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30 Most Recent RSS FeedUPDATED: Multi-Item Edit v2.0
Gee, from v1.0 to v2.0 in less than a week.
I am extremely happy with the feedback on Multi-Item Edit. So I wanted to get a new version going with more tags as soon as I could manage it.
Multi-Item Edit v2.0 lets you modify the tags of a multiple selection of tracks in a single window—you can see everything without having to dart between tabs.
Version 2.0 adds Artwork, Name, Sort Name, Album Rating, Plays, Skips, Played, Last Played Date, Last Skipped Date, Lyrics and Category tags; sorting tags have been moved to a togglable side drawer. I also added "Checkmark All" and "Checkmark None" commands as a convenience. You probably wouldn't want to apply all checkmarked tags, but you may want a majority of them (or a minority of them) and clicking on checkboxes all afternoon is no way to go through life, son.
This is a free update for registered users. Multi-Item Edit is $1.99 with a ten day full-featured trial period.
My Two iTunes 12 Bugaboos
I don't like to complain, but:
1) When you select a CD in iTunes 12, the keyboard shortcut Command-I no longer shows the CD's Get Info panel. The "Get Info" button does work as expected.
2) Likewise, while a CD is selected, the View menu's "View Options..." and Command-J shortcut do not work. The menu flashes, which is quaint. But you can only show/hide the columns of a CD playlist by right-clicking the column headers.
3) (Did I say two?) Speaking of Showing columns: you can only show/hide one column at a time by using the "Show Columns" popup in the "View Options" panel. Try turning fifteen or so columns off or on and see how you feel afterwards.
Secret Get Info Window in iTunes 12
Not to undermine use of Multi-Item Edit, but if you want the real "old-school" Get Info window:
Select one or more tracks. Press and hold Option then Right-Click the selection. Choose "Get Info" from the contextual menu that appears. (Thanks, Paul J.)
No clue if there are plans to eventually drop it or even why it's still there.
[UPDATE: Actually, selecting the contextual menu or the File menu and then Option-Clicking on "Get Info" gets the job done.]
[UPDATE 2: iTunes version 12.1 removed the old-style Get Info window.]
UPDATED: New Last Played Date v4.0
New Last Played Date v4.0 will set the Last Played/Last Skipped date of selected tracks to a new user-entered date, with an option to increase or decrease Plays/Skips, or set tracks to no date and no Plays/Skips (effectively making them never played).
This latest version has support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iTunes 12, adds a "Check for Update" command, and makes a few minor UI and performance tweaks.
More information and download is here.
Yosemite Dictation Commands and iTunes AppleScripts
A new feature in OS X 10.10 Yosemite is Dictation Commands, which replaces the venerable "Speakable Items". Essentially, this allows you to speak commands at your machine to launch apps and scripts, open files, and activate other tasks. Once you've set up Dictation Commands, you engage the Dictation Response HUD, a floating display indicating that your Mac is "listening", by pressing a set of command keys (fn pressed twice, by default). While the HUD is displayed, your Mac will be listening for spoken commands which you have associated with apps, scripts, Workflows, and so on.
I was hopeful I could fire off the Play Random Album script with a voice command. What a boss I'd be at my next party.
Unfortunately, the joy-killer about using iTunes with Dictation Commands is that while the Mac is in "listening" mode waiting for you to speak a command, iTunes is muted! Even with headphones plugged in. So, to use Dictation Commands while you're listing to iTunes, you've got to engage the HUD (two keyboard clicks), thus muting iTunes, speak your command to activate the script, then turn the HUD off to un-mute iTunes (another two keyboard clicks). And it's not exactly instantaneous. If you're launching a script to play tracks or playlists, well, you might just as well launch it from the Script menu with a mouse click.
An additional minor detail is that, while compiled scripts (.scpt) and applets (.app) work with Dictation Commands, script bundles (.scptd) do not. I use a lot the latter since I can bundle Scripting Libraries in them.
I'm sure Dictation Commands will be great for users who'd like to (or need to) bold their text by saying "Bold this text!". But really. Four keyboard clicks. The (slight?) inconvenience of interupting my music for a few seconds. Plus the effort to set things up in System Preferences and having to convert script bundles into plain compiled scripts or slower-launching applets. (Daniel Jalkut has a couple of other gripes, too.)
This was going to be a project post on how to use Dictation Commands with various AppleScripts for iTunes because awesome. But I'm afraid it didn't turn out that way since it's just that much trouble to bother. The magic isn't worth it. I'll continue to use keyboard shortcuts.
NEW: Multi-Item Edit
You may have been surprised, as I was, by the new Get Info panel in iTunes 12. While it provides pretty much the same utility as the previous incarnation's Get Info panel, it's souped-up UI-wise. One function that's missing is the Multiple-Items Edit checkbox feature to designate what tag changes to apply to the selection of tracks. I think what it does now is just detect changes and apply only the changes. I think. Not sure. Anyway, I'm not 100% comfortable with that.
Here's Multi-Item Edit:
It works just like the old Get Info window in Multiple Item mode: It recognizes any common tags and displays them. Just enter/change some text or options and checkmark the boxes for the tags you want applied to a multiple selection of tracks, including "blank" entries.
This was something I was working on over the Summer so I could batch edit tags without having to switch among Get Info window tabs. But I re-jiggered it a bit as a new release for people who like their Get Info panel old-school.
I want to note that if you notice some tags and options missing (artwork, obviously), well, this is only v1.0.
Multi-Item Edit is $1.99 with a ten day full-featured trial period.
UPDATED: Enter Description Tag for Selected v2.0
iTunes 12 no longer provides a means for editing the Description tag of multiple-selected tracks. This oldie, Enter Description Text for Selected, was just updated to v2.0 and will let you enter text for the Description tag of the selected tracks.
Technically (according to iTunes), the Description tag isn't supposed to be applicable to music tracks. But all track entries have an AppleScript description property.
iTunes 12.0.1 is Available
Apple has released iTunes 12.0.1. It's not just available for Yosemite, but Mavericks as well. You'll find it via the Mac App Store in the "Updates" section.
[UPDATE: According to Apple's iTunes download page, iTunes 12 can run on OS X 10.7.5 and later.]
Dupin v2.8.2 Available
You're probably getting your iTunes library all in order to make it ready for a nice new operating system. If so, you'll want to pick up the latest version of Dupin, the iTunes Duplicates Manager.
This latest version fixes a few rare bugs: a case-sensitivity issue with files located on an NAS that prevented Purging, errant detection of iTunes Match being enabled when it actually isn't, a Selection Window flickering problem, no longer wheezes if you happen to move the iTunes Media folder while Dupin is running, and a few other way-out-there situations are accomodated.
You can get version 2.8.2 by using Dupin's "Check for Update..." command in its app menu, or download it directly from here.
This is a free update for registered users of v2.5 and later. Otherwise, Dupin is $15.
Hi-Yo, Yosemite!
Looks like OS X 10.10 Yosemite will see an official release sometime next week (at the earliest) now that Apple has announced a Special Event for October 16.
Perhaps you've noticed that over the past few of months I've been updating some of the more popular scripts and applets for Yosemite compatibility. Updating stuff for the latest OS has become an annual ordeal. I spend most of the Summer and Fall updating old stuff for compatibility, and then the next six months working on feature upgrades and new scripts. And then another WWDC arrives, and the cycle continues.
As a result, not everything gets the attention it deserves. So if there's a script or app you use that needs to be updated for Yosemite, let me know. I've got a pretty long list, but I'd prefer to prioritize based on popular usage.
Many of the Yosemite-ready scripts are dropping support for pre-10.8 OSes. Frankly, keeping scripts working over five operating systems (10.6-10.10) and two processor platforms and making them work great for everybody is not fair to the majority of users who want modern features without compromise (nevermind the support issues). In many cases, older versions of the scripts will still be available. (Although, if you can get off of 10.7 I really believe you'll be doing yourself a favor. It's my least favorite OS ever.)
And then there's iTunes 12. For the most part, and with the exception of UI changes and the like, iTunes 12's scripting infrastructure is pretty much the same. I do worry that as new features are added cloud-wise some of iTunes' AppleScript goodness will fall to the wayside (eg: shuffle, song repeat, gapless, playlist window, updatePodcast, and so on). But accessing playlists, tracks, files and tags in general is still pretty healthy. Apple even introduced a new iTunes Library framework with Mavericks. So things are looking pretty good in that department for the foreseeable future. And as I often say, I don't care what iTunes used to do or what would be good if it could do; I just care about what it does now.
And "now" arrives next week. Hi-yo!
