Just A Minute

I avoid iTunes like I avoid diarrhoea but you might want to edit your files' metatags (meta information inserted into the file e.g. bit rate, artist, title).  I do this with audiobooks because the iPhone sorts by the metatag "title" rather than by the file name, and it uses the "album" tag to organise tracks. 

This is why an iPhone can play tracks in an order that is completely inconsistent with the filenames of the tracks: it uses their 'title' metatag for sorting rather than the filename.  iPhone/iPod also uses the 'album' tag to group tracks into logical albums, regardless of filename.

I use MP3 Tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en) which is free and very useful for organising collections for use on Apple players.

I also use Lupas Rename (http://rename.lupasfreeware.org/) to rename large numbers of unmanageable files into a semblance of order - it allows all sorts of filename manipulation, including automatic serial numbering and text search/replace and name prefixing/postfixing.

I tend to use Lupas Rename first to get a nice, consistent set of files and then use MP3 Tag to change the MP3 metatags to suit my iPhone player (usually by setting the 'album' tag and converting the filename into the 'Title' tag so the iPhone plays the tracks in the right order!)

Hope that helps.
Mark

nylon@...