Serif AlbumPlus 4 photo album software User manual
Below you will find brief information for photo album software AlbumPlus 4. This manual provides a comprehensive guide to using the software to manage, edit, and share your digital photos. Explore features such as creating albums, searching photos by tags, calendar views, photo editing tools, slideshow creation, printing, and backing up your collection. It includes details on adding photos from various sources like your computer and camera. The manual also covers essential concepts like assigning tags, rating photos, and using calendar views for organizing your photo library.
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AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion
How to Contact Us
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Technical Support e-mail [email protected]
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International
Please contact your local distributor/dealer. For further details please contact us at one of our phone numbers above.
Comments or other feedback
We want to hear from you! Please e-mail [email protected] with your ideas and comments!
This document, and the software described in it, is furnished under an end user License Agreement, which is included with the product. The agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses.
All Serif product names are trademarks of Serif (Europe) Ltd. Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged.
Serif AlbumPlus 4.0 © 2005 Serif (Europe) Ltd. All rights reserved.
Serif PhotoPlus 9.0 ©2003 Serif (Europe) Ltd.
Companies and names used in samples are fictitious.
Digital image content © 2005 JupiterImages Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Yahoo. © 2004 Yahoo! Inc.
Hotmail. © 2004 Microsoft Corporation.
Contents
Contents
Registration, Upgrades, and Support........................................................ 6
AlbumPlus system requirements....................................................... 7
What you need to know..................................................................... 7
Manual install/re-install...................................................................... 8
User Interface Reference ........................................................................ 11
AlbumView Mode ............................................................................ 14
YearView Mode ............................................................................... 15
MonthView Mode............................................................................. 16
DateView Mode ............................................................................... 17
Dialog Boxes ................................................................................... 20
Creating a New Album ............................................................................ 23
Bringing Photos into your Album............................................................. 25
Adding Photos from Disk................................................................. 26
Adding Photos from Camera or Scanner ........................................ 30
Changing Dates and Time ...................................................................... 42
Changing Time Zones ..................................................................... 43
Contents
Adding Comments to Photos .................................................................. 44
Copying and Moving Photos ................................................................... 46
Read only vs. Writeable Operation ................................................. 49
Setting Up Your Search Tags ................................................................. 53
By Photo Properties ........................................................................ 62
By File Type..................................................................................... 63
By Unassigned Status ..................................................................... 67
Viewing the Frequency Bar ..................................................................... 68
Changing Photo Order ............................................................................ 68
Using the Calendar Pane ........................................................................ 73
Yearly Timeline................................................................................ 73
Month-by-Month .............................................................................. 74
Using the Diary and Events Pane ........................................................... 75
Using the Diary ................................................................................ 75
Using Events ................................................................................... 76
Using the Calendar Pane ........................................................................ 81
Monthly Timeline ............................................................................. 81
Day-by-Day...................................................................................... 82
Using the Diary and Events Pane ........................................................... 83
Using the Diary ................................................................................ 83
Using Events ................................................................................... 84
Contents
Using the DateView Pane ....................................................................... 87
Understanding the Frequency Bar .................................................. 88
Reading the Histogram ........................................................................... 93
Cropping Photos.............................................................................. 95
Auto Contrast .................................................................................. 96
Auto Levels...................................................................................... 97
Auto Equalize .................................................................................. 97
Adjusting Brightness/Contrast ......................................................... 97
Darken/Lighten ................................................................................ 97
Adjusting Colour Cast...................................................................... 98
Adjusting Colour Saturation............................................................. 99
Fixing Red Eye .............................................................................. 100
Rotating/Flipping Photos ....................................................................... 101
Restoring from an Archive..................................................................... 108
Scheduling an Archive reminder ................................................... 109
Setting your Image Size ................................................................ 113
Setting the File type....................................................................... 113
Choosing standard or browser-based e-mail ................................ 114
Using Print Preview ....................................................................... 116
Setting a Layout Style ................................................................... 116
Using the Items Window................................................................ 119
12. Be a show off—Create a Slideshow
Making your Slideshow ......................................................................... 123
Contents
13. Movies, Audio and other File Formats
Importing Non-photo Files..................................................................... 130
Appendix A: AlbumPlus Advanced ....................................................... 135
Repair Album................................................................................. 136
File Formats................................................................................... 140
EXIF information in AlbumPlus...................................................... 141
Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts .......................................................... 142
1.
Welcome
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 2 Welcome
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 3 Welcome
AlbumPlus is the answer to managing your growing digital photographic library. Combining ease of use with sophisticated categorization, searching and editing facilities AlbumPlus makes the task of managing your photos a pleasure. With easy slideshow creation, emailing of photos to friends and families and an easy to use archival system to protect your precious collection AlbumPlus is the ideal product for managing your photo collection—retrieve photos of those special moments in your life in a single click—maybe that dream holiday or that first visit to your grandchild.
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AlbumPlus is designed to streamline digital photo management, with its powerful caching technology and supporting photo management tools. It possesses a stylish user interface with intuitive layout which can operate in several viewing modes.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 4 Welcome
AlbumPlus Features
Key features of AlbumPlus include:
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Photo Addition
Getting your collection into AlbumPlus is straightforward using the bulk import facility to add existing files from your hard disc or CD/DVD.
Alternatively import them directly from your camera, scanner, flash card etc. using AlbumPlus's comprehensive device support. AlbumPlus supports all major file types including video and includes support for over 150 Digital Camera RAW formats including Adobe DNG.
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Organize your Photos
The cornerstone of any digital photo management solution is the ability to categorize and organize photos to your very own unique requirements.
AlbumPlus's comprehensive tag system allows you to create as many categories and sub-categories as you wish without limit. Assigning tags is as easy as a single click of the mouse as is the rating of your best photos. Finding particular images is no problem using AlbumPlus's simple but powerful way of searching for single or multiple tags, a comprehensive set of Smart Tags allow for flexible searches on such items as text within comments, file type/size, or even a particular import session!
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Calendar Views
If creating and managing tags is not for you then AlbumPlus provides a comprehensive calendar-based system to record when photos were taken.
Simply select the year, month or day when the photos were taken and
AlbumPlus will present them to you. AlbumPlus can even double up as an electronic diary so you can record notes regarding important dates and events.
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Efficient Architecture
Designed from the ground up to be an efficient and responsive tool
AlbumPlus makes use of advanced multi-threaded architecture and sophisticated caching technologies to ensure that viewing and keeping your photos well organized is never a chore. For example importing of photos is completed in the background while you can continue categorizing, viewing and even editing other photos! Ideal when importing large numbers of photos.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 5 Welcome
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Viewing your Photos
Viewing your photo collection is a breeze with the flexible thumbnail displaying facilities. Dynamically alter the size of thumbnails and easily switch to view essential information displayed alongside each photo such as Comments, EXIF information, assigned tags and even histograms!
Double click any photo to quickly see a full screen version and double click again to go back to the thumbnail display. No matter what edits you make AlbumPlus automatically updates the thumbnails in real time.
Comprehensive in place editing makes updating comments convenient— you can even edit multiple comments at the same time!
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Photo Editing
AlbumPlus has all the essential editing functions built into its easy to use interface for correcting exposure/colour casts, cropping, sharpening, lossless rotation of images and removing red eye. Perform standard levels adjustments without having to open the image or use the friendly
Fix Photo Studio for more control. If you want more sophisticated editing then AlbumPlus is designed to work right alongside the award winning PhotoPlus to provide professional level editing facilities. Don't worry about editing your photos as AlbumPlus protects your digital assets by ensuring that any editing is always performed on a copy of the original and it's easy to revert any photo back to its original state, you can even reorganize your underlying directory structure for photos directly from AlbumPlus by using the "move to" and "copy to" actions.
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Backup and Restore
Ensuring you photos are safe and secure for many years to come is of vital importance and AlbumPlus does not disappoint here, allowing you to perform full or incremental backups to CD/DVD. The album itself is always backed up to ensure none of your information is lost should the very worst happen. Spanning backups across multiple discs is possible and straightforward for larger photo collections.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 6 Welcome
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Print your best Photos
Print copies of your favourite photos using the comprehensive printing support—create contact sheets, use paper saving templates for multiple copies or the contemporary print layouts to create compositions ready for display—not forgetting the standard single image sizes as well.
AlbumPlus's resizable print preview dialog makes arranging and previewing your printing projects a delight with the ability to view single and facing pages, auto rotation of images and automatically reflowing the images as you experiment with the different templates.
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Fun with Slideshows!
Show off you photos using AlbumPlus's comprehensive slideshow capabilities. Control the duration, transitions and background music to create compelling presentations—even include movies from your digital camera! Once you've created your slideshow, save it into your album to view over and over again—you can even preview the slideshow by hovering the mouse cursor over the slideshow thumbnail! Additionally,
AlbumPlus automatically tracks the categories of photos in the slideshow to ensure that you'll always be able to find your slideshow file! Share your photos by e-mailing them directly from within AlbumPlus with complete control over the image size and format to ensure quick and efficient delivery.
Movie and Audio Files
Any movies recorded on your video camera can be added to your album and placed alongside your photos—audio files are added by the same process. Cataloguing and search methods used for photos can also be applied equally to movies and audio files. Enjoy spectacular results when combining your movies, audio files and photos together in your very own multimedia slideshow.
Registration, Upgrades, and Support
If you see the Registration Wizard when you launch AlbumPlus, please take a moment to complete the registration process. Just call Serif toll-free and provide the installation number and code shown. We’ll give you a personalized registration number in return. Remember, if you need technical support please contact us. We aim to provide fast, friendly service and knowledgeable help.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 7 Welcome
Installation
AlbumPlus system requirements
AlbumPlus runs with Windows 98 SE or later, so you’ll need a PC setup which runs Windows adequately. If you need help installing Windows, or setting up your printer, see Windows documentation and help.
Minimum:
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IBM-compatible Pentium PC with CD-ROM drive and mouse (or other
Microsoft-compatible pointing device)
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Microsoft Windows® 98 SE, Me, 2000, or XP operating system
64MB RAM (Windows 98 SE), see manufacturer’s requirements for other operating systems
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130MB (recommended install) free hard disk space
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SVGA display (800x600 resolution, 16-bit colour or higher)
Additional disk re sources and memory are required when editing large and/or complex images.
Optional:
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Windows-compatible printer
Scanner and/or digital camera
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CD/DVD writer for arch iving
What you need to know
AlbumPlus is very easy to use. However, if you’re new to Windows computing, you will find it much easier if, before installing and using
AlbumPlus, you spend a little time becoming familiar with the Windows
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From the Wind ows desktop, click the Start button at the lower left and choose Help.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 8 Welcome
First-time install
To install AlbumPlus, simply insert the Program CD-ROM into your CD-
ROM drive. The AutoRun feature automatically starts the Setup process and all you need to do is select the AlbumPlus Install option and answer the onscreen questions. If the AutoRun does not start the install, use the manual install instructions below. The Setup routine adds the Serif AlbumPlus 4 program item to the Programs submenu of the Windows Start menu. An
AlbumPlus 4 directory containing the program and Companion as PDF is added to either an existing or newly created Serif Application directory.
Manual install/re-install
To re-install the software or to change any part of the installation at a later date, select Settings/Control Panel from the Windows Start menu and then click on the Add/Remove Programs icon. Make sure the correct CD-ROM is inserted into your CD-ROM drive, click the Install… button, and then simply follow the on-screen instructions.
2.
AlbumPlus
Essentials
Quick Start
Follow this step-by-step guide to some key features of AlbumPlus—we’ll create an album, perform searches, fix a photo, and make a slideshow.
1
Startup Wizard
Launch AlbumPlus to display the Startup Wizard— enter "MyFirstAlbum.sap" as your album name, but keep the save location as is (not shown). In the next screen, browse to the samples directory shown below
(in Search field). Click OK to add the sample wedding photos.
2 Assign Tags
In AlbumView Mode, you will now see your wedding photo thumbnails. Click Assign Tags in the Tag Pane, select your thumbnails (Ctrl-A) and drag and drop onto the predefined tag name “Weddings” in the Tag
Pane. This allows searching to be performed.
3 Search
Click the Search Tag in the Tag Pane, and then click the Weddings Tag—a magnifying glass appears
...along with your photos previously tagged as
“Weddings” (See Step 2).
4 Search Smart Tags
Search Smart Tags for other photo properties, such as
Ratings. Assign 5 stars to the above thumbnail by hovering the mouse over the thumbnail and clicking— assign 4 stars to the rest. Click the Rating box in the
Smart tags section, click on the fifth star at the top of the dialog and search for .
5 Combined Searches
Combine searches in Steps 3 and 4 by selecting
Wedding and Rating magnifying glasses. Select
, and modify the Rating search in Step 4 to search for only 4 stars (as shown). The result—all your wedding photos with 4 stars are displayed instead.
6 Viewing your photos
There are many ways in which you can view your photos—options include double-click, use of a zoom slider (shown) and step-through navigation buttons
on the Status Bar. Don’t forget the slideshow feature described in Step 8.
7 Fix your Photos 8 Making a Slideshow
Photo correction is simple in AlbumPlus with
Fix Photo Studio. Select a thumbnail and launch Fix
Photo from the main toolbar—Click the Crop Tool to crop an area of your displayed photo (as shown). Jump to the Sharpen tool to finish off your cropped photo.
Select all your thumbnails and choose Slideshow on the toolbar. Run through the wizard, pressing Next in each screen, before launching your slideshow—try the on-screen slideshow control to navigate though your photos.
Congratulations—you’ve completed your Quick Tour.
The Quick Tour has provided you with a hands-on introduction to some key
features of AlbumPlus. If you haven’t already done so, please see AlbumPlus
Features on p. 4 for a comprehensive list of features.
User Interface Reference
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The user interface is very intuitive but please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the different modes available within the user interface, i.e.
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AlbumView
YearView
MonthView
DateView
These provide you with different methods of viewing your photo albums according to your own taste. Each mode provides you with a very different look and feel to your workspace environment.
AlbumView Mode
This mode allows the user to assign tags and to search for photos on the basis of their previously assigned tags, e.g. “Rachel” or “Katie”. An easy-to-use
Tag Pane lets you click the tag name(s) of interest to display your matching photos in an adjacent main Photo Pane. Easy retrieval of your categorized photos makes this a key feature of AlbumPlus.
YearView Mode
In this mode, the main view is of a year calendar which can highlight when photos were taken in that year, diary dates and events. A supporting photo pane is provided along with a diary and events window.
MonthView Mode
As for YearView mode but the main view displays a calendar month. As an additional feature the date on which photos were taken will display a thumbnail of the first photo taken on that date.
DateView Mode
The DateView mode shows a main window with thumbnails ordered under date headings. A DateView pane, allows photos to be displayed in chronological order on the basis of their photo creation date.
Menus
The Menu bar in AlbumPlus offers a typical range of drop-down menu commands; some are standard to most programs, such as File>New,
File>Open, File>Save, Edit>Undo and so on, and some commands are of course specific to AlbumPlus functionality, such as View>AlbumView
Mode or Actions>Open in PhotoPlus.
Most menu options are also available via Keyboard Shortcuts which are
Accessing Menu options via Right-Click
Another series of menu options are not as visible as the toolbars and menu drop-downs. These are the right-click options available on any individual photo thumbnail. The options are intended for users who prefer right-click support when managing their album—some options are already available on the menu bar but some are only available via right-click, i.e.
Clear rating:
Time Zone:
Allows the ratings assignment of the selected photo(s) to be cleared.
Lets you fix the photo creation date on your photo (when your photo dates are wrong after
holidaying in different time zones). See p. 47.
Toolbars
Photo Management
This toolbar hosts essential management functions for control of your photos.
Thumbnail Management
This toolbar hosts some management functions particular to your photo thumbnails—Undo, Redo and Sort. The Sort icon displays a drop-down menu which allows your thumbnails to be sorted by Photo Time, Album
Time (added to album), File Creation Time, or File Modified Time. The sort order can be by ascending or descending time.
Status Bar
The Status Bar, located at the bottom of the AlbumPlus window, provides some useful information for assisting the user—the line is divided into several logical areas:
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Toggle between simple and standard thumbnail styles, view Exif information, item tags (shown selected), comments and histogram information in your Photo Pane.
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Dynamically view hints about your selected menu item or button.
Provides a navigator function, i.e.
This assists you when viewing/navigating your thumbnails.
zoom in/out of one or several photo thumbnails (to full screen) using the zoom icons or the zoom slider.
jumps to the first or last thumbnail in the album.
These navigation buttons step through your photos one by one.
Holding the button down with your mouse will accelerate the step-bystep selection.
The Status Bar can be switched off from the View menu.
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Fix Photo
Fix Photo is a powerful photo editing solution which makes up an important part of AlbumPlus. Its primary purpose is to make quick and easy but essential adjustments to your photos. The tool is accessible via the Fix Photo button on the toolbar or by right-clicking any photo thumbnail.
The Image Management tools allow you to perform zoom, rotation and flip actions.
Dialog Boxes
Dialog boxes can be resized at any time by dragging the bottom right corner of the box to a new size. AlbumPlus will remember your new dialog box sizes after not only closing the box, but after exiting AlbumPlus too.
3.
Getting Started
Creating a New Album
To help you get started quickly on your photo album, AlbumPlus comes equipped with a simple two-step Startup Wizard. This will set up your album file name and its location on your computer and will automatically add photos to your album if required.
When you launch AlbumPlus for the first time or select File>New... you will be presented with Step 1 of the Startup Wizard.
AlbumPlus remembers the previously open album. However, when you want to create a new album the Startup Wizard will always guide you through the process.
Step 1
The Startup Wizard firstly defines your album name which is based on a standard prefix “My Album” and, if the album name already exists, an additional “[0]”, “[1]” ,“[2]” etc. Of course, you can replace the album name with your own choice—as we’ll see later. Your album will always be saved in the Serif AlbumPlus (SAP) format.
Secondly, the wizard additionally lets you define your album save location.
You can either edit the directory name in the field or use the Browse... button to navigate and specify a new location. If using the former method, typing in the new location will automatically create a directory if it does not already exist.
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The Next>> button takes you to Step 2 of the Startup Wizard, concerned with searching for and then adding located photos into your album. This is optional—if you wish to add photos later simply click the OK button. The
Startup Wizard is then closed.
Step 2
This optional Step 2 lets you search in specific locations for files you wish to add to your album.
With the “Yes” radio button selected, Search lets you specify a search location by selecting a directory or choosing the Browse... button from the drop-down list (click the down arrow). The location could be a directory, fixed/removable drive, CD, DVD, digital camera etc.
When adding files from CD, DVD and digital cameras, you will be presented
with additional import dialogs. See Bringing Photos into your Album on p. 25 for more information.
The For option sets the type of files that will be searched for, i.e.
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Media Files – Image, Audio, or Video
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Image files only
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Audio files only
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Video files only
If you choose not to search and add files, you can click the “No” radio button.
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To create an A lbumPlus album:
1. Either use the Windows Start button to pop up the Start Menu and click on the Serif AlbumPlus 4 item (only applies to first run) or sele ct File>New in
AlbumPlus at any time. The Startup Wizard is displayed.
2. In the first step of the wizard, choose an album name of Photos2005.sap and a location for your proposed album file, e.g. C:\Photos\2005\. The directories will be created for you automatically if not already present.
3. In the second step of th e wizard, enable the Yes radio button.
4. In the Search field, select your Local Disk (C:) from the drop-down menu.
5. In the For field, select Image Files from the drop-down menu.
6. Click the OK button.
The Startup Wizard closes and the photos are added and displayed in your
Album Photo Pan e.
AlbumPlus will automatically reload the album that was last used. To open a
1. Go to the File menu in AlbumPlus.
2. Select Open… or Ctrl+O.
3. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the AlbumPlu s file (*.sap) you want to op en.
4. Select the file and click the Open button.
Bring ing Photos into your Album
There are two methods for bringing photos into your album. Both are available from the Add Photos icon in the Phot o Management toolbar, which can be cl icked to display a drop-down menu, i.
e.
Add photos from disk
Add photos from camera or scanner
The different methods are necessary to reflect the different ways in which
AlbumPlus can gather photos from different locations. As a rule of thumb, the former is used to bring photos into your album from hard disks, ne twork drives or from removable CD/D VD media. Alternatively, the latter is used to bring photos into your album from digital cameras, flash drives a nd
TWAIN-compatible scanners.
Photos can be added into your ph oto album at any time.
Addin g Photos from Disk
The procedure for addition of photos from hard disks and that for removable media (CDs, DVDs, etc.) differs slightly. For th e former, the photo addition is straightforward—files are always available. For the latter, an optional step is available to copy photos to your hard drive.
The addition or large numbers of photos may take so me time. To keep you informed of progress, a bar is displayed at the bottom of the screen during import. You can cancel photo addition at any time.
Photo addition is a background task which will not prevent you from using
AlbumPlus. If more th an one session has been initiated the first addition of files will be completed, then the second, etc. The progress bar will relate to each session in turn.
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To add p hotos from a hard disk :
1. Click on the icon in the top to olba r.
2. In the drop-down menu, select the Add photos from disk menu option.
Two procedures can be used—one for standard Windows importing of selected photos, the o ther for bulk addition of photos from all folders and sub-folders automatically.
For adding specific files:
3. In the displayed dialog box, use the Open button to navigate to the folder containing your photos.
4. Select one or more photos. Use Shift-click to select contiguous items. Ctrl-
Click to select non-c ontiguous items.
5. Click the Open button to import photos.
Or, for bulk addition:
3. Use the Open button to navigate to the parent folder above the folder containing your photos.
4. Highlight the folder. Use Shift-click to select contiguous items. Ctrl-Cli ck to select non-contiguous items.
5. Click the Get Photos button to import all photos from the highlighted folder(s), including all sub-folders (remember to check the
Sub Directories button if necessary).
CD Impor t
When a dding photos from with removable media, a CD Import dialog is used to manage photos that may not always be available.
Check the Copy item to hard drive option to copy photos onto the hard disk—this m akes the photos available at all times. If the box remains u nchecked, then photos are still added to your album but will remain on your
CD/DVD.
Check the Maintain directory structure option to reproduce the directory structure of the CD/DVD on the hard drive.
If you need to rename your files you can check the Rename box and enter a name in the Name field to replace the existing file names. For example, if
“Photo” is used in the Name field, then files will be named as Photo1.jpg,
Photo2.jpg, Photo3.jpg, etc.
Specify a Destination Folder. In the above example, the photo(s) will be copied to the \My Documents\My Pictures\Serif\ directory.
This copying process may also retrieve archived photos (see p. 105) back into
your current working environment. Remember to ensure that files are under control once copies are made.
To add photos from a CD/DVD:
1. Follow either the standard Windows or bulk procedure described above.
2. After selecting Open or Get Photos, the CD Import dialog is displayed.
Check the Copy item to hard drive option.
3. Specify a Destination Folder for your photos to be copied to. You can either edit the Folder name in the field or use the Browse... button to navigate and specify a new location. Select C:\Photos\2005\.
4. Click OK.
Autoplay
Computers with autoplay enabled will be able to detect any new photo content added to your computer. This would typically be when a CD or DVD is inserted into your CD/DVD reader. A dialog box will automatically be displayed if AlbumPlus was not launched.
1. Select the option Import Media into Photo Album. AlbumPlus is launched automatically.
2. The Open dialog box is displayed to allow your photos to be added. Note that
AlbumPlus has detected the photo locations automatically.
3. Follow the procedure described in “To add photos from a hard disk:” on p.
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Import Reports
Adding photos is a simple process. However, you may experience several problems during file addition which you are made aware of via an Import
Report dialog. These problems are:
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Duplicate Photos. A photo you are trying to add will not be added because it already exists in your album. The duplicate check is based on the file content and not the file name, type or path.
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Corrupt Photos. The added photo is corrupt and will not be added into your album. An example would be a WMF file with invalid header or excessive dimensions.
The dialog is only displayed if an error occurs. A tree display will indicate error counts for duplicate and corrupt photos.
In the above example, for Duplicate Photos, the parent photo listed above the child photo is not added to the album, as the child photo already exists. A photo may be a duplicate even when it has a different file name or location— photos are always identified by their content.
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Adding Photos from Camera or Scanner
Photos may be added into AlbumPlus from a camera or scanner at any time.
The process involves the transfer of photos from camera or scanner to a user– defined file directory and then the creation of a thumbnail of each photo.
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.
a v a i i l l a b l l e i i f f
To add photos from your ca mera or scanner:
1.
Click on the icon in the top t oolba r.
2. In the drop-down menu, select the Add photos from camera or
scanner menu option.
3. In the Acquire Photo(s) dialog, select a source for your files. The following example acquires a photo from a CanoScan Twain-compatible scanner.
4. Specify a Name and Folder location for your acquired photos to be placed.
Use the Browse button to select a new folder.
The entry in the Name field is used as a prefix in the file names of all added photos.
5. Click OK.
6. The Open dialog is displayed to allow your photos to be added. Note that
AlbumPlus has detected the file locations automatically.
4.
Managing your Photos
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 34 Managing your Photos
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 35 Managing your Photos
An essential component in making good photo albums is managing your photo content on a regular basis. Little and often is a good approach to take.
AlbumPlus contains a comprehensive range of management functions for your use:
•
Adding search tags *
•
Adding photo comments *
•
Thumbnail display
•
Changing photo order
•
Rotating/Flipping you r photos
•
Rating your photos
•
Changing photo dates
* These functions are specific to the AlbumView mode (see p. 51).
Selec ting Thumbnails
Before looking at each of the functions that can be used to manage your photos it’s worthwhile familiarizing yourself with the different options available for selecting thumbnails—thumbnail selection is one of the most common operations you will perform in Alb umPlus.
There are three main methods of selection:
•
Single click. If you hover over a thumbnail with your mouse, a thin border will appear around your thumbnail. A simple click on the thumbnail will make it selected. In any mode, a selected thumbna il will possess a light blue border around it.
•
Drag select. This can typically be used for selecting more than one thumbnail simultaneously. Hold you mouse button down and drag over your required thumbnails and release the mouse button.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 36 Managing your Photos
•
Use Select All from the Edit Menu (or use Ctrl-A).
Remember that you can use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select non-contiguous items or contiguous items, respectively. In addition, the Home and End buttons jump to the first and last thumbnails in a row, and the Ctrl-Home and
Ctrl-End buttons to the very first and last thumbnails in your displayed thumbnail list.
Alternatively, you can choose a function without selecting any photos at all.
AlbumPlus will simply assume that the rotate, print, or e-mail function will apply to all your currently displayed photos in your album. Just to confirm that this is really what you want to do a warning dialog is displayed, i.e.
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AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 37 Managing your Photos
Creating Tags
Getting started with AlbumPlus would not be complete without a mention of the tag feature within AlbumView mode.
A combination of creating search tags, assigning those tags to your photos and subsequent searching for those photos on the basis of the tag names gives you immediate photo retrieval (think of your tags as photo categories). A Tag
Pane is provided which performs two core functions—Assign Tags and
Search.
For now let’s just create a single tag in the Tag Pane before moving on. We’ll look at assigning tags and searching in the next chapter.
To create tags:
8. Go to AlbumView mode .
9. Select the radio button.
10. Select the button at the top of the left-hand Tag Pane.
11. In the New Tag dialog, the current tag structure is displayed. Expand or collapse the tag list by clicking on the or symbol, respectively.
12. Click on one of the existing tag names to highlight it. The new tag will be created under this tag name.
13. Type a new tag name in the Name: field, e.g.
14. Click OK.
A tag name “Rachel” is to be created under the highlighted tag name
“Children”.
For more detailed search tag information see Setting Up Your Search Tags on p. 53.
For photo searching, see Searching for Photos on p. 56.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 38 Managing your Photos
Thumbnail Styles
The photos that appear in any AlbumPlus mode will be displayed as thumbnails of the original picture. Thumbnails are very useful as they will give you a miniature snapshot of your original photos without having to view every full-size photo in turn. This will help you to move around your albums more efficiently and makes photo management so much easier.
To help you remember the file format that your thumbnail represents an icon will always be shown in the top left-hand corner of your thumbnail. Here’s a quick run down of the types you will expect to see:
Image File
Video File (with audio)
Video File (no audio)
Audio File
Unknown
Modified photo
Slideshow
If an operation is being performed on a photo, a padlock symbol may appear in the top-left-hand corner of the thumbnail (the thumbnail will also be greyed out). Once the operation is complete the item is unlocked and the padlock icon will disappear.
Several thumbnail styles can be used to display your thumbnails—Simple,
Standard, and Detailed.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 39 Managing your Photos
The Detailed thumbnail style can display the following information: Exif,
Tag (shown), Comments, or Histogram. All detailed thumbnail styles display the photo filename at the bottom of the thumbnail.
All thumbnail styles can be changed either from View>Thumbnail Styles or from the Status Bar. The default thumbnail style is Standard.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 40 Managing your Photos
To switch between Thumbnail Styles:
To switch to a different display style, click on any one of the tag buttons on the far left of the Status Bar. For example, to use the more detailed Tags thumbnail style (as shown above) click the Tags button.
Notice how the thumbnail now shows the assigned tags to the right of the thumbnail itself.
Resizing Thumbnails
The ability to resize your thumbnails gives you greater flexibility when managing you photos. Several resizing methods are available.
•
Click on the drag handle once at the bottom right corner of the thumbnail and drag the thumbnail to your chosen new thumbnail size.
•
Double-click the thumbnail or press Ctrl-Tab to resize it to full screen. If you double-click again, it will revert back to its original size.
•
Choose a pre-defined Thumbnail style and size from the View menu or via keyboard shortcuts. The styles are:
•
•
Simple
•
Standard
Detailed
Each option is further sub-divided to choose an accompanying display size (i.e., Small, Medium or L arge). Try keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-1 to
Ctrl-9 for each view in turn.
•
With a thumbnail selected, use the magnification slider in the Status B ar to zoom in or out. Alternatively, click on the zoom in and zoom o ut icons for magnification in increments. The aspect ratio for each thumbnail is maintained .
Refre sh Thumbnails
Refresh Status, available from the View menu, will perform a status update on all photos in the album. This can be used to locate greyed out thumbna ils
(representing broken links) which are no longer available to AlbumPlus.
Usually, a refresh is only performed automatically on thumbnails that app ear into view rather than on all thumbnails. The Auto refresh option, when enabled, will automatica lly update thumbnails when they appear into view by searching or scrolling.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 41 Managing your Photos
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Refresh Thumbnails, although rarely used, can be used to refresh the cache and thumbnails for all photos in your album.
Rating Your Photos
Any photo can be allocated its own star rating. This is really useful when you want to categorize your favourites—assign a rating to your photos
Ratings can be from one star to six stars (maximum); six stars would normally be allocated to your most favourite photos.
*
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e l e c t t e d t h u m b n a i l l ( s ) ) a n d
To rate a single photo:
1. In any mode, move your cursor directly above any photo thumbnail. You don’t need to select the thumbnail! The ratings setting is displayed as yellow stars as the cursor is moved over the ratings area. Use Ctrl-Click or Shift-
Click to select multiple or groups of thumbnails.
2. Set the required star rating by hovering over the rating that you want to assign.
3. Click the mouse button to assign.
In this example, three stars have been assigned to the photo.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 42 Managing your Photos
Changing Dates and T ime
In any t humbnail style (ex cept Simple), the photo thumbnail will display a date and time at the bottom of the thumbnail icon, e.g.
On of the following date/time types will be disp layed, depending on how the photos are sorted (see Changing Photo Order on p. 68).
•
•
Photo Time (time that photo was taken; from Exif)
Album Time (time photo added to album)
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File Creation Time (time copied to hard disk)
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File Modified Time
‘add ed to album’ dates and times are likely to be adjusted, i.e.
•
You may w ant a scanned photo to reflect the photo creation date and time the photo was taken rather than when it was scanned.
•
When on holiday or business, your digital camera’s time zone settings were not adjusted—meaning that the photo creation time is incorrect.
Imagine a holiday photo taken at night with a photo creation time set at
13:00:00!!
For information on how to search by date see Searching for Photos, By D ate on p . 62.
To change a photo date:
1. Click on the date disp lay in the bottom left-hand corner of the thumbnail. A day, month or year portion of the date will be highlighted depending on wh ere you click, e.g. for the day portion:
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 43 Managing your Photos
2. Enter a new value for the day, month or year to overwrite the current value.
3. Click away from the date on any part of the workspace to make the date change.
To chang e a photo time:
Follow the procedure above, but clic k on the time display in the bottom right-
Note that the 24-hr clock mode of operation is used.
Chang ing Time Zones
So y ou’re on holiday and in your excitement yo u forget to adjust the time settin gs on your digital camera upon arriva l—assuming you’ve gone som ewhere hot, sunny and far away. You’ve returned home to find that the da te and time on your photos are incorrect. Do n’t panic—it is possible, if you de sire, to adjust the Photo Creation Date on yo ur photos to reflect the correct tim e zone, by one of two methods:
• relative to the photo creation date itself (see below).
Or:
• by selecting a specific date and time.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 44 Managing your Photos
For example, the above dialog will fix photos wit h an incorrect date and time when taken on a holiday to Au stralia ( +11 hour s ahead of Greenwich Mean
Time). The adjustment is always mad e relative to th e photo’s creation date and time only.
Setting a specific date and time may be preferred if calculating the difference between the photo’s creation date and the required date is too com plicated, or if you know the exa ct date/time for yo ur photos, e.g. those from a New Year celebration.
Adding Comments to Photos
Why would you add comments? You may already be using tags to identify your photos (see Setting Up Your Search Tags on p. 53) but comments can add more detailed photo-specific notes about the file, e.g.
Type of Comment Example
Specific photo locations
People’s names appearing on a photo
Sydney.
Susan with Auntie Jean.
Alterations needed
Funny comments!
Fix brightness sometime.
Auntie bungee jumping.
If a thumbnail has comments associated with it, the comments mark er will be displayed in the top right-hand corner of the thumbnail (in standard or detailed thumbnail style)—if there is no comment marker shown this means that no comments a re associated. The thumbnail will also display “
No
Comments
”.
To disp lay the comment text, click once on the comment marker in the thu mbna il or select the Comment button in the Status Bar. Either method will disp lay your comments for all other thumbnails. d by hovering over the top right-hand corner of the an be clicked, allowing you to enter text into the resulting text box. Comme nts can be edited by the same process.
While it is very useful to be able to read the comments next to each thumbnail in the Photo Pane, the real power is in the ability to search all comments. See Searching for Photos, by Comments on p. 60.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 45 Managing your Photos
To add commen ts to photos:
1. Select one or multiple thumbnails in your Pho to Pane.
2. In the Photo Pane in Standard or Detai led modes, hover around the top of th e thumbnail to display the Comments ma rker.
3. Click on this icon.
4. Type your comment into the white text box, e.g.
5. Click away from the text b ox to save the comments.
The same comment can be applied simultaneously to more than one thumbnail, if the thumbnails have all been selected previously.
To view/e c
Sim ply click on the Comments button either in the Status Bar or at the top righ t of the thumbnail, and view/edit the existing text in the text box.
Vi ewing your Photos
The re are many ways in which you can view your photo thumbnails—from sim ple double-click, navigation buttons, opening in another program or
•
Thumbnails are great for seeing a snapshot of y our photo but how do you view your photo in its maximum size? You may have tried th is already but it’s as simple as double-clicking anywhere in the thumbnai l (or pressing Ctrl-Tab).
•
The Navigation buttons in the Status Bar allow you to step through your photos one by on e (either forwards or backwards). Try this when your photos are displaye d in full screen.
•
The photo can be launched in Serif PhotoPlus—especially if you wan t to perf orm some advanced editing of the photo.
•
Create a Slideshow. See Making your Slideshow on p. 123.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 46 Managing your Photos
To launc h a photo in Serif PhotoPlus:
1. Select the photo thumbnail in any m ode.
2. You can do one of two things:
•
Right-click then select Fix Ph oto>Open in PhotoPlus from the pop-up box to launch Serif Ph otoPlus (if installed). or:
•
Click the drop-down button on the FixPhoto button and choose the PhotoPlus option.
Another way of viewing photos is by slides how. See View your Slideshow on p. 125 for more information.
Editin g Photos
See Using Fix Photo on p. 94.
Copy ing and Moving Photos
Two useful functions are the ability to copy and move photos in your album .
Selecting Copy to Fo lder from the Actions menu copies the selected photo to another directory ( using the Browse to Folder dialog) unaffecting the location of the original photo.
The Move to Folder option moves the original photo to the location specified in the Browse to Fold er dialog.
Both functions are also available by right clicking on selected thumbnails.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 47 Managing your Photos
Deleting Photos
Photos can be removed from your album at any time by either right-clicking on a thumbnail and choosing Delete from the flyout menu, or by pressing the
Delete key on your keyboard.
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R o f f e i m t t !
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e m b e r t h a t y o u a r r e n o t d e l l e t i n g y o u r o r i i g i i n a l p h o t t o b u t t o n l l y a c o p y
File M anagement
M ost users would normally store and maintain their photos and AlbumPlus projects on the same hard drive on their computers, ensuring that backups are mad e. However, it’s also poss ible to manage photos stored on removable
This gives some interesting advantages to the user—the ability to manag e a
CD-based offline photo library without having to copy photos to hard drive
(using u p your valuable disk capacity!).
However , the following operations cannot be performed unle ss photos are made avai lable from your CDs.
•
Rea
d-only – Printing, creating slideshows, opening in Ser if PhotoPlus,
Rot ation and e-mailing
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Writeable – FixPhoto, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Equalize
To ma ke photos available again, an Insert CD(s) dialog is di splayed to prompt t he user to insert one or more CDs containing the un available items.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 48 Managing your Photos
Once the relevant CD is inserted into your CD drive the dialog will refresh automatically.
Before CD Insert After CD Insert Insert
“Aircraft”
CD
In the above example, unavailable items on two CDs, labeled Aircraft and
Fireworks, are listed. After i nserting the “Aircraft” CD the aircraft photos are made available (and remove d from the list) but photos on the “Fireworks”
CD are still unavailable.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 49 Managing your Photos
If y ou have many photos spread acros s multiple CDs/DVDs which are all cont ained within the same album, y ou may think that a “Catch-22” situation coul d exist—because there may be insuffi cient CD drives to make all your phot os available. AlbumPlus has a tr ick up its sleeve to overcome this! Any phot os made available are stored tem porarily so you can continue to insert then remove the requested CDs un til you have cleared all items in the Insert
CD dialog. It’s a powerful solution th at’s also very simple.
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Read onl y vs. Writeable Op eration
A d istinction was made previously b etween read-only and writeable ope rations. This is because there is an extra option available to the user when a w riteable operation is needed—to copy the photo from CD to hard disk.
This is because AlbumPlus needs to have the original photo at hand to perf orm writeable operations.
See Adding Photos from Disk on p. 26 for more information.
Setting Preferences
You can control global preferences from a Preferences dialog, available from the File menu. This will enable you to fine tune some settings to your likin g—ty pically you would set these up at the start of your project or the first time you launch AlbumPlus, changing them infrequently after this point.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 50 Managing your Photos
Show all warning messages: The Show All button is linked to the All
Displayed Photos dialog displayed when an action is invoked (e.g.,
Print) but no items are currently selected. It lets the user re-enable the
“Don’t ask this question again” option in the dialog again after it had previously been ticked. If the Show All button is greyed the above option is ticked.
Archive: Specifies a day interval period when you are prompted to archive your AlbumPlus project. If archiving is not required, untick the box.
Autosave: Sets the interval period between each autosave of your
AlbumPlus project file. If autosave is not required, untick the box.
Auto Update: Sets the interval period between each prompt to automatically update your program. The auto update enables maintenance releases to be downloaded from Serif. If auto update is not required, untick the box.
Audio/Video Preview: Enables or disables the previewing of audio or video thumbnails in your album. A Delay time will set a default number of seconds before a thumbnail preview is seen on hover over. If you have problems playing AVI files on your computer (e.g., codec issues), untick the check box.
5.
AlbumView Mode
The in-built flexibility of AlbumPlus lets you work in several modes. One of these modes is called AlbumView which allows you to firstly see all your photos (as thumbnails) at a glance but also to use a Tag Pane for tag assignment and powerful searching. Select the AlbumView icon in the toolbar.
Some simple management tasks can be performed to make the AlbumView mode operate most effectively. These tasks include:
•
Setting up search tags
•
Assigning comments to photos
•
Changing the photo order
Powerful search facilities allow you to locate photos by tags, comments, rating, history and by inherent photo properties.
Setting Up Your Search Tags
Before you can use one of the most powerful features of the AlbumView mode, i.e. Photo Searching—you need to create tag names and then assign tag names to your selected thumbnails. This is possible in a Tag Pane which operates in split-mode—one for the assignment of tags and the other for
searching (see Searching for Photos, By Tag on p. 57). You can set the mode
with a radio button, i.e.
For either mode, the Tag Pane will list all tag names as a hierarchical menu system. Think of your Tag Pane as a mini version of Windows explorer – you can create, modify and delete tags as well as reorder the contents.
Once you have decided your Tag Pane structure you can then assign tags to your thumbnails. This is possible by dragging and dropping thumbnail(s) onto your created tag, or by clicking the tag’s Assign button when thumbnails are selected.
Tags can be associated with any file type in AlbumPlus.
Your new album will be set up with a default tag structure that you can modify during album setup or afterwards. Most of the structure is self explanatory. However, Workflow contains tags which allow you to sort your photos into those which need reviewing, fixing, printing, and/or sharing.
To navigate the search tags:
The and icons will expand or collapse the entries, respectively. Click on any one of these icons in the Tag Pane.
To create search tags:
1. Select the New Tag button at the top of the Tag Pane.
2. In the New Tag dialog, the current tag structure is displayed (see below).
Expand or collapse the tag list by clicking on the or symbol, respectively.
3. Click on one of the existing tag names to highlight it. The new tag will be created under this tag name.
4. Type in a Name for the New Tag.
For example:
5. Click OK.
A tag name “Rachel” is to be created under the highlighted tag name
“Children”.
To remove a search tag from Tag Pane:
Remove any entry by clicking on the tag name and selecting the button at the top of the Tag Pane.
To reorganize search tags:
If you are concerned about your new tag structure there’s no need to be. You can reorganize your tags by clicking on the tag name and dragging the tag entry to its new location while holding down the mouse button.
To modify a search tag:
1. Double-click on a tag name in the Tag Pane to highlight the text.
2. Type over the text to rename the tag.
To assign a search tag to a thumbnail:
1. Select the thumbnail(s) which are to have the same tag, e.g. all wedding photos. A grey border will appear around the thumbnail(s).
2. Hold down the mouse button and drag the thumbnail(s) on top of the tag name in the Tag Pane. Note that the Assign button next to the tag name displays a light bulb .
Your assigned photos can then be searched for. See Searching for Photos, By
Removing tags from thumbnails:
1. To clear selected tags, select your thumbnails.
2. Click the button adjacent to the tag you wish to be unassigned from the thumbnails, leaving an empty box.
Alternatively, to clear all tags, with your thumbnails selected you can click on the box next to the tag name “Unassigned”. A light bulb will appear and your unassigned thumbnails will then display the text “No tags”.
Searching for Photos
Searching for photos is exclusively performed from the Tag Pane in
AlbumView mode. As mentioned previously, the Tag Pane operates in splitmodes—Assign Tags and Search, i.e.
The Search radio button must always be enabled to “switch on” the search capability. Two tag types are supported.
Tag Search—Photos are retrieved By Tag from your album by enabling previously assigned tags.
Smart Tag Search—Photos are retrieved from your album by enabling smart tags, appended to the end of the Tag Pane (only seen in Search mode). These operate slightly differently to the search tags shown before them as they perform search on inherent properties.
Search options are:
•
Text. This searches the comments, file names, paths, and slideshow names associated with your photos.
•
•
Rating. Searches for personal ratings assigned to your photos.
Photo. Searches for inherent photo properties.
•
File Type. This searches for different file formats.
•
Date. This searches the dates associated with your photo fil es.
•
History. Retrieves photos from photo import session logs.
By Ta g
The main search method is by tag search using the tags you have assigned to
your photos (see Setting Up Your Search Tags on p. 53). A search is carried
out by tag selection in the Tag Menu. To see wedding photos, simply click the box next to the Weddings name .
Some Tags are more general such as Events, Family and Friends etc. By clicking on these more general tags you will display all photos who have been assigned tags that reside beneath the general tag. In fact you’ll notice that the “sub tags” are greyed out. Album Plus assumes you want to see all
Events, or all Family and Friends.
To search by tag:
1. Check that yo u are in the AlbumView mode. The highlighted.
2. Enable the Search mode radi o button.
icon must be
3. Decide upon a tag name to search for. Use the frequency bar to show which tags have photos assigned to them. If necessary, expand the tag list to see the tag you want to search for.
Th is will display the tags that ex ist under the tag “Events”.
4. Click on the box next to that tag t o show a magnifying glass, e.g.
5. Your tagged wedding photos will be displayed in the adjacent Photo Pane, e.g.
You may wish to continue adding photos, create and assign your own tags, and perform more detailed searches by using combinations of selected tags.
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Match Al l/Any Tags
AlbumPlus does a great job in displaying photos with single tag names as just described but more p owerful searches can be made using the Match All Tags or
Match Any T
ags options. AlbumPlus can only be set to one or the othe r—never both.
Where any photo has to contain all selected tags to be displayed.
Where any photo has to contain at least one of the selected tags to be displayed.
Whichever is selected will be used continually unless changed. It is important to ensure that the correct setting is enabled.
As an example, imagine three types of family photos, maybe including two daughters:
•
Rachel only.
•
Katie only.
•
Rachel + Katie on the same photo.
If you had tags appropriately assigned to your photos you can search for each of these types. Here’s how you do it.
To search with the Match Any Tag:
Using the above example, you need to create a menu structure of Family and
Friends>Kids and search for separate photos of two daughters, Rachel and
Katie.
1. Ensure the Match Any Tag button is enabled. If not, click on it once to select.
2. Click on the box next to the “Rachel” tag to show a magnifying glass. Note that “Rachel only” photos are shown initially.
3. Do the same for the “Katie” tag to show:
The photos displayed will show Katie only, Rachel only and
Rachel+Katie together.
To search with the Match All Tag:
Using the same example—you want to search for photos of Katie and Rachel, but only ones with both daughters on the same photo.
1. Ensure the Match All Tag button is enabled. If not, click on it once to select.
2. Click on the box next to the “Rachel” tag to show a magnifying glass. Note that “Rachel only” and photos are shown initially.
3. Do the same for the “Katie” tag.
The photos displayed will only be those with Rachel and Katie on them.
By Text
You may have added comments to your photos (see p. 44)—maybe you’ve
added location details to each holiday photo, or included weather conditions.
These added comments can be searched by building up a search list of words or phrases in a Filter by Text dialog. The search can also be performed on directory paths, file names and/or slideshow names associated with your photos.
The search can be made for all or any words listed in the search list.
To search for word(s) or phrase(s):
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the screen, and enable the Search button.
2. In the Smart Tags section, Select on the Text tag row to launch the Filter
by Text
dialog.
3. Type a word or phrase into the Specify words.. text box.
4. Click the Add button to add it to the Search List. The inverted commas are added automatically.
5. Repeat Step 3 to add additional words or phrases to the search list.
6. For multiple words and phrases, choose either Search for all words or
Search for any words.
7. Select what you wish to search on—comments, pathname, filename or slideshow. In this instance, check the Comments box. Also decide if the search is case sensitive.
8. Select the OK button.
9. Any photos with matching text are displayed in the Photo Pane.
For example:
This search is being set up to search for photos with the comment text
“confetti”. The word “kiss” is to be added to the Search List which will then be used to search for all photos with “confetti” or “kiss” in the photo comments.
By Rating
The rating level for any photo can be searched for in a Filter by Rating dialog. The Rating box is used to set the rating level for the search. The
Search box lets you select a radio button to set the search rating criteria.
Stars can be assigned to photos as described in Rating Your Photos on p. 41.
To search for photo ratings:
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the screen, and enable the Search button.
2. In the Smart Tags section, Select on the Rating tag row to launch the
Filter by Rating
dialog.
3. In the Rating box, click on a star to set the rating level. Note how the search criteria in the Search box updates to reflect the rating level selected.
4. In the Search box, set your search rating criteria.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Any photos which match the search criteria are displayed in the Photo Pane.
For example:
This would show your very best photos (six stars only) in your album.
*
U n s e i i n w g p t t h h o e t t o
“
“ s
S t t h h o a w t t y a l l o l l u u n h r r a a v t t e e d n o i i t t t t e m p r r s o
”
” c e o s p s t t e i i o d n y i i s e t t
.
.
a g r r e a t t w a y o f f s e a r r c h i i n g f f o r r
By Photo Properties
The file properties for any photo can be searched on in a Filter by
Properties dialog. The minimum and/or maximum levels for width (pixels), height (pixels), Bits Per Pixel (BPP), resolution and file size (Kbytes) can be set independently. The range set will include the actual value proposed for minimum or maximum, as well as the values above or below.
To search for properties:
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the screen, and enable the Search button.
2. In the Smart Tags section, Select on the Photo tag row to launch the
Filter by Properties
dialog.
3. In the File attributes box, click on a check box (minimum, maximum or both) next to the property you want to search on.
4. Set a value. Use the up/down arrows or type over to change the current value next to the check box.
5. Click the OK button.
6. Any photos which match the search criteria are displayed in the Photo Pane.
For example:
This will show you all photos in your album in excess of 5 Megabytes. This will enable you to keep track of your high resolution digital photos— especially useful if you are running out of hard disk space!
By File Type
The following file formats can be searched for in a
Filter by File Type
dialog.
The dialog shows a list of supported file formats alongside selectable check boxes, i.e.
Image
Audio
Other
BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF (includes animated), TIF,
RAW, Other
*
MPEG,
MP3, WAV, MIDI, Other
*
Slideshow (AlbumPlus slideshow format), Serif, Broken links, Unrecognised formats.
•
The Slideshow option, when ticked, will show only slideshow files previously created within your album.
•
The Serif option will filter any project files for AlbumPlus,
PhotoPlus, PagePlus, and DrawPlus, and many more Serif products.
•
The Broken links option will show links that have been broken between the thumbnail and the original file. This may be because the photo has been moved away from its original location. An automatic refresh of your links between thumbnail and photo is made before the sear ch is made. A manual Refresh (F5) can be applied at any time during browsing.
•
Unrecognised formats will show files that cannot be displayed as thumbnails in AlbumPlu s. Word processing documents, text files and other non-photo files are examples. Note that unrecognised files can still be stored in
AlbumPlus and can be launched via their associated application.
*
It is possible to search for more unusual file formats with the Other option.
As a general rule—if the file can be viewed or played in your Windows ap plication the file will be thumbnailed in AlbumPlus.
A fu ll list of file formats that ca n be added to AlbumPlus is provided on p.
13 6.
To search by File Type:
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the scre en, and enable the Search bu tton.
2. In th e Smart Tags section, Select on the File Type tag row to launch the
Filter by File Type dialog.
3. Select the photo format yo u want to search for. For example, a search for photos in GIF format would look like:
4. Click the OK button.
5. The Photo Pane will display only thumbnails in GIF format.
*
R s a e m m e e m s e b a e r r r r c t t h h
.
.
a t t y o u c a n s e l l e c t t m o r r e t t h a n o n e p h o t t o f f o r r m a t t d u r r i i n g t t h e
By Date
A Filter by Date dialog can be used to search for photos taken, files created or f iles mod ified most recently or over a specified time period. In addition,
To search by date:
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the screen, and enab le the Search button.
2. In the Smart Tags secti on, Select
by Date
dialog.
on the Date tag row to launch the Filter
3. Tick the check box next to the type of date search you want to use, i.e.
Photo: Photo Time (time that ph oto was taken; from Exif)
Album: Album Time (time photo adde d t o album)
Creation: File Creation Time (time copie d to hard disk)
Modified: File modification Time
4. Click the OK button.
5. The Photo Pane will display thumbnails that match the search criteria.
Some date search examples include:
Searches for any photos that were taken in the last two weeks. For photos image creation store d in
EXIF information – t his is not the file creation date.
Searches for photos added to the current album between the dates 23 rd
November and 26 th
November 2004.
Searches for photos created in the last week.
This is the file creation date as displayed in
Windows file properties.
Searches for photos modified in the last year.
This is the file modification date as displayed in Windows file properties.
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A e n l l y e v o a f f n t t t t h c e h a e b c o k v b e o d x a e s t t s .
.
e s e a r r c h e s c a n b e c o m b i i n e d t t o g e t t h e r r b y e n a b l l i i n g t t h e
By Hi story
A F ilter by History dialog displa ys a chronological log of all photo transfers made in to your photo album. This is especially useful for ev ent-related pictures such as weddings or holidays as the photos are all li kely to be imported in t he same session. Any log entry can be selected to view the impor ted photos for that date and time.
You ma y also want to use this feature to display photos recen tly added so that you can assign ratings and comments to them.
To search by history:
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the screen, and enable the Search button.
2. In the Smart Tags section, Select on the History tag row to launch th e
Filter by History
dialog, e.g.
The display shows the Time of import, the Source directory from whi ch the photos were imported and an Images import count (15/17 means 15 photos were successfully imported out of 17—two photos may have been duplicates).
3. Highlight an entry in the list (as above). Remember multiple log entries can be grouped or selected one-by-one with the Shift-click or Ctrl-click key, respectively.
4. Click the OK button.
5. The Photo Pane will display thumbnails that match the search criteria.
The Clear button deselects any highlighted log entries. This means that filtering will not take place when the OK button is selected.
If thumbnails have been deleted or have had their “added to album” date modified then there may be a discrepancy between the number or date of the photos displayed in the log information and those shown in the Photo Pane.
*
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L f r r o o g m e t t n h t t r r e i i e a s l l b a u r r e m .
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.
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By Unas signed Status
This search lets you view the photos that you have not assigned any tags to.
This can be used to se parate your "processed" photos from "unprocessed" photos.
To view unassigned photos:
1. Go to the Tag Pane at the left-hand side of the screen, and enable the Search button.
2. Click on the box next to the “Unassigned” tag to show a magnifying glass, i.e.
3. Your unassigned photos will display in the Photo Pane. These photos are ready for cataloguing.
As you process your photos you can keep checking their unassigned status by using this method.
Viewing the Frequency Bar
It is often useful to see the number of photos which possess the same inherent or assigned properties whether it is the same tag name, rating, file type, etc.
AlbumPlus can do this quickly by use of a Frequency Bar.
The bar is an integral part of the Tag Pane and provides a visual indication, both as a bar and pop-up box, of the number of photos with a particular property out of the total number of photos in the current album.
The blue markers on the bar indicate the photos that match the current criteria. This visual indication is not exact but gives you a proportional snapshot of the current assignments, i.e. a bar displayed for “5 out of 10 photos” would be the same as that for “450 out of 900 photos”.
A pop-up box, displayed by hovering over the frequency bar, can be used for a more exact analysis, e.g. in the above example, 44 photos may have the
“Wedding” tag assigned to them out a total of 75 photos in your album.
Changing Photo Order
•
•
•
•
The thumbnails displayed in AlbumView mode can be sorted in chronological or reverse chronological order. This can be carried out on the following sort types:
Photo Time (time that photo was taken; from Exif)
Album Time (time photo added to album)
File Creation Time (time copied to hard disk)
File Modified Time
The file date and times are displayed underneath each photo in Standard and
Detailed thumbnail displays. They will automatically change according to the sort type selected.
Photos can be ordered in ascending order which shows the oldest photos first and descending order which shows the newest.
To change phot o order:
1. Click on the Sort icon in the Toolbar to display a drop-down sort menu.
The example shows thumbnails ordered by Photo Time (i.e., creation date) from oldest to newest.
2. Select a different sort typ e, e.g. File Creation Time. Note how your thu mbnails will now show f ile creation dates rather than the Photo Time.
3. Op tionally, go back to th e drop-down menu and select Descending, i.e.
4. The Photo Pane will now display thumbnails ordered by file creation time
(newest to oldest).
6.
YearView Mode
The YearView mode provides you with a different way of viewing
AlbumPlus. Instead of a photo searching environment as in AlbumView mode, the mode displays a Year calendar which visually indicates diary entries, events and photos and other photos linked to your calendar dates.
Three panes are used in YearView mode.
•
Calendar Pane. The calendar year is displayed in a year-to-view arrangement.
•
Photo Pane. A minimized Photo window similar to that shown in the
AlbumView mode. Photos are grouped under date headings.
•
Diary and Events Pane. An input area to add, edit or view your diary entries and events.
Using the Calendar Pane
Yearly Timeline
If you are building up a large photo album your photos may cover many years. AlbumPlus lets you navigate around the years with a timeline slider located at the top of the Pane.
Click on the year of interest and the slider moves to that year.
Alternatively, click the arrows at either end of the timeline to move along the timeline year by year. The buttons at either end, when clicked, display any years not currently visible on the timeline which have photos associated.
If you hover over the year a pop-up box displays a count of photos, events and diaries associated with that year. Note the green frequency blocks above the years 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005. These provide a visual indication, like a histogram, of the number of photos stored under that year (relative to the visible year which contains the most photos). This aid helps you to focus on years in which photos have been stored. The DateView mode, described in the next chapter, displays frequency blocks for each month in a similar manner.
To jump to another year, double-click on any Year button to display a Jump
to Year dialog.
Month-by-Month
The YearView Pane shows a 4 x 3 month grid by default. Each month is displayed in columnar style by week day.
For example:
You’ll notice that dates are marked throughout the month, Let’s look at each of these:
(in red)
1st August has an associated Event.
(in orange)
(in dark blue)
11 th
August has associated photo(s), movie(s) or audio file(s). Also applies to 28 th
August.
15 th
August has an associated diary entry.
(in pale blue)
13 th
August is the date currently highlighted with the cursor.
The calendar will automatically show markers for photos, movies, audio and other photos. The date shown will be the photo creation date (Date Picture
Taken). If no photo creation date is available the file creation date is used instead.
It is possible for the dates for a diary entry, event and photo to coincide.
AlbumPlus simply overlays the markers on the displayed date, e.g.
To view a photo:
In the Calendar Pane, click once on a date marker, e.g. for 11 th
August.
The Photo Pane will jump to the photos stored under that date. Double-click on the photo thumbnail in the Photo Pane to display it at its maximum size.
Using the Photo Pane
Photo thumbnails are arranged under banners displaying their photo creation date. This chronological display style is a very useful way of moving through photos year by year.
It is possible to alter thumbnail views. See Thumbnail Styles on p. 37 for
more information. However, it is not possible to add tags, comments or use the histogram function in YearView mode.
Using the Diary and Events Pane
Diary entries and events are additional features available in the YearView mode. These take advantage of the displayed yearly calendar by allowing diary and event markers, including statutory holidays, to be displayed throughout the calendar year.
Using the Diary
Diary entries can be added, edited, displayed and deleted within the
YearView mode. There is no need to save a diary entry as this is done automatically for you.
•
•
Some examples of diary entries could be:
•
25 th
Wedding anniversary.
Wedding with Auntie Susan.
Holiday (Day 2): Went snorkelling on the Santa Rosa peninsula. Came face to face with a shark. Left water quickly!
•
Car serviced at Walmers Garage.
To add a diary entry:
1. Ensure the YearView Mode is displayed.
2. Click on a diary date in your year calendar to mark the date, e.g. .
3. Select the Diary tab to display a Diary text entry box.
4. Type your diary entry into the box.
5. Click away from the text box to save the diary ent ry.
6. Check that your diary marker is present, i.e. .
To edit a y
1. Click on the diary ma rker in your year calendar.
2. Select the Diary tab to display a Diary text entry box.
3. Edit your diary entry text in the box.
4. Click awa y from the text box to save the edited diary entry.
To delete a diary entry:
Simply click on the diary marker and delete the text in the Diary text entry box. Click aw ay and the marker will disappear for the calendar.
To view a diary entry:
With in y our calendar view, click on any encircled date marked in blue, i.e.
or . This will display the diary entry in the Diary text entry box.
Using Events
As for diary entries, events can be created and displayed in YearView mode.
The events function can be applied to almost any date-related activity, whether it is a birthday, paying the milk or even the mortgage! Think of these as visual reminders for your calendar.
You ha ve the flexibility to specify a single date, range of dates or recurring dates.
It is also possible to switch on or off holiday events built into AlbumPlus.
Holiday events include bank holiday and reminders of important days throughout the year. By default, AlbumPlus will provide a standard set of bank holidays plus some other key dates.
To add an Event:
1. Click on a date in your year calendar, e.g. .
2. Select the Events tab to display an Events display box.
3. Click the New Event button to display an Event dialog.
4. In the dialog add an event Description.
5. For a recurring event, check the Repeat box and select a frequency (Daily,
Monthly or Yearly) and a number of days. If you need to set your event to be infinite, click the symbol. Otherwise, leave the Repeat box unchecked.
For example, to set an event up for an interesting weekend:
So, you’re off to the Nottingham Beer Festival from the 15th October 2005.
The event lasts for four days (first day plus three repeat days). Good luck!
Your year calendar will show, under October, the following:
To edit an event:
1. Click on a date in your year calendar, e.g. .
2. Select the Events tab to display an Events display box.
3. Click once on the highlighted event or select .
4. Edit your Event information in the Event dialogue box.
5. Click the OK button to save your changes.
To delete an event entry:
Simply click on the event marker and delete the event entry in the Event dialog by selecting the Delete button.
To view an event entry:
1. Within your calendar view, click on any encircled date marked in red, i.e.
or .
2. This will display the event entry in the Event dialog.
Using Holiday Events
Generally speaking you will normally just use the standard set of dates provided by AlbumPlus. However, you can switch on or off holiday events in a Holiday Events dialog, accessible via the Edit Holidays button.
Either check or uncheck events you wish to be displayed on your calendar. At any time you can use the Reset UK or Reset US buttons to revert back to default settings.
7.
MonthView Mode
The MonthView mode is similar to the YearView mode but is based on a monthly calendar display rather than a yearly calendar. A unique display feature is the display of photo thumbnails against their photo creation dates in the monthly calendar.
Three panes are also used in MonthView mode. These are:
•
Calendar Pane. The calendar year is displayed in a month-to-view arrangement.
•
Photo Pane. A minimized Photo window similar to that shown in the
AlbumView mode. Photos are grouped under date headings.
•
Diary and Events Pane. An input area to add, edit and view your diary entries and events.
Using the Calendar Pane
Monthly Timeline
AlbumPlus lets you navigate around the months of the year with a timeline slider located at the top of the Pane.
Click on the month of interest and the slider moves to that month.
Alternatively, click the arrows at either end of the timeline to move along the timeline month by month. The buttons at either end, when clicked, display any months not currently visible on the timeline which have photos associated.
If you hover over the month a pop-up box displays a count of photos, events and diaries associated with that month. Note the green frequency blocks above the months above. These provide a visual indication, like a histogram, of the number of photos stored under that month (relative to the visible month which contains the most photos). This aid helps you to focus on months in which photos have been stored.
To jump to another month, double-click on any month button to display a
Jump to Year and Month dialog.
Day-by-Day
The calendar pane shows a whole month in the display. The month is displayed in columnar style by week day, i.e.
Some key differences from the month display in YearView mode are:
•
Photo thumbnails are stacked under their photo creation date. If no photo creation date is available the file creation date is used instead.
•
The full event text is displayed on the calendar, e.g. Remembrance Day.
•
A diary entry is indicated with a marker in the top right-hand corner of the calendar date tab.
It is possible for the dates for a photo, event and diary entry to coincide.
AlbumPlus simply gives precedence to the thumbnail but displays visual event and diary markers above the thumbnail, e.g.
Click on the event or diary marker to read the associated text in the Diary and
Events Pane. Photos with the same photo creation date are stored under the same calendar date in MonthView mode.
To view a photo:
In the Calendar Pane, click on a thumbnail of interest. Go to the Photo Pane to automatically display the photos for that date.
Using the Photo Pane
Photo thumbnails are arranged under banners displaying their photo creation date. This chronological display style is a very useful way of moving through photos month by month.
It is possible to alter thumbnail views. See Thumbnail Styles on p. 38 for
more information. However, it is not possible to add tags, comments or use the histogram function in MonthView mode.
Using the Diary and Events Pane
The method for creation, editing and deletion of diary entries and events is
the same as for the YearView mode. See Using the Diary and Events Pane on p. 75.
However, viewing the diary and events is slightly different in MonthView mode.
Using the Diary
To view a diary entry:
1. Go to MonthView mode.
2. Locate a date with an associated diary entry. A marker should be displayed in the top right of the date tab.
3. Click on the marker.
4. This will display the diary entry in the Diary text entry box.
The diary marker will only be shown on a thumbnail if a diary entry exists.
Using Events
To view an event entry:
1. Go to MonthView mode.
2. Locate a date with an associated event entry. A marker should be displayed in the top left of the date tab.
3. Click on the marker.
4. This will display the event entry listed in the Events Display box and on the date itself.
The events marker will only be shown on a thumbnail if an events entry exists.
8.
DateView Mode
The DateView mode continues the concept of YearView and MonthView modes by displaying photo thumbnails by date. However, the major feature of this mode is that it allows you to see your entire photo history in chronological order.
Two panes are used in DateView mode. These are:
•
DateView Pane. A Pane which allows powerful date navigation throughout your album. Year, month and date can be selected to locate your photos quickly.
•
Photo Pane. A Photo window with thumbnails grouped under actual date headings. These are displayed in reverse chronological order.
Using the DateView Pane
The main method for locating photos in DateView mode is by use of the
Dateview pane. AlbumPlus automatically creates a menu which is structured on the year, month and specific date of the photos within the album. If photos are imported into your album then the Dateview pane is automatically refreshed to reflect the creation dates of the new photos. Years, months and days which do not have any photos associated are not displayed.
To navigate by date:
1. Check that you are in DateView mode.
2. In the Dateview pane on the left-hand side of the screen, click on the year in which the photo was taken, e.g. 2004.
Months are shown, indented under the year. Note that the Year icon has changed from to .
3. Click on the month in which the photo was taken, e.g. August.
The days in which photos have been created are shown.
4. Click on the day in which the photo was taken.
5. The matching photos are displayed at the top of the photo pane.
Understanding the Frequency Bar
The DateView frequency bar operates in a similar way to that used in the
AlbumView Tag Pane. The bar is used as a visual indication, both as a bar and a pop-up box, of the number of photos of the same:
• date within the month.
• month within the year.
• year within the album.
The blue markers on the bar indicate the photos that match the current criteria. This visual indication is not exact but gives you a proportional snapshot of the current assignments, i.e. a bar displayed for “5 out of 14 photos” would be the same as that for “15 out of 42 photos”.
The pop-up box can be used for a more exact analysis. Hover your mouse over the frequency bar to display the box.
In the above example, five photos are dated 2 nd
August out of a total of 14 taken in August (the others were taken on 4 th
, 12 th
and 30 th
August). The total photo count refers to the month total and not the album total.
From th e same album, this example sh ows that the 14 photos taken in August made up a total of 65 taken for the year 2004.
Finally, we can see that the 65 photos taken in 2004 made up an album total of 75 photos.
Using the Photo Pane
The Pho to Pane arranges all of your photos according t o the sort order that is previous ly set in the AlbumView mode. If you want to reorder your photos simply retu rn to AlbumView mode, alter the sort orde r and display the
DateView m ode again.
The phot os are separated by a heading also containing t he photo creation date. Fo r example, for the 22 nd
November.
It is possible to alter thumbnail views (see Thumbnail Styles on p. 38), add comments and use the histogram in this mode.
To view a photo:
In the Photo Pane, double-click on a photo to display at maximum size.
9.
Manipulating Photos
It’s highly likely that at some time or another the photos you spent valuable time taking have not turned out as well as you had expected. Don’t worry—
AlbumPlus supports several photo editing operations that can radically improve your end results.
We’ll look at the following photo colour correction methods, i.e.
•
Fix Photo
•
Auto Contrast
•
Auto Levels
•
Auto Equalize
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.
T r r y r w o r k .
Reading the Histogram
Histograms can be used to view the Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B) and composite (RGB) channels for the current photo. The histogram does not allow adjustment of the image but is useful for evaluating the colour deficiencies. You can see at a glance if your photos are over exposed or underexposed. You may then wish to apply an adjustment with the availabl e
Fix Photo tool, Auto Contrast, Auto Levels or Auto Equaliz e tools, or use
Serif PhotoPlus for more advanced image editing options.
See the AlbumPlus Online Help System for interpretation of histograms.
To read t h
1. Select a thumbnail from the Ph oto Pa ne.
2. Click on the Histogram button on the Status Bar. Note that the histogram will now display to the right of the thumbnail. Resize the thu mbnail to provide a b etter view of the histogram if necessary.
3. If necessary, adjust the photo with an appropriate editing tool.
Using Fix Photo
Fix Photo, a powerful photo correction solution, can be used to perform image correction within AlbumPlus. The tools in Fix Photo will get the very best out of your photo sets without affecting your original photo.
Fix Photo can be launched by right-clicking any thumbnail and selecting Fix Photo>Studio. Alternatively, select the Fix Photo icon from the Fix Photo drop-down menu on toolbar.
The Fix Photo user interface typically consists of a main Photo Pane,
Function Select toolbar and an Image Adjustment pane with supporting tools.
This chapter describes each tool in turn—supporting samples showing how the tools can correct photos are available in the AlbumPlus Online Help.
The Image Adjustment Pane changes depending on which function is selected, i.e. the tools for adjusting brightness will differ from those for fixing red eye.
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Let’s have a closer look at Fix Photo and what each function can do in turn.
Cropping Photos
Cropping allows you to frame and keep a specific area of a photo while discarding the remainder. This is particularly useful when you want to permanently focus on an object of interest in your photo, e.g. people portraits or landscape features or improve the composition of particular types of photos such as landscapes.
For good composition, the main subject of a photo, e.g. a castle, can be offset and balanced against a foreground or background feature within the photo
(e.g., a river or mountain). Try to use the “rule or thirds”—imagine a 3 x 3 rectangular grid with equally spaced lines (two vertically, two horizontally) superimposed on top of your photo.
Position the main subject of the photo into each one of these imaginary rectangles in turn. Find the most balanced composition where your eyes are drawn to the main subject and crop accordingly.
You will need to carefully plan your optimum composition before you crop your photo!
To crop a photo:
1.
Select the photo you want to crop in the Photo Pane.
2.
Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Crop Tool .
4.
Use Zoom to fit to view the whole image.
5. Resize the crop shape by dragging the top right, bottom left and bottom right red nodes into position. You can also click on the centre of the shape to move the crop area selected, i.e.
6. If you’re happy with the selected crop area select the Crop button to display your cropped photo.
7. If your results are not as good as you expect you can use the Reset button to return to your original photo.
8. Save your photo with the button!
Auto Fix
The AutoFix option brings together the Auto Contrast, Auto Levels, and
Auto Equalize adjustments within the Fix Photo user interface to allow them to be applied individually or in combination.
These tools are also available for use outside the Fix Photo user interface separately. Right-click on any thumbnail, choose Fix Photo from the flyout menu and select Auto Contrast, Auto Levels, or Auto Equalize.
Alternatively, use the Fix Photo icon in the main toolbar.
Auto Contrast
The Auto Contrast feature adjusts photo contrast, i.e. the spread between lightest and darkest values across the full tonal range. This can be used to fix poorly scanned/developed photos.
Auto Levels
This assigns a new "top" and "bottom" to the tonal range, making the darkest image pixel black and the lightest one white, and spreading out the inbetween pixels over a wide tonal range. Auto Levels performs this adjustment separately for each of the Red, Green, and Blue channels.
Auto Equalize
This normalizes the distribution of brightness levels in the image histogram by applying a filter that evenly distributes the lightness levels between existing bottom (darkest) and top (lightest) values. It evens out "bumps" or
"dips" in the histogram.
Adjusting Brightness/Contrast
Brightness controls the overall lightness or darkness of the image, while contrast describes the tonal range, or spread between lightest and darkest values. Both can be used to enhance a poorly scanned photo.
To adjust the brightness or contrast:
1. Select the photo you want to adjust in the Photo Pane.
2. Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Brightness Contrast Tool.
4. Adjust the Brightness slider left or right to lower or raise brightness as a percentage (you can also use a scrollable input box to enter an absolute percentage value with the keyboard arrows or mouse wheel). The photo will automatically refresh.
5. If necessary, adjust the Contrast slider to lower or raise contrast (also as a percentage).
6. Save your photo with the button!
For example, a scanned photo with poor brightness levels can be quickly fixed.
Darken/Lighten
Darken Highlights and Lighten Shadows effects can be adjusted independently to fix excessive highlights and shadows in your photo. These problems are likely with photos taken outdoors, especially in very bright sunlight.
To darken or lighten a photo:
1. Select the photo you want to adjust in the Photo Pane.
2. Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Darken Lighten Tool.
4. Adjust the Darken Highlights slider to the right to raise darkness as a percentage (you can also use a scrollable input box to enter an absolute percentage value with the keyboard arrows or mouse wheel). The photo will automatically refresh.
5. Do the same for Lighten Shadows (also expressed as a percentage).
6. Save your photo with the button!
For example, it is possible to lighten shadows for a photo of a landscape setting.
Adjusting Colour Cast
The Cyan Red, Magenta Green and Yellow Blue colours can be adjusted independently by using the Colour Cast tool. Colour problems may exist when:
• your digital camera incorrectly applies colour balance.
• photos are scanned.
• the original photo has been poorly developed – we’ve all had the odd poor photo back from the film developers!
• photos are taken under artificial lighting.
To adjust colour cast:
1. Select the photo you want to adjust in the Photo Pane.
2. Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Colour Cast Tool.
4. Adjust the Cyan Red, Magenta Green and Yellow Blue sliders left or right to lower or raise each colour mix (you can also use a scrollable input box to enter an absolute percentage value with the keyboard arrows or mouse wheel).
The colours are paired together so moving the slider from the centre to the left increases the amount of cyan, moving from the centre to the right increases the amount or red. The same mechanism applies to the
Magenta Green and Yellow Blue sliders. The photo will automatically refresh.
5. Save your photo with the button!
Adjusting Colour Saturation
This sets the intensity of colour in a photo. The amount of colour saturation can be either increased or decreased. Use increase to fix photos which lack colour and appear washed out—use decrease to create a black and white version of your photo.
To adjust colour saturation:
1. Select the photo you want to adjust in the Photo Pane.
2. Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Colour Saturation tool.
4. Drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase colour saturation (you can also use a scrollable input box to enter an absolute percentage value with the keyboard arrows or mouse wheel).
5. Save your photo with the button!
Sharpen
The Sharpen tool increases contrast, enhancing the apparent sharpness of the image. Photos are normally sharpened as the last part of a photo correction process (e.g., after auto levels, colour cast or saturation adjustments). Most current digital cameras will sharpen images automatically, but some may apply differing levels of sharpening, or may even enable or disable sharpening—so adjustment may be necessary. Typically, scanned photos will not have sharpening adjustments made.
To sharpen your photo:
1. Select the photo you want to adjust in the Photo Pane.
2. Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Sharpen tool.
4. Drag the slider left or right to decrease or increase sharpening of the image.
Use a scrollable input box to enter an absolute percentage value with the keyboard arrows or mouse wheel.
5. Save your photo with the button!
Fixing Red Eye
Probably the most common photo fix you may be likely to perform. The Red
Eye function eliminates the red colouration on subject's eyes which may appear on photos which have been taken using photo flash.
To fix red eye in your photo:
1. Select the photo you want to fix in the Photo Pane.
2. Launch Fix Photo.
3. Choose the Red Eye tool.
4. Zoom into the eyes of the subject with the tool.
5. Move your cursor over the red eye area to be fixed and simply click once.
Your fix is made! Alternatively, if more precision is needed follow the twostep procedure below:
1. Drag your mouse cursor over the eye so that an ellipse will be drawn over the area (don’t make the ellipse too large as the tool may affect other red–based areas of the photo).
2. Release the mouse button to fix the red eye problem.
6. Do the same for any other eyes in your photo.
7. If your results are not as good as you expect you can use the Reset button to return to your original photo.
8. Save your photo with the button!
The Reset button will undo all red eye changes made. The Autohide check box, when enabled, will make the red rectangular box disappear when you unclick the mouse button.
Rotating/Flipping Photos
Photos can be rotated in your album at any time. Select the photo by clicking once, right-click and select Rotate/Flip from the flyout menu.
Choose one of four rotate or flip options as required.
Alternatively, choose one of the options below from the Toolbar instead.
10.
Archiving
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 104 Archiving
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 105 Archiving
It’s very easy to put off, or even completely forget about backing up your photo albums—permanently losing precious photos of family and friends is only something you will ever want to do once! While it’s easy to think “it will never happen to me”, a disk crash or loss of data is an undeniable risk in a world of viruses, varying levels of component reliability and theft.
AlbumPlus can mitigate this risk by use of its powerful and versatile
CD/DVD archiving solution, fully integrated into the program. The archiving process backs up not just the photos in your album but the whole AlbumPlus project, including supporting files. This leaves you with all your tag assignments, ratings, fix photo changes, etc. intact and safe along with your photos.
Before looking at how to create an archive, it’s important to note that
AlbumPlus will provide an equally easy process for restoring your data if the unthinkable happens…we’ll look at this later.
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Creating an Archive
The volume of photos and the backup frequency required for archiving will vary greatly between different users. AlbumPlus is able to manage incremental and full backups to single or multiple CDs/DVDs at any time you wish, giving you maximum flexibility.
The archive operation is available from Archive>Backup in the File menu.
The Archive dialog is displayed immediately after selecting this option.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 106 Archiving
Two archive me thods are availa ble:
Archive
Method
Backup Type When active
All photo(s) not yet archived
Incremental When new items have been added to album since the last backup
All photo(s)
Full Always
The number of photos suggested for incremental and/or full backup is give n after each Archive method. For example, the above dialog has the incremental archive option greyed out because AlbumPlus knows that no photos in the album have been backed up previously (this could also be greyed if no additional photos have been added to the album since the last backup). However, 159 photos require a full backup. Any further photos added to the albu m will be candidates for incremental backup in a future backup session.
Your archive can be allocated a useful label name so that you can easily identify your backups in the future. Remember to give the label a meaningfu l title rather than someth ing arbitrary—avoid “old”, “last year”, and “latest” for obvious reasons.
By the way, no file selection is necessary in AlbumPlus as the program automatically senses files wh ich have been backed up previously and those not having bee n backed up.
To create u
1. Insert your chosen medium into your CD/DVD drive.
2. Select the Archive>Backup option in the File menu.
3. In the A rchive dialog, select a full backup by clicking the All photo(s) radio button.
4. Give a label na me to the CD to be burnt. This is normally taken from the album name.
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AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 107 Archiving
5. Click OK.
6. In the displayed Write Files dialog, select the fastest available burn Speed
(this is read from your medium) and the drive to which you want to backup your data to by using the drop-down menus.
7. Note the Project information box: project file Siz e, Estimated Burn Time and number of Discs Required in the burn process.
8. Click the Write button to burn your CD/DVD.
9. The data is archived as indicated by the Progress bar. The Ac tion field will display “Writing”, followed by “Disc creation com pleted”.
10. Once the CD is created, se lect the Close button.
11. Your archive is complete.
If you run out of space on your CD then another dialog will b e displayed prompting you to insert another CD/DVD to continue.
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D q i i u s i i r c s e m e n t s
To create an incremental backup
Follow the steps for a full backup but select the “All photo(s) not yet archived” option.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 108 Archiving
Restoring from an Archive
Many people think that archiving is complete once the backup is created.
This is clearly a good start but the process of Restore, i.e. actually returning your photos to your computer after data loss, completes file recovery after backup. Remember that archiving is more about providing disaster recovery than providing additional file storage capacity.
As opposed to backup, there is no concept of incremental or full when restoring data. Restore is, by its nature, a full restore.
The Restore operation is available from Archive>Restore in the File menu.
The Restore dialog is displayed immediately after selecting this option.
If you have multiple CD/DVD drives, ensure that the correct drive is selected in the Drive: drop down menu from which to restore from.
The archive(s) will be displayed in the Archive list. Of course, it is possible to have more than one archive on the same CD/DVD as shown above. In this instance, select the appropriate archive from the drop-down list.
For multi-disc backups it is essential that the restore is carried out from the disc that was last used, i.e. the final CD used for an incremental backup, or the last disc as part of a multi-disc full backup. Don’t worry too much...
AlbumPlus will inform you in the Hint box if a later disc exists and will provide necessary instructions.
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To restore from an archive:
1. Open any existing photo album or create a new album with File>New.
2. Select Archive>Restore from the File menu.
3. In the Restore dialog select the drive and archive from which to restore.
4. Click OK. Data is restored to your chosen folder location via the Copying.. dialog.
If you are presented with a Save As dialog, your restored album already exists on your computer—select a new location for your restored album to be saved to.
If your backup spans more than one CD/DVD, you will be prompted to insert another disc when required.
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Scheduling an Archive reminder
It’s the one thing that you always promise yourself that you’ll get around to doing, but always forget to do—performing the backup! AlbumPlus helps you with this by reminding you, at regular intervals, to backup your
AlbumPlus albums in a reminder dialog, which also states your last backup date. The reminder is enabled via the Archive check box and Archive interval
(expressed in no. of days) option in File>Preferences.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 110 Archiving
11.
Sharing Photos
So you have a photo-rich album! Take some time to share some of those special photos with your loved ones – AlbumPlus offers you two powerful ways for photo sharing – e-mail and printing.
By e-mail
The widespread availability of the Internet means that most people’s family and friends are now only a quick e-mail away. Higher line speeds via ISDN and now Broadband connections also open up new opportunities for sharing not just one or two photos but whole photo collections easily.
AlbumPlus directs selected photos from within its user interface to either a
Standard or web-based e-mail program, for subsequent mailing.
You can e-mail your photo(s) by clicking on the toolbar or right-clicking on selected thumbnail(s) to display an e-mail dialog.
Setting your Image Size
AlbumPlus allows you to send any photo directly by e-mail with an added file size limiter if necessary. This avoids sending large file sizes—this could affect your popularity!
Click the Limit image dimensions to a maximum of radio button and select a suitable image resolution – this will be the new pixel height or width (the biggest pixel dimension of the original photo will be reduced to the new image size). Alternatively, keep the file’s original image dimensions.
Setting the File type
To take advantage of better file compression you may want to convert your image to JPEG if not already in this format. The compression used is 100%, which retains photo quality. The conversion would be suitable if your original photo was in TIF format.
To select, click the Convert to JPEG radio button. Alternatively, keep the file’s original format.
Choosing standard or browser-based e-mail
The two options reflect your personal e-mail preference. Some users would use an e-mail account set up through their own Internet Service Provider
(ISP). Others, especially when travelling, prefer the flexibility of a browserbased e-mail solution (e.g., www.yahoo.com
, www.hotmail.com
, etc.). Either way, AlbumPlus lets you send photos easily.
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Standard e-mail: Click the Attach to new e-mail message radio button and select OK. This will launch an untitled e-mail dialog with the photos already attached.
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Browser-based e-mail. Click the Save to folder radio button and specify a destination folder—this will copy all your selected photos to a single location. These photos can then be uploaded via your browserbased e-mail.
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By Printing
There may be occasions when you want to print your favourite photos to your home colour printer. The File>Print option will display a print dialog which offers three tabs to control your AlbumPlus print output—the General,
Layout and Items tabs, i.e.
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The General tab provides basic control over your basic p rint output, e.g. choice of printer, no. of copies and no. of pages to print.
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The Layout tab provides different photo sizes and styles for you to choose from. Photos are resized automatically to fit any photo layout
dimensions. This tab is described in Setting a Layout Style on p. 116.
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The Items tab lets you rearrange the print selection and order for printing.
See Using the Items Window on p. 119.
Using Print Preview
The Print Preview window is always available to you in the Print Photo(s) dialog. This lets you see how your photos will be printed in any layout style.
Some useful icons let you navigate around the Print Preview window, i.e.
Jumps to previous page.
Jumps to next page.
Displays one page at a time.
Displays two pages at a time.
Zooms out.
Zooms in.
Resets photo order and selection back to that shown in the Items window.
Setting a Layout Style
When the Layout tab is selected in the Print dialog, pre-defined layout sizes and styles can be selected with the Fixed size, Contact Sheet or Template option. These enable you to create fixed size prints, use a contact sheet or use print templates (for passport photos, etc.).
Let’s have a look at each in turn.
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Fixed size—decide upon a fixed size by choosing one thumbnail size from several different size options in the dialog:
Include a non-standard photo print size by selecting the Add button. The new print size is appended to the list for future selection.
When ticked, the Scale Up check box will automatically scale up the thumbnail size of smaller thumbnails to your selected fixed print size.
The Auto Rotate check box will try to automatically rotate photos
(portrait-to-landscape or vice versa) to best fit into the available photo area.
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Contact sheet—lists thumbnails of your photos into any combination of columns and rows.
Additionally, choose whether you want each thumbnail to show photo date, title or a drop shadow effect with the displayed check boxes. Scale
up and Auto Rotate are as described for Fixed size layout style.
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Template—your photo selection can be arranged onto built-in templates for printing. Over 100 templates offer a wide choice in several paper size categories.
Each template is shown as a thumbnail in a scrollable Template window, e.g. for a template designed for displaying one 7 x 5 in and six 3 x 2 in photos you would click on the 7 x 5 – 3 x 2 template thumbnail to load the template.
Your preview window will show your photos with the template applied. If you wish, this is a great time to rearrange your photos using the Items tab.
Scale up and Auto Rotate are as described for Fixed size layout style.
Using the Items Window
When the Items tab is selected in the Print dialog, you can reorder your photos for printing by dragging and dropping any photo(s) into a photo position in the print preview window. Any order or photo selection can be made. If your preview window is not as large as you’d like you can resize it with the drag handle located in the bottom right-hand corner of the dialog.
To print a photo:
1. Choose the toolbar, Print.. from the File Menu or press Ctrl+P.
2. Choose a printer from the drop-down list; if necessary, click the Properties button to set up the printer correctly.
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3. Click the Layout tab and select, then set your layout style.
4. Click the Items tab to rearrange your photos if necessary.
5. Change your photo order or selections by dragging photo items from the
Items window to the Print Preview window.
6. Click the OK button to send the photo(s) to the printer.
12.
Be a show off—Create a
Slideshow
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 122 Be a show off—Create a slide show
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 123 Be a show off—Create a slide show
So.. all your photos are in your photo album and have been well categorized.
One final job is left to do—set up your AlbumPlus slideshow!
All or selected photos can be loaded into a step-by-step Slideshow Wizard that controls the photo order and appearance of your slideshow, and assigns your slideshow a unique name.
Once the slideshow has run for the first time a slideshow icon is created and placed in your Photo Pane along with your photo thumbnails. This file saves the slideshow name, photo list, photo order and slideshow properties so that the slideshow can be re-run again and again. The slideshow icon should be easily spotted—it is made up of a composite of the first four photos that start your slideshow.
How does the slideshow know that it should be displayed along with its photo? Very cleverly, the slideshow icon inherits tags belonging to all photos that make up that slideshow. If you remove or add photos, those photo’s tags are dynamically deleted or added to the slideshow file, respectively. This keeps the slideshow in context with the photos in your album. You don’t need to alter the tags manually.
You can also search for slideshows by performing either a Smart Tag Text search (for the slide show name) or a Smart Tag File Type search (for the
slideshow file type). See Searching for Photos on p. 56.
Making your Slideshow
To select your photos:
1. Select one or more thumbnail. Use Shift-click to select contiguous items.
Ctrl-Click to select non-contiguous items.
2. Click the icon on the toolbar, or right-click and select Create/Edit
Slideshow from the flyout menu. Either will begin the Slideshow Wizard.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 124 Be a show off—Create a slide show
To reorder your photos:
In the Items window, drag and drop photos to rearrange the photo order in your slideshow if necessary. More than one photo can be dragged at once by multiple selection.
To add more photos:
It is possible to add more photos to your slideshow by clicking the Add Photos button.
A separate Select Photo(s) dialog will display photos within the scope of your search but currently absent from your slideshow. Each thumbnail has a check box at its top right corner. Simply click once in the check box to have that photo included in the slideshow. Select any other photos for inclusion then click the Add Photos button to continue with the slideshow wizard.
To delete your photos:
If you change your mind about the photos currently in your slideshow you can select your thumbnail(s) in the main Slideshow Wizard window and press the Delete key at any time.
Fine tuning your slideshow:
1. In the Settings window, give your slideshow a unique name that you’ll remember in the future, e.g. Holiday2005.
2. If required, check the Stretch to fit button to resize your photos to the screen dimensions.
3. Set the time Duration for each photo (this is the time that the photo is displayed on screen and does not include any time allocated to the transition duration).
4. Choose a transition type and duration in the drop-down menu that will produce a visual effect between each photo. Try out a few to see which effect suits your slideshow. If your transitions look shaky due to a low PC specification, choose the option None.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 125 Be a show off—Create a slide show
To add a Soundtrack:
1. Check the Play slide audio check box if you wish to play accompanying movie sound tracks for movie slideshows.
2. Select the Background audio check box if you want to play your favourite sound files (Wav only) as background music. Remember to browse to your music files to include them.
To set other slideshow options:
1. Select the Pause on Start check box in the Control box to pause on the first photo to be displayed. Press the space bar to commence with the slideshow.
2. Select the Repeat check box to cycle through the slideshow again and again.
3. In the Finish box, click Create slideshow if needed. This will create a slideshow icon that stores all your current slideshow settings for future use – this can be edited at a later date.
4. Select View slideshow to see your slideshow immediately after the wizard completes.
View your Slideshow
When the slideshow wizard settings have been decided your slideshow is ready for its premiere!
To view the slideshow:
1. Click the Finish button on the wizard. The slideshow is displayed in full screen mode with a supporting slideshow control.
2. Press the Pause, Stop or Next slide buttons in your slideshow control. The
Play and Previous slide buttons are available after a pause or stop. A progress bar also shows you at what stage your movie is at.
3. Press the ESC key on your keyboard to exit the slideshow at any time. As a shortcut, press the space bar to start/stop your slideshow.
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AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 126 Be a show off—Create a slide show
Edit your Slideshow
After all the effort you’ve put into making your slideshow you wouldn’t want to have to do it all again! Don’t worry—your slideshow can be edited at any time.
To edit a slideshow:
1. Locate the slideshow (use searching methods described above).
2. Click on the slideshow thumbnail once to highlight it.
3. Click the icon on the toolbar, or right-click and select Create/Edit
Slideshow from the flyout menu. Either will display the start of the slideshow wizard, ready for editing.
4. Run through the wizard, making any edits, additions, etc. you need to make.
5. Click the Finish button to run and save the new slideshow settings.
13.
Movies, Audio and other File Formats
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 128 Working with Movies, Audio and other File Formats
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 129 Working with Movies, Audio and other File Formats
Much of what you have read so far refers to photos only. However, many of the features of AlbumPlus could equally be applied to any type of file, whether it is a movie, audio file, document, illustration, etc.
In fact, AlbumPlus can add files of any format to albums without restriction.
This opens up some interesting possibilities within AlbumPlus. A multimedia environment means that other uses can be made of AlbumPlus alongside its main use as a Photo Album solution.
Some interesting ideas, alongside typical file types, include:
File Type Idea Example
Movies, animated Gifs Add and tag your movie files as you would tag your photos.
Audio
Documents
Tag your audio files by type, genre or artist.
Show slideshows of photos with in-line movies.
Use a favourites tag and create an audio slideshow for your favourite albums.
Assign tags to your documents in
AlbumView mode – documents could be retrieved by tag name.
Store in YearView,
MonthView or
DateView mode to manage documents by date.
Store masters of letters sent to the bank.
Keep scanned replies under same tag name.
Spreadsheets Arrange your Excel spreadsheets by
YearView mode
Organize your monthly household expenditure.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 130 Working with Movies, Audio and other File Formats
Importing Non-photo Files
The import of non-photo files follows the same procedure as photo files.
Once imported, the file type may be shown as one of the following standard icon, i.e.
Icon Description
Video thumbnail (with audio)
Video thumbnail (without audio)
Audio file thumbnail
Unknown file thumbnail
Thumbnail Unavailable
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Loading your Files
Preview your movies without launching your associated movie player by hovering over the thumbnail.
You can simply right-click on any icon and select Open to launch the file with its associated application.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 131 Working with Movies, Audio and other File Formats
Finishing Off
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading the AlbumPlus companion, and continue to use AlbumPlus frequently. You’ve done the hard work of maintaining your photos and now you are able to browse through your album. Better still, kick off your shoes, and run a slideshow. You can now put your feet up and enjoy the fruits of your labours!
If you have any problems, suggestions or constructive feedback please don’t hesitate to contact Serif. See How to Contact Us at the start of this
Companion.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 132 Working with Movies, Audio and other File Formats
Appendices
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 134 Appendices
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 135 Appendices
Appendix A: AlbumPlus Advanced
Caching
As the photos you view are cached versions of your original photos any photo manipulation is made on these versions only. The architecture of
AlbumPlus is based on the concept of making edits to cached versions thus preserving your original photo—this gives you in-built file security by design.
When your photo is saved, the original photo is made into a backup file (a
_BAK_ suffix is appended to the photo). Note that your working file adopts the file properties (creation date etc.) of the original photo.
Sometimes you may alter a photo and then have second thoughts about the changes that you have made. Perhaps, you may not be happy with some Fix
Photo editing. Don’t worry—this happens! AlbumPlus allows you to Revert back to your original file.
If you’ve got one eye on your hard disk space you may wish to permanently remove your backup (i.e., your original photo) by using Remove Backup— happy that your modified photo is the one you want to keep.
To revert:
1. Select the photo thumbnail you want to revert back.
2. Right-click on the thumbnail and select Fix Photo>Revert from the flyout menu.
To remove backup (original):
1. Select the photo thumbnail whose original photo you want to delete.
2. Right-click on the thumbnail and select Fix Photo>Remove Backup from the flyout menu.
*
T
A h u t i t i s o o c n o l y n t r a f a f f s e t , c t t s
A u p t t h o o
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, i c o r r h
A h u a t v o e
E b q e u e a n l i i z p e h
.
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y y s i i c a l l l y c h a n g e d b y F i i x P h o t o , ,
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 136 Appendices
Repair Album
Over a period of time you may want to reorganize your photos on your hard disk for one of the following reasons.
•
•
File renaming
Moving your original photos to a new directory or drive
•
Remapping a network drive/disk partition
Any of the above exercises will cause your photo thumbnails in AlbumPlus to show as greyed out—simply because the original is now unavailable to
AlbumPlus.
Linked to original photo Broken link to original photo
A solution to this would be to remove the greyed photos and reimport your photos again ...losing any assigned tags, comments, ratings, etc... and a lot of hard work. Clearly not ideal.
In order to reinstate links (with no tag loss), a maintenance function called
Repair Album can be used—your old photo locations are simply mapped to new locations in an easy to use Repair dialog, available from the Repair
Album... option on the File menu.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 137 Appendices
The dialog can be logically split into two, the left side which displays Old locations (broken links to be resolved) and a right side which displays New locations (either Unavailable or suggested directory paths to reinstate the links). Directory paths are shown after locating photos.
Repair is initiated by selecting either a batch repair (Find All...) or a selective repair (Find...) for bulk or individual photo location, respectively.
The Find All operation involves two steps: firstly specifying a directory in which the moved photos now reside and, secondly, initiating a search in that directory (this is recursive). The directory selected will dictate the scope of search—a root level search on C:\ will be less precise that a search on a subdirectory at a lower level, e.g. c:\WeddingPhotos\.
If you try a selective repair using the Find button, you will be presented with an Add Photos dialog instead of the Browse for Folder dialog described above.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 138 Appendices
For example, the results of a Find All search may display:
The relocated photos are now listed in the New column. Note how the righthand thumbnail is now available.
To assist in the mapping process, thumbnails of the selected photos are also displayed at the top of the dialog. This visual indication gives an additional mapping aid, especially if photo file names have been renamed. The broken thumbnail (as shown in the first dialog) will be displayed—don’t panic! This means that either the thumbnail is no longer cached in AlbumPlus (if shown on the left) or that the link is broken such that the thumbnail cannot be displayed (if shown on the right).
To repair an album
As a pre-requisite, you must have an album with some broken links. Locate a few of your photos present in your album and cut and paste them to a new directory. Check that their thumbnails then appear greyed out in your album.
1. Select Repair Album... from the File menu.
2. The dialog will show broken links under the Old column heading.
3. To find your moved photos, click the Find All button.
4. In the Browse for Folder dialog, navigate to the location in which the photos were moved to.
5. Click OK.
6. Click through each entry in the Paths checking that each of the thumbnails visually match in turn.
7. Click OK.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 139 Appendices
Use the Stop button to stop searching for photos at any time.
Once the repair process has been performed, you may still have some entries remaining in the displayed list whose originals cannot be located. If you wish, simply press the Delete key to permanently remove these old entries from your album.
* t
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o c d d r r t i t u i i i
T e o a c a n ’ ’ t t r e a d n h s r r l l g i i e y o z s g e l l
R p t e t e a y f f o t t t p o t h r a r u o s i i e r r r r r s d t t c i r i r a o i z t i o t l l l e g b b e r r e a d c l l e a r r l l y
.
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p n a s d t t i i h a b l l y n o a g d r m c a a e g s n g i i b b n e e g c r r a t t e u h s s e t t i i z h e d e e i i y d v b o i i a u s o i r r t t t t o t t a c n o n o m l b l y u e r r t t i i i m t t i m g w n h e s e t t e
-
a t t n h r r o a e c a n o t l t l l l d l l o u o o c w m o s n r r f f h o n o r e r r r r r t l l o o y n f f o g u
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 140 Appendices
File Formats
The following table lists the file formats that can be added to AlbumPlus.
These formats are recognised in the Files of Type drop-down menu
displayed in the Add Photos dialog (see p. 25). These represent the more
typical formats that would expect to be used in conjunction with a photo album application. The All files (*.*) option will allow many more file formats to be included as no file import restrictions exist within AlbumPlus.
Files of Type File types included
Image Files
Audio Files ani, bmp, cr2, crw, cur, emf, gif, ico, img, jpeg, jpg, j2k, jp2, nef, orf, pcx, png, tif, tiff, wmf.
Also includes Serif files (ppp, spp,
3d2, 3dd, ipp, sap) mid, midi, mp1, mp2, mp3, mpa, wav, wma
Video Files
All File (*.*) asf, avi, mp4, mpeg, mpg, mpv, wm, wmv
More uncommon file types which are not specified above.
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 141 Appendices
EXIF information in AlbumPlus
When using your digital camera, Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) information is appended to your acquired JPG photo. This relates to picture taking conditions and your digital camera specification.
The EXIF information can be displayed for photos by clicking the Exif button on the Status Bar. The information displayed is as follows:
Field Name Description Example
Exposure Time The exposure time in seconds
1/171 sec
Exposure The camera mode used to take photo depending on camera make/model.
Aperture priority
Exposure bias 0+1/3
Focal Length
Flash On/Off
F-number
Make
Model
ISO
Metering mode
White Balance
Light Source
The APEX exposure bias indicating amount of exposure compensation applied.
The actual focal length of the lens (in mm)
Whether the flash was used to take the photo
Lens aperture size
Camera make
Camera model
The ISO speed rating of the photo
How camera calculates the required exposure
Balance setting to suit the light source
The source of natural or artificial illumination
6.0 mm
Off
Aperture = f8.0
SONY
DSC-D700
200
Matrix
Auto
Daylight
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 142 Appendices
Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts
ShortCut Description
0
1
Unassigns star rating
Assigns 1 star (for rating)
4
5
6
2
3
ESC, Alt+F4
End
Home
F1
F5
F6
F7
F8
F9
F10
Ctrl-End
Ctrl-Home
Ctrl+1
Ctrl+2
Ctrl+3
Assigns 2 stars (for rating)
Assigns 3 stars (for rating)
Assigns 4 stars (for rating)
Assigns 5 stars (for rating)
Assigns 6 stars (for rating)
Closes open dialogs, drop-down menus and Fix
Photo editor
Selects last thumbnail in a row
Selects first thumbnail in a row
Help
AlbumView mode
YearView mode
MonthView mode
DateView mode
Refresh status
Refresh thumbnails
Selects last thumbnail
Selects first thumbnail
Thumbnail size (Simple – Small)
Thumbnail size (Simple – Medium)
Thumbnail size (Simple – Large)
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 143 Appendices
Ctrl+N
Ctrl+O
Ctrl+P
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+V
Ctrl+X
Ctrl+Y
Ctrl+Z
+
-
Ctrl+tab
Ctrl+4
Ctrl+5
Ctrl+6
Ctrl+7
Ctrl+8
Ctrl+9
Ctrl+A
Ctrl+C
Ctrl+D
Thumbnail size (Standard – Small)
Thumbnail size (Standard – Medium)
Thumbnail size (Standard – Large)
Thumbnail size (Detailed – Small)
Thumbnail size (Detailed – Medium)
Thumbnail size (Detailed – Large)
Select All
Copy
Deselect All
New album
Open album
Print Photo
Save Album
Paste
Cut
Redo
Undo
Rotate 90º
Rotate -90º
Toggle photo thumbnail size
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 144 Appendices
Index
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 146 Index
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 147 Index
A
Albums creating new, 23 repairing, 136
AlbumView mode, 14, 51
Archive reminder for, 50
Archiving, 105 reminder for, 109
Audio files adding, 26
Audio Preview, 50
Auto Contrast, 96
Auto Equalize, 97
Auto Fix, 96
Auto Levels, 97
Auto Update, 50
Autoplay, 28
Autosave, 50
B
Backup creating a, 105 remove, 135
Brightness adjusting, 97
Broken links searching for, 64
C
Caching, 135
Camera adding photos from, 30
Cast adjusting, 98
Colour cast adjusting, 98
Colour correction, 93
Colour levels adjusting, 97 equalizing, 97
Colour saturation adjusting, 99
Comments adding, 44 searching for, 60
Contrast adjusting, 96, 97
Copying, 46
Cropping, 95
D
Darken, 97
Dates changing album, 42 changing photo, 42 searching for, 65
DateView mode, 17, 87 dateview pane in, 87 photo pane in, 89
Diary using the, 75, 83
Disk space optimizing, 135
Duplicates, 66
E e-mailing photos, 113
Events holiday, 78 using, 76, 84
Exif, 39, 141
F
Feature list, 4
File formats, 140
File management, 47
File names searching, 60
File restore, 108
File types searching for, 63
Fix Photo, 20, 94
Flipping, 101
Frequency bar, 88 viewing, 68
G
Getting started, 21
GIFs animated, 63
H
Histograms reading, 93
History searching, 66
Holidays viewing, 78
I
Import reports, 29
Installation, 7
K
Keyboard shortcuts, 142
L
Levels adjusting, 97
Lighten, 97
M
Menus, 17
Modes
AlbumView, 14
MonthView, 16
YearView, 15
MonthView mode, 16, 81 calendar pane in, 81 photo pane in, 83 using diary in, 83 using events in, 83
Movies adding, 26
Moving, 46
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 148 Index
P
Path names searching, 60
PhotoPlus opening photos in, 46
PhotoPlus files searching for, 63
Photos adding from camera, 30 from disk, 26 from scanner, 30 changing order of, 68 copying, 46 date management of, 42 deleting, 47 editing, 94 e-mailing, 113 managing, 33 manipulating, 91 moving, 46 printing, 114 rating your, 41 searching for, 56 by date, 65 by file type, 63 by history, 66 by properties, 62 by rating, 61 by tag, 57 by text, 60 by unassigned status, 67 sharing, 111 viewing, 45
Preferences, 49
Preview, 116
Printing, 114 layout styles in, 116 multiple copies, 119
Using Items window in, 119
Product overview, 4
Q
Quick Start, 11
R
Ratings assigning, 41 clearing, 41 searching, 61
Red eye fixing, 100
Refresh, 64
Refresh Status, 40
Refresh Thumbnails, 41 registration, 6
Remove backup, 135
Repair, 136
Reports
Import, 29
Restore, 108
Revert, 135
Rotating, 101
S
SAP file format, 25
Sap files, 23
Saturation adjusting, 99
Scanner adding photos from, 30
Sharpen, 99
Slideshows editing, 126 making, 123 searching for, 63 searching for names of, 60 viewing, 125
Status Bar, 19
Step-by-Step, 21 support, technical, 6 system requirements, 7
T
Tags creating, 37, 54 modifying, 55 removing from Tag Pane, 55
AlbumPlus 4.0 Companion | 149 Index searching, 57 setting up, 53 technical support, 6
Thumbnails assigning tags to, 56 changing order of, 68
Refresh, 64 refreshing, 40 removing tags from, 56 resizing, 40 selecting, 35 styles for, 38
Time zones
Changing, 43
Times changing album, 42 changing photo, 42
Toolbar photo management, 18 thumbnail management, 18
Tutorials. See Quick Start
U
Unassigned photos, 67 viewing, 67
Unrecognised formats, 64
User interface, 9
V
Video files adding, 26, 129
Video Preview, 50
W workflow, 53
Y
YearView mode, 15, 73 calendar pane in, 73 photo pane in, 75 using diary in, 75 using events in, 75
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Key Features
- Create photo albums
- Categorize and search
- Calendar views
- Photo editing tools
- Slideshow creation
- Printing options
- Backup and restore
