How prevent shuffle autosync; keep contents and just add a few songs

Question

My wife is very frustrated with her first-generation shuffle.
Problem 1: She often just wants to charge it on the iMac without changing its contents. Is there any other way than configuring iTunes not to come up when she plugs it in?
Problem 2: She often wants to leave the shuffle's current contents in place and just add a few songs from various folders, but the shuffle starts syncing/autofilling automatically. The Help says you can add songs manually in addition to or INSTEAD OF autofilling, but I cannot find how to prevent the autofill, and the fact that there is a button for autofill implies it can be a manual operation.
Does anyone know how to prevent the automatic syncing/filling?
My advice to her was to create a "Current iPod" folder, specify that as the folder for autofilling, and drag the songs into that folder, but she thinks that is clumsy, and wants to drag directly to her iPod without having it automatically sync or fill. Does anyone have any better suggestions?
Thanks!

Answer 1

You can set it to manually manage your music in the Summary page and manually drag songs to it. Be sure to click Apply after you select it. Be sure you do not delete songs from your iTunes library or it will delete them from the Shuffle when you connect it.