Q: My iPod categorizes my audiobook chapters and lectures as Songs, so that when I play “Songs” shuffled, I get these lectures on Greek History, or Cell biology interspersed. How can I label these spoken passages so the iPod doesn’t include them in “Songs”?
John
A: Although traditionally only audiobooks purchased from Audible.com or the iTunes Store were treated as audiobooks and skipped when shuffling, recent versions of iTunes allow you to select this for any track in your library.
To do so, simply select the track in question, and choose File, Get Info.
This will bring up the file properties. Choose the “Options” tab, and you will see the “Skip When Shuffling” checkbox. Select this and click OK.
You can also adjust this setting for multiple tracks by selecting several tracks prior to choosing the Get Info option. In this case, you will be shown with a multiple item info dialog box, and can choose to set the “Skip when Shuffling” option to “Yes” for all selected tracks.
Once you’ve set this option, simply retransfer the track(s) to your iPod, either simply by connecting the iPod (if you are using automatic sync), or re-transferring the tracks via drag-and-drop (if you are using manual management).
