June 7, 2010

Taking Advantage of the iTunes View Options

iTunes lets you see and use what's in your library in different ways which you can fluidly switch among to suit your moods and needs. Control starts at the top with the three View buttons next to the Search box on the upper right of the iTunes window. The one on the right, Cover Flow, lets you flip through your albums as though they were in a rack.

The Grid switch in the middle displays cover art as well, and it also brings the iTunes View menu into play. When you choose Grid view, a new Grid View command appears in the View menu offering a submenu of sorting choices. To get a sense of what each might do for you, select the Display Header command near the bottom of the menu to produce a narrow bar at the top of the view containing the different options, then switch among them. Each choice other than Albums produces what frequently amounts to stacks of albums. Hover over a stack and a play button will appear.

The List view on the left works in conjunction with a powerful Column Browser command in the View menu. The Show Column Browser command lets you put selection filters (Genres, Artists, etc.) on either the left or top of your view (your choice, near the bottom of the Column Browser menu), which you can then click among to find what you're looking for. The larger your library, the more useful you're likely to find this view. And finally, you can also see album art when you're using list view via Show Artwork Column in the View menu.