Here are 5 insider tips for iTunes users

— -- Thanks to the iPod, iTunes is among the most popular music programs. We use it to manage our music and movies. But, chances are, you aren't getting all you can from iTunes.

Here are five great ways to make iTunes more useful:

Create better playlists

Creating iTunes playlists is easy. Click the "+" button at the bottom of the window. Name your playlist. Add songs by dragging and dropping them to the playlist name.

You can also create playlists of individual albums. Start by clicking View, then Show Browser from the music window. Drag an album from the list to the playlist section in the Source list.

But there's an easier way to make playlists. The Genius feature creates playlists automatically. Enable the feature by clicking Genius in the Source list.

Choose a song on which to base your playlist. Right-click it and select Start Genius. You'll get a playlist of similar songs!

Playlists may quickly get out of control. So, organize them using folders. Click File, then New Playlist Folder. Drag related playlists into the folder.

Share tunes over your network

You may want to share your music over your network. To enable sharing, click Edit, then Preferences. On the sharing tab, select "Share my library on my local network." Opt to share the entire library or select playlists. Click OK.

To listen on another computer, click Edit, then Preferences. Select "Look for shared libraries" on the sharing tab. Click OK. Shared libraries appear in the Source list.

Organize your library

A disorganized iTunes library is a real annoyance. Fortunately, you can spruce it up easily.

First, remove duplicate songs. The Show Duplicates feature will help. Click View, then Show Duplicates. You'll see a list of duplicates.

Delete duplicates by right-clicking and selecting Delete. Confirm the deletion. Then, specify whether to remove the song from the hard drive.

Exercise caution, though! Show Duplicates can't differentiate between different versions of songs. For example, it can't distinguish between live and studio versions.