Some basic OSX opertaions.

2

20inchthomas

Registered
Hi,

Ive just baught a 20" imac g5 and having a few problems adjusting to things. Ive come from using windows xp and now to OSX 10. There are two features i really liked about xp and wondering if i can do them on a mac.

1. Folders with pictures, can you somehow preview the pictures in the folder without opening the folder, like a little sample, i found this really useful as i have 100's of folders with 1000's of digital photos and trying to find photos with only the folder name is proving difficult.

2. Is there any way of aranging folders / files within a folder in alphabetical / modified order ? Coz currently files are all over the shop and im having a hard time locating them.

And finally, is it possible to turn off the "sucking" in effect into the dock when you minamise a application ? I find this sometimes slows my machine down where there are afew windows open.

Thanks for your help in advance!
-Tom
 
firstly, windows has improved the picture-usability of it's folder because, basically, it doesn't have iPhoto. have you much experiance with iTunes? in the way that it removes nearly all the need to go rooting around in folders. iPhoto is one of the finest ways to store, view and keep all your photo's organised. it completely removes the need for folder knowledge - use iPhoto. if you need a particular photo's file, just drag it out of the iPhoto window onto the desktop - it copies it and creates the file you need to the desktop for what ever temporary funtion you need for it, while the originial stays in it's very well organised folders system.

iphoto is great!.

as for your folder issues interms of organising, there are three views you can select in the finder - look at the button bar at the top - it shows icon, list and column views. column is very good for navigation, but you are right in terms of showing information, it is limited - list shows a very similar view to xp's list view.

hope that's helpful :p
 
and for the last question, go to System Preferences, the choose dock, and select the "scale effect" instead of the "genie"...
 
in terms of the sucking effect (genie), you can change it to scale effect, but not turn it off. my thoughts would be, since i switched about 4 months ago, my use of minimising has greatly reduced. instead, keep all the windows open all the time and start to get to know exposé - it really is a lot more than a novelty, but find another method to use it than the f9 f10 f11 keys. 'hot corners' are one way - set 'show all windows' for example to the bottom left corner, when ever you need to switch to another open window, throw the mouse to the bottom left and all the open windows spring apart into full view, click on the one you want and carry on working. even better than this is a multi-button mouse. get the exposé functions under the additional buttons and you really are laughing - my productivity leaped when i did this. 'show all windows' is under the middle mouse button.

minimising, now, is really something i only use when i want to come back to a window later - just 'keep' it in the dock until i want to come back to it instead of using it as a way to remove clutter - that is what exposé has been expresly designed for, and does it very well. i use minimise to dock about 1ce a week now...

just my tuppence :p
 
You can choose "list view" where you can choose the columns used for sorting (so yes, alphabetically and modified-date are options among others). Also, you can choose icon view in Finder windows and in 'View: View Options" choose that pictures are shown as thumbnails.
 
Regards to iphoto its all good, but its taking about a week to get my 10gb of photos to load into it and preview. Does anyone know a better way of doing it , or an alternative peice of software you can use which is alot quicker?

Cheers,
-Tom
 
Well. Like I said, maybe the thumbnail view is enough for you (set the icon size to a bigger size, too?). Or: Graphic Converter. Might have come with your Mac (Apple includes it in some configurations, I believe) or you can get it at VT - http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11559 - it's a pretty good graphics package that has a veeeeeeeery nice file browser for pictures.
 
In the Finder hit command (apple)+j to bring up display preferences for windows/the desktop. From here you can change icon sizes, text sizes. whether or not image priveiws are shown, enable/disable snapping/arrange by name date etc. Preferences for folders can be set on a folder by folder basis and/or a global basis.
I think your best plan if you're not going to use iPhoto is to set the prefs for your folders with photos in them to 128x128 pixel icons with preview and "arrange by name" enabled, or you could jsut hit command +a and open them all in Preview...
 
In Tiger, you can also just select 'em all and get 'slideshow' from the contextual menu. As that starts, use its menu to make the pix arrange themselves like Exposé windows. Nice way of looking at pictures.
 
Lt Major Burns said:
firstly, windows has improved the picture-usability of it's folder because, basically, it doesn't have iPhoto. have you much experiance with iTunes? in the way that it removes nearly all the need to go rooting around in folders. iPhoto is one of the finest ways to store, view and keep all your photo's organised. it completely removes the need for folder knowledge - use iPhoto. if you need a particular photo's file, just drag it out of the iPhoto window onto the desktop - it copies it and creates the file you need to the desktop for what ever temporary funtion you need for it, while the originial stays in it's very well organised folders system.

iphoto is great!.
Click to expand...

Completely and totally agree on that point. iPhoto is *THE* reason I bought my iBook. And it's just been getting better and better since.

Ok the Unix underpinnings were a contributing factor, but if I had to point to ONE thing that sealed the deal; iPhoto.
 
i have 2600 photo's in iphoto 4. starting to get a bit laggy, especially with a smooth scroll wheel. still the best by far in terms of looking at and storing and using photos. any other people got comparisons of iphoto version, mac rig and photo library size? and specifically speed of navigation within iphoto? is iphoto worth the upgrade yet?
 
I've gotta politely PARTIALLY disagree with the iPhoto comments.
i do LOVE iPhoto - but for my photographs. I personally consider photographs and graphics/web pictures as different things.

All my digital photographs (and those from friends of important events/family/etc) go into iPhoto for organizing.
But when it comes to various graphics, humorous web pictures, etc, etc, etc, I don't want them all loaded into iPhoto. I sometimes use CocoViewX for browsing those files wherever I've filed them on my hard drive. works pretty well.

better yet - check out the contextual menu (right click/CTRL click) plugin called Quickimage CM http://www.pixture.com/macosx.php
allows you to select one or many image files, 'right' click, and view them quickly. you can even edit them to a limited extent. VERY useful
 
Setting the finder to column view will show you a preview of whatever graphic file you click on, as well as other information such as the date modified and the size.
 
Thanks very much everyone for your help, i will give all of the above a go and see how i go , but i think you guys have answered what im after. Cheers!
 
I downloaded the quickview, which is good, but no way to slideshow images. Does anyone know of anything that can view stuff in a slideshow or if osx can?

Cheers,
-Tom
 
OS X can as soon as you get Tiger. (You just select the pix in the Finder, right-click on the selection and select 'slideshow'.) Or you import the pix into iPhoto. There you have nice options for slideshows.
 
JView does nice simple slideshows (without special transitions) and is a great over-all image browser. Better than Preview, and free! :)

There is also PhotoStickies for $12, an interesting little app with a wonderfully bizarre variety of features including slideshows.

Also PhotoGrid for $15, a "five star" utility with slideshows.

Not to mention Zebo Photo, yet another slideshower, only $7.50

And for $19.95, there is ViewIt, a very capable image editor which can display sequential images in full screen using keyboard commands, sorta like a slideshow.

There are more like these out there but these are the ones for which I can vouch. :)
 
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