Posted Friday, December 17, 2004

Challenge Made, Challenge Accepted: Doug Writes a "Delete Unplayed Tracks" AppleScript for iTunes

Usually, the only time I feel this influential is when I get out a movie projector and cause people to stampede for the door.

Yesterday, I posted a tip about deleting songs that you've never played. I ended my post by saying that this chore seemed to be a perfect one for AppleScript -- and more specifically, for Doug Adams, whose collection of AppleScripts for iTunes can make the program sit up, roll over, and beg for peanut butter toast.

This morning's email brought, well, 23 offers for inexpensive pharmaceuticals, six warnings to update a Citibank account that I don't even have, and two offers dealing with unfaithful wives. It also brought word from Doug: he'd taken the challenge and written the script.

So. If your iTunes library is cluttered with songs you never listen to, check out Delete Tracks Never Played, the newest addition to Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes. And heed Doug's advice: Use with extreme caution. If you'd rather have more manual control over the culling process, use the instructions in yesterday's tip.

Me-commerce department. I'd be missing an opportunity to shamelessly hawk my book if I didn't mention that its bundled DVD not only contains two hours of iLife instruction, but also a large collection of Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes. Not to mention a library of GarageBand loops, fully functional iMovie plug-ins and iDVD themes, and example files. All for $20.99 on Amazon. Learn more, and grab my free holiday update while you're at it.