The third installment of a three part series of articles on how to use iTunes software. This section deals with playlists and toher programs.

How to Organize Your Music Using Playlists

Organizing your music can also be done with iTunes. You can do this by creating different playlists that would correspond to every set of songs that you want to create. Using a playlist, you can select the songs you just want to play at a given time and choose their order as well depending on your preference.

To create a playlist, go to the File menu and click on New Playlist. A new entry on your Source list will be created. This entry will be an untitled playlist. Choose the untitled playlist and rename it to whatever that would best describe the songs in it. You can give names such as workout songs, relaxing classics, my hit list, etc. The possibilities are infinite.

Once you have created and named your playlist, choose the songs you want to add to the playlist from the library and drag them to the playlist. You can add as many songs as you want. As a shortcut, you can select all the songs you want to add at once by holding down the Command key (Ctrl key in Windows PC) while choosing the different songs and dragging the entire selection to the playlist.

To view the songs that you have just added in your playlist, choose the name of the playlist from the Source list. You can also change the order of the songs by selecting the song number and drag the song to the position desired.

A single song can also be added to multiple playlists if desired. To do so, just choose the song from your music library and drag it to the different playlists you want to add it to. If, on the other hand, you choose not to hear the song anymore, just deselect the song from your music library. Deselecting it from the library will also disable it from playing when the playlists it is included are played.

If you want to make your playlists play for only a specified period of time such as 30 minutes for your daily workout or as long as the movie you made, you can do so by getting the duration information for the playlist. This information is displayed on the bottom portion of the window as well as the number of songs in the playlist and the total size of the playlist.

Deleting a playlist is just like deleting any file. You just need to select the playlist from the Source list then press the delete key. This will only remove the playlist, and the songs which are included in the deleted playlist still remain in the music library.

How to Use Your Songs with Other Applications

iTunes is a part of the iLife suite by Apple Computer which also includes iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD. These applications are developed to work together. The songs you have in your iTunes music library can all be used with any of the other iLife applications as well as applications in a Windows-based computer.

You can, for example, use your favorite song compilation as soundtrack of the family movie you are doing in iMovie. You can enjoy viewing the different photos you have just taken by adding background music from your iTunes library in your photo slideshow in iPhoto.

To add background music to your iPhoto slideshow, choose your photo library from Source list in iPhoto. Click on the Slideshow button to open the Slideshow Settings window. Adjust the number of seconds the image will show onscreen depending on your preference. You will see a Music option in the window, click on the box beside to select it and choose iTunes Library from the menu. Choose the song that you want to play as the background music. Once done, click on the Play Slideshow button to playback the slideshow project.

If you want to add a song from your iTunes library to a presentation you created in Microsoft PowerPoint or Keynote, you can do so in just a few easy steps. Choose the song you want to use from your music library in iTunes. Once the song is selected, go to File menu and click on Show Song File. A representation of the music file will come up in a new Finder window. Click the song file and drag it to the Keynote or PowerPoint slide where you want to add it to.

Your favorite songs in your iTunes music library are not limited only for your listening pleasure. You can have a wide range of possible uses of those songs in different applications in your Mac or Windows-based computer.