Sync playcounts without using "autofill"?

Question

Hi, folks - I'm new to this, but it appears to me that using the "autofill" setting in iTunes will do 2 things:
(a) Pull in new play-counts & "last played" dates for the songs in my iPod nano and sync/update those songs in my computer's iTunes library, and -
(b) prevent me from filling my nano manually with my own music or playlists.
I love (a), but I'm not a big fan of (b). Is there a way to keep iPod/iTunes playcounts in sync WITHOUT also using "autofill"? Can I use one without the other, or is it all or nothing?
thanks

Answer 1

I let iTunes automatically sync to my nano (I'm too lazy to manually manage music transfers)
In iTunes, I set my nano to sync to specific playlists (both regular & smart playlists). During syncing playcount information and play date is transfered back and forth between the nano and iTunes.
I find this feature very useful with a particular smartplayslist of mine, "forgotten songs" that populates itself based on playcounts (playcount = 0, limits content to songs never played entirely, combine this with a fixed GB cap, the playlist never gets bigger than my nano)
With this approach, everytime I listen to music from the playlist (either on the nano of iTunes), the playcount gets updated in iTunes, and the next sync results in this song disapearing from the playlist, and being replaced by another song. When I sync with my nano, I get a fresh batch of forgotten music to rediscover!
Once all songs have been listened to once, I can reset the playcount criteria to 1 and start all over.
Another note: when I hear a real gem or a real turkey, I assign one or five stars to the song on the nano. This automatically places these recently ranked 5-star songs in another smartplaylist "best tunes".
The turkeys I can search out from the iTunes library and "wish them into the cornfield".