve that as well.
1. First, make sure your playlist is the way you want it. Check that the songs are arranged by track number–––the column on the far left–––and not by artist or album; this way, you can choose their order by dragging them around. Once your playlist is perfect, make sure it’s small enough to fit on a CD by looking at its size at the bottom of the window. As long as it’s under 700 MB, it will work fine.
2. Insert your CD, and you should be given the prompt above. Select “Open Finder” in the drop-down menu, and click OK. This enables you to add files to the CD. Rename the CD on your desktop if you want to.
3. Open the CD by double-clicking on its desktop icon. Go to File > New Folder to create a new folder on the CD. For simplicity’s sake, name this folder “Files.”
4. Back in iTunes, click on one of the songs in your playlist, and press Command+A or go to Edit > Select All to select all of the songs in the playlist. Drag this whole selection to the Files folder on your CD. Wait for them to finish copying to the folder, and then make sure they’re all there.
5. In iTunes, control-click on the name of your playlist and select “Export Song List…” or go to File > Export Song List…. In the new Save window, expand your options by clicking the upside-down triangle. Make sure you select “XML” in the drop-down Format menu, and save this file to your CD.
6. Now that this XML file and your song files are on the CD, click “Burn” in the CD folder, or drag the CD’s desktop icon to the trash, to burn the CD.
7. Choose a burn speed and click “Burn."
How to open a playlist in iTunes and preserve song order
1. In iTunes, press Command+N or go to File > New to create a new playlist. This is a temporary playlist you’re creating in order to make sure you have all the song files you need, so call it something like “Temporary Playlist.”
2. Insert your CD and open it. You should find a file with the extension .xml and a folder called “Files” or something similar. Open it and you should find your song files.
3. Click on one of these song files and press Command+A or go to Edit > Select All to select all of the files. Then drag this selection into your temporary playlist in iTunes. When you do this you should see a green plus sign on your cursor (not pictured). After you’ve added these songs to the playlist, make sure the playlist contains the same number of songs as there were in the Files folder.
4. In iTunes, go to File > Import… In the window that appears, find the XML file on your CD, and click Choose.
5. Look in your list of playlists for the new one that has just been generated. Ta-da! You should find it in order, exactly as it was originally intended. If you want, you can now delete your temporary playlist.
There you have it. Of course, if you know of a better way to do this, let me know!
