Of course, what would be nice is to be able to decide what playlists to synch up before you connect the iPod.

Set it to manually sync, rather than automatic. Then you don't waste any time with an initial synch after plugging in the iPod.

Oh, I do, but if it's not fully charged you still have to wait. It just doesn't make sense to me that you can't access that tab when it's not connected.

Of course, I understand very few of the design choices made with iTunes/iPod.

I especially hate the wheel, so I'm constantly swtiching which playlists I load to keep them to a minimum.

You can in fact do two separate libraries, Dana. Drew does it to keep his music and sound effects separate. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do it, and Drew is on a cruise ship right now.

Dana,

can you tell us which you would prefer to do:

a) manage two separate itunes libraries

b) manage your ipods separately?

I can post links for "a" if you want them. I think there is info above for "b"

Hold down Option while launching iTunes and you get the option to choose a library. It's pretty easy actually.

Same thing to create a new library?

Manage two separate iTunes libraries. I am the only one with an iPod.

I also like automatic syncing, and don't want to have to set up a playlist to manage what goes on the iPod. Maybe I forgot to mention that a crucial factor here is our inherent laziness.

Hold down Option while launching iTunes and you get the option to choose a library.

Is that Ctrl on a PC?

When you hold option down while launching, it pops up with a "Quit, Create Library, Choose Library" buttons.

Not sure what Win button combo is. Possibly Alt.

Dana,

Here is a cheap shareware program that manages multiple libraries if you don't want to hit the button each time:

[link]

Is that Ctrl on a PC?

I think Omnis is right, that it's Alt on a PC. Ctrl is usually the key you swap out for Command on a Mac.