Use separate libraries and smart playlists in Apple iTunes

Thanks to the popularity of Apple’s iPod range of music players (and increasingly the iPhone), many of us now rely on the company’s iTunes software as a way of getting music from a computer to our music player and manage our music library on a day-to-day basis.

This is hardly surprising as, despite many updates, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player still remains an unwieldy beast when it comes to management of its music library.

In contrast, Apple has done an excellent job of creating a straightforward interface for iTunes that makes it easy to find the songs you want to play, create playlists and share music with others around your home or office network (see 'It's good to share' at the end of this article).

However, some of the software’s more in-depth features are not obvious.

Flowing covers
Although the Cover Flow feature, which made its debut in version 7, is a great addition as it lets you flip through your albums by artwork, when iTunes doesn’t automatically pick up an album cover and add it to its database it’s not obvious how you add it manually. Luckily the process is pretty straightforward.

You can add album artwork to individual music files or complete albums in a number of picture formats including JPEG, TIFF and PNG. To add artwork to a single song, first make sure the album art box is showing by clicking on the small icon with a down arrow which you’ll find in the bottom left-hand corner of the iTunes interface. Next select the song you want to add the art file to. Then click and drag your art file into the album art viewing box. You can also cut and paste it into this box if you prefer.

An alternative method is to select the track in the library window and then right-click on it and select Get Info. Then drag and drop the art file into the Art box shown on the Summary page. To add album art to multiple songs, say a whole album, select all the songs by holding down the Ctrl key as you click on them and then select Get Info. Click OK in the box that asks you whether you want to edit multiple items. Now drag the art file into the art box and click OK.

You can also try to get iTunes to automatically grab album artwork. Select the songs in your library and then click on the Advanced menu and choose Get Album Artwork. For this to work the songs must be available on the iTunes music store, as this is where iTunes pulls the artwork from. Apple requires your credit card details to sign up for an iTunes account, even if you don’t want to buy any music.

Multiple libraries
In older version of iTunes it wasn’t really possible to create different libraries of tunes. For example, you might want to have a personal library for your own use and then a separate one for your spouse or children.

You could achieve similar results by creating individual playlists, or setting up separate Windows accounts, but neither of these were very elegant solutions. Thankfully, Apple added the ability to manage multiple libraries to version 7 of the software.

To enable this feature you have to hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and then double-click on your desktop iTunes icon. As iTunes loads, continue holding down the Shift key until a Choose Library box appears. In this box, click on the ‘Create Library’ button and then choose the name and folder you want to use for the new library.

For example, you might want to call it Kids’ Music. Once iTunes loads you can start adding music into that library. The trick from now on is to hold down the Shift key as you launch iTunes as this will bring up the ‘choose Library’ box that lets you view which library you want to load.