I need a COMPLETE tutorial on how to make a smart playlist with 'conditions'

Question

Ok, I have read discussions in the Support Communities, looked on iTunes Help and I think my brain is going to explode. I need a simple (for dummies) tutorial on how to create a smart playlist with 'conditions' and Live Updating. For example: instead of going through my Library music list and unchecking all my Christmas music and all my Comedy stuff so it won't play year round and at innapropriate times and having to skip them manually when playing on my ipod touch or my iphone4 in my car or through headphones or home sharing and using my AppleTV.
Also, if my comedy is individually all unchecked (in my iTunes Library), and I have a regular playlist in my ipod and one in my iphone (titled Comedy), when I go to the playlist list in my ipod or phone (when not connected to my Mac), and select shuffle: will that playlist play all the way through even though they are all unchecked?
AND, if I have 'sync only checked songs and video' box UNCHECKED in my summary page for a device what exactly does that do? Or more precisely, WHY would I want or not want that box to be checked?
I really hope someone can help me as I am a complete idiot when it comes to understanding long explanations.

Answer 1

katinak67 wrote:
AND, if I have 'sync only checked songs and video' box UNCHECKED in my summary page for a device what exactly does that do? Or more precisely, WHY would I want or not want that box to be checked?
If the box is unchecked, it won't do anything. It will sync everything.
If it is checked, songs that are unchecked will nto get sync'd to the iPod.
katinak67 wrote:
For example: instead of going through my Library music list and unchecking all my Christmas music and all my Comedy stuff so it won't play year round and at innapropriate times and having to skip them manually when playing on my ipod touch or my iphone4 in my car or through headphones or home sharing and using my AppleTV.
Select all the Christmas stuff, right click - get info.
Set the sure the Genre is Christmas.
Go to the Info tab and set Skip when Shuffling to Yes.
Do the same for Comedy.
Create a new smart playlist (named My Music or something similar).
Match all rules;
Genre is not Christmas.
Genre is not Comedy.
Play this playlist on the iPod/iTunes to listen to everything except Christmas & Comedy.
Or if you have Shuffle turned on, just listen to anything and Christmas & Comedy will get skipped.
Also, if my comedy is individually all unchecked (in my iTunes Library), and I have a regular playlist in my ipod and one in my iphone (titled Comedy), when I go to the playlist list in my ipod or phone (when not connected to my Mac), and select shuffle: will that playlist play all the way through even though they are all unchecked?
It depends.
In iTunes, unchecked items will get skipped.
If unchecekd items get sync'd to the iPod (you do NOT have Sync only cheked items ticked), they will play unless you have them set to Skip when shuffling.