In the Great iTunes Library Transfer of 2007, I lost all of my song ratings and play counts. Sigh. Which means that my smart playlists weren't so smart anymore. So I've been slowly putting in ratings again. Which is a pain b/c you have to switch to iTunes to do it. And they don't have a keyboard shortcut. Now, I found a number of smart folks who had written Apple scripts to do ratings short-cuts or tweaked keyboard shortcuts in the system settings. For a Mac newbie, a little scary.
So instead, I have tried and am delighted by a little toolbar app called "I Love Stars"
It appears in your menu bar when iTunes is playing. And you just click to set your star rating. It also takes scroll wheel input. It's so tiny and easy to use. Even more so than a keyboard shortcut, I think. MacApper says it best:
I think utilities like these are really helpful because it reduces distractions. Having to switch to iTunes just to rate music is annoying and somewhat distracting. Though you originally planned to just tag a song, in no time, you’ll end up browsing album art, looking through the iTunes store, and actually buying some music. It’s simple utilities like these that get the job done, and done fast.
I Love Stars is free (like beer) from Potion Factory. They also have a pretty neat playlist creation tool called Tangerine. It creates playlists based on Beats Per Minute.
Via MacApper
Bonus link: I also came across AutoRate which is a mass tunes rater based on a formula. I like to do each song individually, but this might work for initial ratings.