Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• iView MediaPro instead of iPhoto 2?
  2003-02-02 21:21:58  jfaughnan [Reply | View]
  
  
  I'm getting a good feeling about iView. I do find the subset (album equivalent) UI a bit klunky, but it seems to work. A few questions if I may take advantage of your kindness:
  
  How would iView work if:
  
  1. I put images on a drive and attached a lot of titles and comments to them.
  2. I move the entire image directory to another drive.
  
  Does iView have a function to handle moving the image store?
  
  One reason iView appeals to me is that I'd like to keep many of my images on a home server that's backed up daily rather than my iBook.
  
  I'd love images to have a unique persistent identifier either as a file name or as a JPEG internal attribute so we wouldn't have to worry about losing the connection to the image metadata when we move the image. Maybe in some future OS ...
  
  I'd also like to see an AppleScript that would allow one to select images in iView and then pump them into iPhoto to order books, etc.
  
  john
  
  
• iView MediaPro instead of iPhoto 2?
  2003-02-03 07:11:45  punkish [Reply | View]
  
  
  > I do find the subset (album equivalent) UI
  > a bit klunky, but it seems to work.
  
  if you are referring to the catalog and index windows, yes, they are clunky. But they do work, and they are fast!
  
  > How would iView work if:
  >
  > 1. I put images on a drive and attached a
  > lot of titles and comments to them.
  
  dunno what you mean by "how would it work"? It will work fine, and if you are concerned about speed, I personally have not seen any effect on speed. Keep in mind, the iView-way is to not look at all the millions of images you might have. iView deals with only the images in your catalog, and hence, it is more organized and manageable.
  
  I have personally not entered a lot of metadata in my image catalogs primarily because all that organization is not worth the effort for me. But to the extent I have, iView is simply very, very fast.
  
  
  > 2. I move the entire image directory to
  > another drive.
  >
  > Does iView have a function to handle moving
  > the image store?
  
  if you simply up and move the image directory then the path to the images will break. The thumbnails will still appear just fine because they are stored inside the iView catalog. However, the full blown image will not show, but a broken path will show. The fix is simple and easy. There is a menu item for rebuilding the path. Really easy.
  
  There is a way to copy of move selected images to other locations. I have not tried it with entire catalogs, but it works fine with the selected images.
  
  > One reason iView appeals to me is that
  > I'd like to keep many of my images on a
  > home server that's backed up daily rather
  > than my iBook.
  
  as long as the path to your home server (from your iBook) does not change, iView will have not any problem. I do kinda same thing -- images are kept on an external, firewire drive connected to the iBook. No problem.
  
  
  > I'd love images to have a unique
  > persistent identifier either as a file
  > name or as a JPEG internal attribute so
  > we wouldn't have to worry about losing
  > the connection to the image metadata when
  > we move the image. Maybe in some future OS ...
  
  see comment above about rebuilding path to images.
  
  > I'd also like to see an AppleScript that
  > would allow one to select images in iView
  > and then pump them into iPhoto to order
  > books, etc.
  
  aaah, books. Yes, I looked longingly at them, until I saw the price. But, if you do need them (and hopefully not often), you could simply select your chosen images in iView and "copy" them to another temporary location (say a folder on Desktop called "temp_photobook"). Then import that specific folder into iPhoto and go ahead with ordering your book. Keep in mind, iPhoto will do its nonsense of copying the photos into its own database, so you will end up with three copies of the photos (you can delete the temp_photobook folder since you already have the originals via iView).
  
  Otoh, you can explore oFoto -- I believe it is the same service by Kodak that Apple uses for its fulfilment. They may or may not do the nicely bound book.
  
  Y'know -- iView vs. iPhoto is a classic example where a free software included/given away by the giant OS maker still does not compete with a payware made by a small vendor. iView is simply much more capable.
  
  Apple has to understand one thing -- good looks are very important for the general aesthetics of computing experience, but speed is even more important. Sooner of later the good looks become a latent part of your experience, but speed always remains the issue in the forefront.
  
  Also, this mysteriously numbered database that _has_ to be kept in a specific ordained place really is irksome. This is the kind of thinking that get Microsoft's Outlook Express or Exchange Server lose out over the standard Unix mbox approach to email messages. What do you do when you stop using the vendor's program, say iPhoto, in this case. You are stuck with a photo database that you can't make head or tail of. With iView everything is your way. The structure and organization imposed by iView is really just a view of what you have done to organize it. You are in complete control.
  
  hth.