Reading Itunes on the Crapper sans Laptop

February 16, 2006 7:23 PM

Itunes Library help: I couldn't find this using Itunes or the ask mefi search.

How do you create a library file from Itunes that can actually be read or printed like a simple grocery list? I have tried to export my Itunes data in both .txt and.xml, but I can't get anything coherent. I'd like to simply print a list that I can read on the crapper without running Itunes.

posted by kuujjuarapik to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: It's unfortunately a two step process. First, export the song list. Then open that list with Excel (if you have it). Excel should automatically display things in separate columns. From there you can delete the columns you don't want to see, change column widths, etc...
posted by pmbuko at 7:36 PM on February 16, 2006

Or you can use XSLT, as it's XML, to do stuff like this guy did.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 7:49 PM on February 16, 2006

Here are a couple of tips for exporting information from, iTunes.

1. The easiest is to set up the view window with the columns of information that you would like in your list and uncheck the ones you don't want to see (don't worry, you can change them back later). For example, if you want a list of every song in your library, sorted by artist, and including the name of the album, then just see that the Song Title, Artist and Album columns are showing in the viewer window (ctrl-click on the title bar of the column to check or uncheck), drag the columns into the order you want the information, then simply select all of the tracks you want information for and select Edit->Copy (or cmd-C)(I'm sorry, but I don't know the Windows equivalents, in case you're using iTunes for windows). The information you want will be copied to the clipboard as tab-delimited text–you can then paste it into any text editor and format as you like.
2. If you're in OS X, try Josh Aas' excellent iTunes Publisher. It allows you to export iTunes data in variety of formats, including HTML for you website.

I hope this helps. Have fun.
posted by al_fresco at 7:55 PM on February 16, 2006

If the above wasn't clear enough, feel free to email me privately (see profile).
posted by al_fresco at 7:57 PM on February 16, 2006

Best answer: These steps seem overcomplicated to me. You can select a lot of songs in iTunes (all of 'em, if you want), then press Command+P for Print. You'll get a Print dialog box. You can save any Print dialog box's contents as a PDF. Later you can print that PDF. It'll be a big list of all the songs you selected.
posted by cgc373 at 8:58 PM on February 16, 2006

I've had luck on a PC with sorting out iTunes into the columns I want to see, highlighting them all, copying and pasting them into a nice, neat Excel file.
posted by angeline at 10:03 PM on February 16, 2006

Not my question, cgc373 wins, hands down. I can't believe I didn't think of that...
posted by pmbuko at 6:42 AM on February 17, 2006

If you're on a Mac, use this AppleScript to send a list of song names (or any attribute, really) to a text file.

Doug has dozens of scripts that make iTunes do just about anything you want it to do.
posted by lambchop1 at 6:50 AM on February 17, 2006