I need help manually managing music- I only want select artists and albums in bulk

Question

Hi All,
I am currently trying to sync music with a new Ipod (120GB) and am having diffuculty.
What I have done: I have checked the 'Manually manage music' box and am able to select music I want to sync with the Ipod no the 'Music' Page of the Ipod.
What I am trying to do: I have over 400GB of music, so I only want to select certain artists and albums. In this case I am trying to select batches of music to take across to another PC in  alphabetical order. In other words, I want to select all Artists and Albums starting with the letters A, B and C.
What I want to know how to avoid: I am currently being forced to click on every single artist and album starting with A, B and C individually which as you can imagine is taking hours!!! I want to be able to select all artists or albums starting at one point and ending at another point, without having to click individually on each and every line item.
Please help! This is going to take me forever!
KCM

Answer 1

Enable the sidebar with CTRL+S if not there
Create a playlist with CTRL+N
Go to the Songs view.
Click the heading of the Album column until it reads Album
Select the first track of the first album
Scroll down the list until you see the last track of the last album beginning with C
Hold down shift and click that last track
Drag the selection to the playlist name and let go
Click the heading of the Album column until it reads Album by Artist
Select the first track of the first album
Scroll down the list until you see the last track of the last album beginning with C
Hold down shift and click that last track
Drag the selection to the playlist name and let go, don't copy duplicates
Drag this playlist to the device, or better yet go to automatic syncing and sync the playlist. You can then edit for the next update when the device isn't connected. You can also create additional playlists for stuff you "must have" on the iPod, new stuff etc. Automatic syncing is easier, more powerful, and more selective than manual management.
tt2