<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/" xmlns:e="http://projectmallard.org/experimental/" type="topic" style="task" id="playlists">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="index#manage"/>
    <link type="seealso" xref="tags"/>
    <link type="seealso" xref="coverart"/>
    <desc>Create and manage playlists.</desc>
    <revision pkgversion="1.6" version="0.1" date="2010-05-26" status="draft"/>
    <credit type="author">
      <name>Paul Cutler</name>
      <email>pcutler@gnome.org</email>
    </credit>    
    <include xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="legal.xml"/>
  </info>

  <title>Playlists</title>    
  
  <p>Playlists allow you to create and save a list of music tracks to be played in a specific order. Playlists are convenient to create a list of your favourite songs or to split your library into smaller lists that are easy to browse through. Some portable media players even allow you to transfer the playlist so you can take it with you on the go.</p>
  
  <p>Banshee supports normal playlists, which include songs you add to the playlist, as well as smart playlists. Smart Playlists are automatically generated playlists based on your listening habits, favourite music, or more.</p>
  
  <section id="manual">
  
    <title>Normal Playlists</title>
  
    <p>A normal playlist is a list of songs that you add and manage. You might want to create your own list of songs by your favourite artist from multiple albums, your latest favourite songs, or an upbeat playlist to listen to while you exercise.</p>
    
    <p>You can create a new playlist by pressing <keyseq><key>Control</key><key>N</key></keyseq>, from the menu choosing <guiseq><gui>Media</gui><gui>New Playlist</gui></guiseq> or by selecing the track(s) you would like to add to the playlist. Select the track(s), right click them, and choose <guiseq><gui>Add to Playlist</gui><gui>New Playlist</gui></guiseq>. You can also drag and drop them to a new playlist by selecting the track(s) and dragging them to the left hand window pane over <gui>Music</gui>. As you drag it over <gui>Music</gui>, a new option <gui><em>New Playlist</em></gui> will appear and you can drop the track(s) over <gui><em>New Playlist</em></gui> to add them to the playlist. You can repeat this process until you have added all the tracks you want in the playlist.</p>

    <p>To give your playlist its own name, select the playlist, right click on the playlist and press <gui>Rename Playlist</gui> and enter the name of your playlist.</p>
    
    <p>You can change the order of the playlist by dragging and dropping the song to the new position in the playlist. Songs can only be re-ordered in the playlist when none of the columns are sorted. To unsort a column, press the column until the up or down arrow is no longer showing and the column is blank and then re-order the playlist.</p>
    
    <p>To remove a track from the playlist, select the track(s) you wish to remove. Press the <key>Delete</key>, from the menu choose <guiseq><gui>Edit</gui><gui>Remove from Playlist</gui></guiseq> or right click the track(s) with your mouse and press <gui>Remove from Playlist</gui>.</p>
  </section> 
  
  <section id="smartplaylists">
    <title>Smart Playlist</title>
    
    <p>Smart Playlists allow you to quickly generate a dynamic playlist based on a number of pre-set variables. You can quickly create a new playlist based on a specific artist, favourites or more.</p>
    
    <p>To create a new Smart Playlist, choose <guiseq><gui>Media</gui><gui>New Smart Playlist</gui></guiseq> from the menu. You will be presented with a dialogue to create a new Smart Playlist. Enter the name of your playlist and then choose the criteria your playlist should be based on. You can choose from any field included in the song's metadata, such as Album, Artist or Year. Choose the criteria and then choose from one of the following:</p>
    
    <list>
      <item><p>is</p></item>
      <item><p>is not</p></item>  
      <item><p>less than</p></item>
      <item><p>more than</p></item>  
      <item><p>at most</p></item>
      <item><p>at least</p></item>  
    </list>
    
    <p>You can also press the <gui>+</gui> button to add an addition query to the Smart Playlist. For example, you could create a smart playlist that includes all songs from 2010 that you rated 5 stars. To create this playlist you would choose:</p>
    
  <table frame="all" rules="rows" shade="rows">
  <tr>
    <td><p><gui>Year</gui></p></td> <td><p><gui>is</gui></p> </td> 
    <td><p><gui>2010</gui></p></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td><p><gui>Rating</gui></p></td> <td><p><gui>is</gui></p></td> 
    <td><p><gui/>5 stars</p></td>
  </tr>
  </table>
    
    <p>You can then optionally select how many songs are included by pressing the <gui>Limit</gui> to checkbox and choosing the number of songs to be included.</p>
  
  <p>Banshee also includes smart playlists already created for you. Press the <gui>Open in editor</gui> button to view how the playlist created was or to modify it. If you press <gui>Create and save</gui> the playlist will be automatically generated and saved for you. The following playlists are included:</p>
  
  <list>
    <title>Banshee Smart Playlists</title>
    <item><p>Favourites (Songs rated four and five stars)</p></item>
    <item><p>Recent Favourites (Songs listened to often in the past week)</p></item>  
    <item><p>Recently Added (Songs imported within the last week)</p></item>
    <item><p>Unheard (Songs that have not been played or skipped)</p></item>
    <item><p>Neglected Favourites (Favourites not played in over two months)</p></item>
    <item><p>700 MB of Favourites (A data CD worth of favourite songs)</p></item>
    <item><p>80 Minutes of Favourites (An audio CD worth of favourite songs)</p></item>
    <item><p>Unrated (Songs that haven't been rated)</p></item>
  </list>
 
   </section> 
 
</page>
