LightBox¬ for the Apple¿ Macintosh¬ is a utility bundled with PhotoDisc that classifies, stores, indexes and retrieves the photos provided on disk.
This section contains information on the basic operations of LightBox. You can try these procedures with the photos provided with PhotoDisc.
You will see:
Ñ How to access documents from a catalog
Ñ How to index and sort a catalog document
Ñ How to select images from a catalog
Ñ How to customize the catalog layout
Quick Start
If you want to get started without reading through the entire guide, this section provides you with what you absolutely need to know in order to use LightBox.
Note: LightBox requires Apple system software version 6.07 or later.
Install QuickTime
If you have not yet done so, copy the QuickTime¬ system extension from the disc provided into your System folder. Without QuickTime installed, LightBox will not work properly, and no thumbnails will appear.
Online Help
Online help is available for most of the commands. Select ╥Help╔╙ from the Apple menu. A dialog box allows you to choose a topic from the list on the left. The related explanation then appears on the right.
Thumbnails
A thumbnail (or slide) is a miniature picture of an image file. It contains information about the file╒s location on your disk, its name, and its size. You can also add your own information to a thumbnail, like a list of keywords or a set of attributes.
Thumbnails do not contain whole documents, they only refer to them. However, you can easily find or access a document by selecting the corresponding thumbnail.
You can change the shape and size of a thumbnail, and the information displayed with it.
Catalogs
A catalog is a LightBox document containing thumbnails. You can sort, index, or find specific thumbnails inside a catalog. A catalog stores information about the location of your image files, including files stored on unmounted discs.
Indexing
Indexing is the process of adding specific information to thumbnails to ease sorting and selection. For example, indexing an image allows you to customize information such as, the source, the author, and keywords describing the image. Once an image has been indexed, you can retrieve sets of images meeting similar criteria.
Accessing Documents
The LightBox catalog is a powerful graphical database. You can also use thumbnails in LightBox to view documents without actually opening them, or view a series of files with the ╥Start Slide Show╙ command.
Viewing Documents
To view a file, double-click on the thumbnail of the picture you wish to view. A window containing the document will open.
You can zoom in or out on it using ╥Zoom╙ under the Windows menu or by using the <shift> option key - click combination to zoom in and out. You can also use standard selection and editing techniques on any part of the image.
Editing Documents
To edit an image file:
1. Select the thumbnail of the document you want to edit.
2. Choose ╥Open Selected File╙ in the Tools menu. The application which created the ▐le will launch and open the file via the AppleEvents mechanism.
If there is insufficient memory or the application which created the file is unavailable, the Finder will display an appropriate alert message.
To open a document with an application other than the one that created it:
1. Choose ╥General Preferences╙ in the File menu.
2. Click the ╥Application to Launch╙ button. A directory dialog box appears.
3. Choose the application you╒d like to open your documents.
4. Click OK to close the dialog box.
5. Double-click on the thumbnail of the file you want to open, while depressing the option key. The image file is opened by the application you selected in the General Preferences dialog box.
Tools Menu
The Tools Menu contains commands to: modify a file linked to a thumbnail, copy or remove files, and to interact with the Finder.
Descriptions for each of the specific Tools menu items can be found in Appendix A: LightBox Menu Descriptions, or through the on-line help feature.
Indexing
Indexing your catalog brings you two advantages:
Ñ By adding information, specific images are easier to find.
Ñ You can merge catalogs more effectively without the problem of duplicate images.
Indexing Dialog Box
To index your catalog:
1. Select the thumbnails you want to index. Note: To quickly locate thumbnails that have yet to be indexed, omit this step and go to step 2 (make no thumbnail selection) and all non-indexed thumbnails will appear.
2. Choose ╥Index╙ in the Catalog menu. The Indexing dialog box appears.
The top left corner of the dialog box contains information you can╒t alter: ▐le name, folder, index number and catalog number.
Each catalog document is given a unique catalog ID number. Each thumbnail is given a unique Index ID number. Note: Index numbers are assigned only if the thumbnail has not been previously indexed.
3. Type information in the editing fields. The names of the fields can be altered using the ╥De▐ne User Labels╙ command (see below).
The Keywords field contains lists describing the image content. Each keyword is separated by a comma.
4. Click the appropriate ╥Attributes╙ check box.
5. Click the right arrow below the thumbnail view. The next thumbnail appears. You MUST click on an arrow for your previous entry to take effect.
6. Click OK when you have finished.
Note: Double-clicking a thumbnail will display its contents in a window.
Note: If you want to alter all or a group of selected thumbnails, click the ╥Patch All╙ button after selecting the thumbnails, then type new information in the fields of the dialog box that appears.
Defining User Labels
If you want to change names of fields or attributes used during indexing, choose ╥De▐ne User Labels╙ in the Catalog menu. Click on the name you want to change, and enter a new name.
Selecting Documents
There are two different ways to "tag" an image using the LightBox utility. One way, most commonly used, is called "select", and is achieved by clicking once on a Thumbnail. A multiple selection is accomplished by holding the SHIFT key.
Another way to find specific documents is by ╥marking╙ them.
Marking
Marks are shown in the top right corner of a thumbnail.
To mark a specific set of thumbnails, first select the thumbnails to be marked, then go to ╥Mark Selected╙ in the Select menu (command-M). Conversely, you can unmark thumbnails by choosing ╥Unmark Selected╙ in the Select menu.
If you want to call up only marked items, choose ╥Display Marked╙ in the Select menu. To call up all thumbnails, choose ╥Display All.╙ All marked and unmarked thumbnails will be shown.
Sorting & Moving Thumbnails
You can change the order in which Thumbnails are displayed in two ways:
Ñ by manually dragging a thumbnail between two others. The thumbnail will be inserted into its new position.
Ñ or by choosing an item in the ╥Sort By╙ sub-menu in the Display menu.
Finding
To display only specific thumbnails:
1. Choose ╥Find╙ in the Select menu. The Find dialog box appears.
2. Enter the word(s) or reference describing the thumbnail you wish to find. By clicking the ╥More╔╙ pop-up menu, you can enter two different search criteria, joined by the boolean operators ╥Or,╙ And,╙ or ╥But Not.╙
3. Select from the ╥In:╙ pop-up menu the fields you wish to explore.
4. Click the Find button. Only thumbnails containing the word(s) or reference you speci▐ed will be displayed. Choose ╥Mark Selected╙ to mark them. Choose ╥Display All╙ to re-display all of the thumbnails.
Search and Select
To make more complex selections:
1. Choose ╥Select╙ in the Select menu. The ╥Select In Catalog╙ dialog box appears.
2. Type the information you wish to find in the editable fields. Leave fields with no specific values blank. Thumbnails with fields matching your specified text will appear.
3. Choose the value of the attributes. If you want an attribute to be true, click it once to make the diamond icon next to it black. If you want an attribute to be false, click twice to make it white. Leave the diamonds gray if you don╒t have a specific value.
4. Choose the keywords. You can either make a text entry the keywords edit field, or double-click a keyword from the list.
5. Click one of the Action radio buttons.
╥Display╙ will display only the thumbnails matching your request. Choose ╥Display All╙ in the Select menu to display all thumbnails.
╥Mark╙ will mark all thumbnails matching your request. The previously marked thumbnails remain marked.
╥Select╙ will select all thumbnails matching your request. The previous selection is lost.
6. Click the Filter button. Your request is processed immediately.
7. Click the box at the top left corner of the dialog box to close it.
To broaden or narrow your request:
1. Choose ╥Select╙ in the Select menu. The ╥Select In Catalog╙ dialog box appears.
2. Click the ╥keep last filter╙ check box.
3. Click the ╥union╙ button to broaden your search or ╥intersection╙ to narrow it.
4. Repeat steps 2 to 6 above.
Customizing Thumbnail Displays
You can choose the size and appearance of thumbnails, and the information they display.
Thumbnail Layout
The following steps show how to alter the thumbnail display to suit your particular needs.
1. Choose ╥Thumbnail Layout╙ in the Display Menu. The Thumbnail Layout dialog box appears.
2. Select ╥Small╙ in the ╥Sample╙ pop-up menu. The sample layout displayed above the pop-up menu will change. The numeric values of the fields to the right will also change.
3. Change the value of one of the editable fields.
Grid Width and Grid Height are the vertical and horizontal blank spaces (in pixels) between each thumbnail. These two values can be changed directly by dragging on the dotted lines.
Decorator Thickness is the width of the frame surrounding the slide. It refers to the longest sides of the slide frame which is measured in pixels. For the slide to display correctly, the frame should be bigger than the slide.
4. Choose the information displayed using the pop-up menus. A set of four possible information boxes will be displayed. The first two are displayed below the slide. The other two are displayed inside the slide.
5. Click the ╥Background Color╙ button to bring up the standard Apple color picker. Choose a color background that best contrasts the slides you are using.
Grid Layout
The ╥Grid Layout╙ menu allows you to choose the number of columns you want to display your slides.
