(Revised May 2008)

Organizing video files in iTunes is easy if you set a few preferences and add information to video files after they are imported into iTunes. Follow these steps and you'll have a well-organized video library in iTunes.

Set Preferences

1.  Open the iTunes Preferences Pane and select the General tab. Put a check in the boxes in front of:

        Movies
        TV Shows
        Show genre when browsing
        Group compilations when browsing

2.   Select the Advanced tab and then the General tab on the Advanced Pane. Select the location for your iTunes library by clicking the Change... button and locating and selecting the folder or drive you want to use. You can skip this step if you are satisfied with the current location of your iTunes folder.

3.  Put a check in the boxes in front of:

        Keep iTunes Music folder organized
        Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library

Create Smart Playlist

4.  Create a Smart playlist with one criteria - "Date Added is [today's date]." This will make locating your new video files easy. Make sure you put a check in the box in front of Live updating.

Add Video Files

5.  Select "Add to Library..." from the File menu and locate and select the video files you want to add to iTunes.

Add Information

6.  All your new video files will be in the Smart folder you created in Step 4. Label similar files with the same genre by selecting the files, pressing Command-I, selecting the Info tab, and selecting the genre from the drop-down menu in the lower left corner of the pane.

7.  Complete as much information as you can on the Info pane for each individual file.

8.  If you have TV shows, select the Video tab. Select TV Show from the drop-down menu next to Video Kind and complete the rest of the information on the pane for the file.

Your video files should now be organized and easy to locate and view when you select either Movies or TV Shows at the top of the iTunes window. If you have a video iPod, the videos will also be clearly marked and organized on your iPod.

Learn more about organizing files in iTunes with our iTunes 7 in 6 Easy Lessons and our Introduction to Leopard - Book 3.

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