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Many teachers use photos from their library on iPod devices to illustrate curricular content. Others export their Keynote or PowerPoint presentations into images and put them on iPod devices as a reinforcement for what is done in the classroom. This page will help you easily move content on and off of iPods by way of smart albums. This is also the basis for syncing iPods using smart playlists which is found on
another page.
First, make sure that you have organized your photos into albums. Although not totally necessary, it will make it easier for you to think of them as curricular units and make it easier to move them on and off the iPod devices in groups. Then, create a smart playlist from the File menu in iPhoto:
Then, select the photo albums that you would like to include on your iPod devices. Remember, the smart playlists can be edited any time to change what they include. So, in the following example, you can see that there are three albums selected, Don Quijote, Appomattox, and The Duke:

Now you have created a single album that includes all of the photos from three other albums. As a bonus, smart albums (like smart playlists in iTunes) dynamically update themselves. So, when you add a photo to any of the albums you have included in the smart album they are automatically part of the smart album. For instance, adding a picture of Sancho Panza to the Don Quijote album adds Sancho to the "iPhoto smart album example."
NOTE: Be sure to select "Match 'any' of the following conditions" as the rule, not "all," or no content will appear in your Smart album.

Now, when syncing with iTunes, in the Photos tab you can select just the one smart album to put on the iPod. Now, you've made it simple to change out the photos quickly.
When you have finished the Don Quijote unit in class, for instance, just edit your smart playlist (either control-click on it in the sidebar or select "Edit smart playlist" from the File menu), deselect the Don Quijote album, and choose another one from your list of photo albums. The next time you plug in your iPod devices to sync, the Don Quijote album photos will be replaced with the new album that you added to your smart playlist. Automagically.
This method of using smart albums to manage content on the iPod is directly related to using smart playlists to manage the audio/video/podcast content in iTunes. More on that can be
found here.
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