manual/include/playlist-operations.html

<p>
  In the <a href="@@audio-track-controls">track header</a> (editor window, left pane) is a button labelled <kbd
  class="menu">p</kbd> (for "Playlist"). A click on this button displays the
  following menu:
</p>

<table class="dl">
  <tr><th>(Local Playlists)</th>
   <td>Shows all of the playlists associated with this track, and indicates
   the currently selected playlist</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Rename&hellip;</th>
  <td>Displays a dialog to rename the current playlist</td></tr>
  <tr><th>New&hellip;</th>
  <td>Creates a new empty playlist, and the track switches to the new playlist</td></tr>
  <tr><th>New Copy&hellip;</th>
  <td>Creates a new playlist that is a copy of the current playlist; the track switches to the new playlist</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Clear Current</th>
  <td>Removes all regions from the current playlist</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Select From All&hellip;</th>
  <td>Displays a playlist browser to manually choose which playlist this track should use. (from this track or another one)</td></tr>
</table>

<h2>Renaming Playlists</h2>
<p>
  Playlists are created by default with the name of the active playlist, plus a
  version number, and the first playlist is named after the track with which it is
  associated. So, the first playlist for a track called "Cowbell" will be called
  "Cowbell.1", the next one "Cowbell.2", etc.  This name can be changed at any
  time, to anything: Ardour does not require  playlist names to be unique,
  although it will make the user's 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>. 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 class="note">Using the fact that playlist names are based on the active one with
  an incremented version number, one can rename a playlist "Cowbell take.1" so that
  the next playlist created is automatically named "Cowbell take.2" etc. This allows
  for a quick way to label different takes.
</p>

<h2>Sharing Playlists</h2>
<p>
  It is entirely possible to <dfn>share playlists</dfn> between tracks. The only
  slightly unusual thing that should be noted when sharing is that edits to the
  playlist made in one track will magically appear in the other. It is an
  obvious consequence of sharing. One application of this attribute is parallel
  processing, described in <a href="@@playlist-usecases">Playlist Usecases</a>.
</p>
<p>
  To avoid this kind of behaviour, and nevertheless use the same (or substantially
  the same) playlist on two tracks, the desired playlist must be chosen in the
  second track, and then the <kbd class="menu">New Copy&hellip;</kbd> button clicked.
  This generates an <dfn>independent copy</dfn> of it for that track, which can
  then be edited without affecting the original.
</p>