Zoom-in Online

I always go back and forth between utilizing the cool features of my software, and just drifting along working on stuff day to day, not really thinking about configuring my computer to do more things for me. I've just experienced a revival of an old habit I had of tweaking iTunes and its column views and Smart Playlists to mix up how I listened to my music.

I think what dented that modus operandi was a little something called "the podcast."

So just a reminder to all of you iTunes users, as I had this morning from Bruce Stewart over at macdevcenter.com, in his post The "Neglected" Playlist, there are some incredibly smart things you can have iTunes do for you by creating and messing with (a.k.a. tweaking over time), Smart Playlists. I love finding cool things to do with everyday apps.

I am always shocked by how many regular users of iTunes don't know how to make a Smart Playlist appear in the left column, let alone used one to any good effect. I don't say that to be superior, it's much more like: I'm surprised how often very important features, often times sophisticated but easy to grasp features, are kept right under the radar of the user by Apple. It's not really clear anywhere that you even CAN create a Smart Playlist... even though there are about 6 default ones that show up in everyone's left sidebar in iTunes when the first turn it on. No ones seems to know what those are capable of. "Presets," I tell them: Like a car radio setting, something you "tune in" to your liking (tweak)... and then revisit the parameters you've set at any time... it's a playlist yes, but it's a list that doesn't have set songs on it, the songs on the playlist are dynamic. They update depending on the circumstances. Like the Apple defaults: "90's Music" "My Top Rated" and "Recently Added." Those are going to reflect current states of things in your library. If you've rated songs with stars in the ratings column, then those ones rated highest will appear in that list. If it a song's copyright year is within the 1990's - it's on that list. There are a huge array of parameters you can set when you edit the properties of a Smart Playlist

You can create your own very easily and explore it on your own - just do this: In your main menu bar, choose FILE ---> NEW SMART PLAYLIST and start experimenting with "rules" that you set up. You can click the plus on the right side of the Edit Smart Playlist window and add a secondary rule and so on, and these rules cascade. Think of it like a sentence from the top of the window moving downward. Smart Playlists update to your iPod as well, so this can really liven up that same old same old way of listening to your songs on the go. If you right click on a Smart Playlist in your left sidebar in iTunes, you'll see a contextual menu of things you can do to it, including delete. Let me know if you come up with any cool Smart Playlists that really work for you, I'd love to know about them.