If you use Home Sharing and have multiple libraries on your network, you can add tracks from a shared library to Up Next. Just mount a shared library, then drag a track from that library to the Up Next list or icon. You can add single or multiple tracks, and re-order them in the Up Next queue, as long as the library remains available.
iTunes 11 has been very controversial, and many people are disappointed with its limited viewing options, and are looking for ways to downgrade to iTunes 10.7, the previous version. This is possible, yet it is a bit complex. This thread on StackExchange shows what you need to do to be able to downgrade, though it assumes you have a Time Machine backup or other recent clone of OS X, because it requires restoring certain frameworks in addition to the iTunes application itself.
If you do this, make sure you back up your entire system, and make sure to read the entire thread to see certain problems that may occur.
After upgrading to iTunes 11, a lot of my artwork has vanished. This is the case for all my movies and TV shows, and several dozen albums. The artwork is still in the files, but iTunes won't display it. I've heard from a number of other people this has happened to as well.
I found that it is possible to make it visible again by selecting an item (say a movie), pressing Command-I, clicking on the Artwork tab, then selecting the artwork, cutting it and pasting it back. After pressing OK, the artwork displayed again. (Though for some files, I needed to quit and relaunch iTunes to see the artwork.) In some cases, for movies, simply displaying the Artwork tab of the Info window was enough to get iTunes to display the art.
With albums, it was a bit more difficult. I needed to select a single item to copy the artwork, then select an entire album to paste it. But this seems to work for all my files.
I wish there were a way to automate this. Doug, any thoughts?
In the latest version of iTunes (version 11), you can use Command + 1 through Command + 7 to switch the view between different sections of your iTunes library.
Cmd + 1 = Music
Cmd + 2 = Movies
Cmd + 3 = TV Shows
Cmd + 4 = Podcasts
Cmd + 5 = iTunes U
Cmd + 6 = Books
Cmd + 7 = Apps
These shortcuts will only work if the corresponding sections of your iTunes library are enabled in the General pane of your iTunes preferences.
While it's not obvious, you can use the MiniPlayer with full screen mode in iTunes 11.
Switch out of full screen mode, set iTunes to show on all desktops via the Dock, open the MiniPlayer as a separate window (Window > MiniPlayer), then click the full screen button on the main window.
I currently have the MiniPlayer sitting in the upper-right corner of my 17" MBP's screen so that I can quickly access it while working on my 27" LED Cinema Display with iTunes running fullscreen in the background.
[kirkmc adds: This works as described. However, if you have the MiniPlayer set to float above other windows (in the iTunes Advanced preferences), then it won't display when you switch to iTunes. This makes sense, of course, because you don't need it when there.
Also, this is the only way to get the MiniPlayer to work across spaces, if you use them. If iTunes is not in full-screen mode, then the MiniPlayer only displays in iTunes' space.]
Up Next, the feature in iTunes 11 that (sort of) replaces iTunes DJ, where you could queue up songs for a listening party, or just for your work day, offers many ways to add music. But if you want to add songs quickly to Up Next, here are two ways you can do so.
First, just drag an item from the iTunes library onto the iTunes LCD, the display at the top of the window that shows what's playing. This can be a single song, an album, or a playlist. The iTunes LCD will show a blue border when you bring the item over it, and the Up Next icon will flash with art of the item you have added.
The second way is to press the Option key and hover your cursor over an item. The track number next to its name will change to a + icon. Click that icon to add it to Up Next. (Thanks to David Chartier for this one.)
Here's one approach to making items in your home Library folder searchable in Spotlight.
Spotlight searches exclude items that exist in the user's home Library folder (now hidden by default). There are some items that normally reside in the home Library folder that I want to be available for my Spotlight searches. Rather than trying to find a hack to defeat the system's exclusion of the home Library folder for Spotlight, I use a method that doesn't require crossing the boundaries of what the OS permits users to do.
I simply select folders, the contents of which I would like to appear in Spotlight searches, such as Scripts and Favorites, move them up a level to the home folder, then create a symbolic link to the moved item to serve as a substitute for it in its original location. I'm including source for an AppleScript droplet that I use to automate this process. If your Library folder is already open (one way to open it is to hold down the Option key then select it from the Go menu in the Finder), just drop one or more of its folders onto the droplet. If you double-click the droplet created from the AppleScript, it will open your Library folder so that you can drop one or more folders into the ensuing dialog box.
on open the_items
my up_one_leave_link(the_items)
end open
on up_one_leave_link(the_items)
display dialog "This will move dropped folders
up one directory and substitute symbolic links
that point to their new location.
Is that what you want to do?"
repeat with the_item in the_items
set the_item to the_item as alias
tell application "Finder"
set sost to ((container of folder ¬
(the_item as string)) as alias) as string
set sost_Parent to (container of folder ¬
(sost as alias))
end tell
set sost to POSIX path of sost
set sost_Parent to POSIX path of (sost_Parent as string)
set this_filepath to (the_item as string)
if last character of this_filepath is ":" then
tell me to set it_is_a_folder to true
else
set it_is_a_folder to false
end if
set thesourcename to (name of (info for the_item))
set the_source_file to POSIX path of this_filepath
set pos_filepath to sost
if it_is_a_folder then
try
set my_command to "mv" & ¬
space & (quoted form of the_source_file) ¬
& space & (quoted form of sost_Parent)
set my_command to my_command & ¬
";ln -s" & space & (quoted form of sost_Parent) ¬
& (quoted form of thesourcename) & space & (quoted form of sost)
do shell script my_command
on error onerr
activate
display dialog onerr
end try
else
display dialog "Folders only, please!"
end if
end repeat
end up_one_leave_link
on run
display dialog "This will move selected folders
up one directory and substitute symbolic links
that point to their new location.
Is that what you want to do?"
do shell script "open ~/Library"
do shell script "sleep 1"
activate
set the_items to ((choose folder) as list)
up_one_leave_link(the_items)
end run
[kirkmc adds: Paste the above script in AppleScript Editor, then save it as an application. This solution should work, but be careful if, after an OS X update, something is broken.]
I wanted to find out how long a certain background process had been running. There's a column for CPU Time in Activity Monitor, but that's not real clock time.
It turns out you can get this information with ps, via the etime keyword. So to get a list of every running process, in decreasing order of run time, just use this command:
ps -ax -o etime,command -c
To see the results for a single process, just add a grep at the end for the process' name. For example:
So on my Mac, the AppleVNCServer has been running for three days, eight hours, nine minutes, and 16 seconds. I have a need to do this pretty regularly, so I turned it into a simple command line app:
#!/bin/bash
# Display the time a given process has been running
# Use the process name when calling the command
ps -ax -o etime,command -c | grep $1
I saved that to a file named psup, and made it executable with chmod 755 psup. Now I can just type psup SomeProcess to see the uptime for SomeProcess.
In month view in Calendar, if you double-click, you can enter a name for an event. By default, however, Calendar makes this an all-day event. You have to double-click the new event, then set the time. If you end the name of the event with a time, such as "6 pm," it then enters that as the start time. For example, double-clicking on November 30th, then quickly typing "Dinner with Paul 6pm" enters the event at 6pm on the 30th.
[kirkmc adds: Yes, this is good. I wish this worked in BusyCal, the calendar program I use.]