[X4U] Bulk Renaming iTunes audio book files

[Mark Des Cotes]

Great article Kirk. It answered a lot of my questions. I didn't  
realize you could change the info before importing the CDs. I also  
never thought of changing my import settings which makes a lot of  
sense. I really like your smart playlist idea, unfortunately they  
don't work on an iPod Shuffle. I love listening to audio books when I  
walk my dogs. It motivates me to get out on those less than ideal  
days as I really want to know what happens next in my book. I've  
found myself doing an extra loop around the block if the story was at  
a really good spot. The dogs don't mind it either.

Mark




On 23-Nov-09, at 9:41 AM, Kirk McElhearn wrote:

>
> On Nov 23, 2009, at 3:28 PM, Mark Des Cotes wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> My local library had a "garage sale" this weekend and I picked up  
>> a bunch of old audio books on CDs. I want to import them into  
>> iTunes and put them on my iPod Shuffle. The audio book I decided  
>> to try first is made up of 7 CDs. Each CD has track 1 through  
>> whatever on it. My problem is that when I import them all I get 7  
>> x track 1s, 7 x track 2s etc. I can select them as each CD is  
>> imported and bulk change them to Disk x of 7. But when I load them  
>> onto my iPod Shuffle the disk numbers are ignored and they end up  
>> listed by track name which puts them out of order. In this case I  
>> opened each file individually (all 117 of them) and added "CD1,  
>> CD2, CD3 etc." to the beginning of each file name. This worked for  
>> what I needed but was tedious. Is there an easier way to do this?  
>> Is there a way to select multiple files and add a prefix to their  
>> file names? It took over 40 minutes to get this one book onto my  
>> iPod and I have over a dozen more to do. Perhaps I'm overlooking  
>> something in
>  iTunes 9.0.2? I'm still on 10.4.11 on an iMac G5 if it makes a  
> difference.
>
>
> For each CD, select all tracks, then change the album name to Book  
> Title (CD1) or something similar. At the same time, enter the CD  
> number in the Disc Number field.
>
> The files will then sort correctly in iTunes.
>
> However, when using them on the shuffle, you have to play  
> sequentially, not in shuffle mode.
>
> You might want to look at this article I wrote for Macworld last year:
>
> http://www.macworld.com/article/136824/2008/11/audiobooks.html
>
>
>
> Kirk
>
> Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
> Writings about more than just Macs
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> X4U mailing list
> X4U at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
> http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/x4u
>
> Seven Cent Deals - Great legacy stuff Great Legacy Price
> http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?cat=Seven+Cent+Deal
>