How to Arrange Songs in an iPod

Fill in your song information. The iPod will create separate categories for different spellings and capitalization. If you have some songs listed under "rock," others under "Rock" and more under "Rock n' Roll," you will end up with three separate choices when looking under the "Genre" section of your iPod. To edit song information for multiple songs, open iTunes on your computer and click the gray arrow next to the device icon for your iPod, located in the left menu bar. Click the "Music" link just under your iPod to access your music library. Find the songs you want to change, then hold the "Shift" key and select the first song, then the last song in the list and hold the "Command" and "I" keys to open the "Get Info" panel. Fill in the fields and click the "OK" button to save your changes. You can also use the "Command" key to select multiple songs that are not next to each other.

Create custom playlists by selecting "File" from the top menu bar, followed by "New Playlist." A playlist is a group of songs you select to be played together, and all playlists can be accessed from the "Playlist" menu on your iPod. To add music to your playlist, drag and drop one song or groups of songs into your playlist. Change the order of songs within your playlist by dragging a song and dropping it in the location you desire. You can create an unlimited number of playlists on your iPod.

Create smart playlists by selecting "File" from the top menu bar, then select "New Smart Playlist." You can set a wide variety of rules to create different types of smart playlists. Set your smart playlist to choose songs by artist, album, genre, year, grouping, composer or keyword. Use the "Limit to" feature to sort your playlist by most recently played or most often played songs. Check the "Live updating" box to set your iPod to automatically refresh your smart playlists without syncing your iPod.

Use stars to give your songs ratings. Apply ratings in iTunes by clicking the stars in the "Rating" field. If you don't see the "Rating" field, click on "View" from the top menu bar, then choose "View options." Check the "Rating" box and any other information you want to be visible in iTunes. Apply ratings directly on your iPod while listening to a song by pressing the "Center" button two times. Slide the click wheel to apply your rating. If you are using an iPod Touch, tap the song while playing to reveal the rating panel, then tap the stars you want to apply.