manual/include/playlist-operations.html

<p>
  In the track header (editor window, left pane) is a button labelled <kbd
  class="menu">p</kbd> (for "Playlist"). If you click on this button, Ardour 
  displays the following menu:
</p>
<dl class="wide-table">
  <dt>(Local Playlists)</dt>
   <dd>Shows all of the playlists associated with this track, and indicates 
   the currently selected playlist</dd>
  <dt>Rename</dt>
  <dd>Displays a dialog to rename the current playlist</dd>
  <dt>New</dt>
  <dd>Creates a new empty playlist, and the track switches to the new playlist</dd>
  <dt>New Copy</dt>
  <dd>Creates a new playlist that is a copy of the current playlist; the track switches to the new playlist</dd>
  <dt>Clear Current</dt>
  <dd>Removes all regions from the current playlist</dd>
  <dt>Select From All</dt>
  <dd>Displays a playlist browser to manually choose which playlist this track should use. (You can even select playlists from other tracks here)</dd>
</dl>

<h2>Renaming Playlists</h2>
<p>
  Playlists are created with the name of the track of which they are 
  associated, plus a version number. So, the first playlist for a track 
  called "Cowbell" will be called <samp>Cowbell.1</samp>. This name will 
  be used to define the names of any regions added to the playlist by 
  recording. You can change the name at any time, to anything you want. 
  Ardour does not require that your playlist names are all unique, but it 
  will make your life easier if they are. Suggested examples of user-assigned 
  names for a playlist might include <kbd class="input">Lead Guitar, 2nd
  take</kbd>, <kbd class="input">vocals (quiet)</kbd>, 
  and <kbd class="input">downbeat cuica</kbd>. Notice how these might be 
  different from the associated track names, which for these examples might 
  be <kbd class="input">Lead Guitar</kbd>, 
  <kbd class="input">Vocals</kbd> and <kbd class="input">Cuica</kbd>. The 
  playlist name provides more information because it is about a specific 
  version of the material that may (or may not) end up in the final version 
  of the track.
</p>
<p>
  If you are going to rename your playlists, do so before recording new
  material to them.
</p>
<p class="fixme">
  It appears that recorded regions are not named after the playlist, but
  after the track.
</p>

<h2>Sharing Playlists</h2>
<p>
  It is entirely possible to <dfn>share playlists</dfn> between tracks. The only 
  slightly unusual thing you may notice when sharing is that edits to the 
  playlist made in one track will magically appear in the other. If you 
  think about this for a moment, its an obvious consequence of sharing.  
  One application of this attribute is parallel processing, described 
  below.
</p>
<p>
  You might not want this kind of behaviour, even though you still want 
  two tracks to use the same (or substantially the same) playlist. To 
  accomplish this, select the chosen playlist in the second track, and 
  then use New Copy to generate an <dfn>independent copy</dfn> of it for 
  that track. You can then edit this playlist without affecting the original.
</p>