iPhoto Batch Enhancer 3 Manual
iPhoto Batch Enhancer is designed to make your life with iPhoto even more comfortable. It helps you apply the built in iPhoto effects (enhance, black-white, sepia and more), changes to the Adjust palette (via Snapshots) as well as perform basic editing functions (scaling and rotating) with a few mouse clicks to a batch of photos.
Contents
- Quick start
- Snapshots (iPhoto Adjust palette)
- iPhoto Full Screen Editing
- Scripts
- Preferences
- Installing iPhoto Batch Enhancer
- Got problems?
1. Quick start
Use the following steps to apply effects to a batch of photos:
- Select the photos in iPhoto you wish to apply actions to.
- Choose an action type (iPhoto effect, Snapshot or Script) and then the desired action from the list. To add or delete a row simply use the + and - buttons.
- If you want to edit Snapshot or Script details, click on the tool icon.
- Then click Apply to let iPhoto Batch Enhancer do the work for you.
- If you are not satisfied with the resulting photo you can always revert to the original via the Photo-Menu within iPhoto.
- You may want to try whether the current set of actions works as you want it to: Simply open one photo in iPhoto for editing in the main window, then click the Apply button of iPhoto Batch Enhancer. All actions will be applied to the current photo and no changes will be saved until you exit edit mode (Exception: If you include a Script action changes are being saved for technical reasons).
- If you want to keep different sets of actions you can save the current one via File -> Save Actions... and open it again with File -> Open Actions....
Important: For some of the steps iPhoto needs to be the frontmost application. To avoid any problems please refrain from using your computer for other tasks during the conversion process.
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2. Snapshots (iPhoto Adjust palette)
Starting with iPhoto 5 the Adjust palette offers a new way to fine tune your photos. Sliders allow to change the brightness, contrast, saturation and other properties of a photo. Please note: The availability depends on your computer and your version of iPhoto.
If you want to apply the same properties to several photos within iPhoto, you have to write down the slider positons of the first photo and then apply them manually to all other photos one by one. iPhoto 7 has new Copy and Paste buttons in the Adjust palette, but management of different sets of the Adjust palette still isn't possible.
iPhoto Batch Enhancer allows you to take a Snapshot of a photo's slider positions and apply that to as many photos as you like.
Create a Snapshot
To create a Snapshot of the current Adjust palette in iPhoto do one of the following:
- Choose New in the Snapshot Menu or Press Command-N or
- Click the left button in the Snapshots window or
- Choose New Snapshot in the
Snapshot Menu Item.
The name of the new Snapshot is taken from the current photo in iPhoto.
Apply a Snapshot
To apply a Snapshot to one or more photos either:
- Choose Snapshot as action type in the iPhoto Batch Enhancer main window, then select the Snapshot from the list and then click the Apply button (more...) or
- Choose Apply Snapshot from the Snapshot Menu Item (more...).
Managing Snapshots
- To manage Snapshots simply open the Snapshots window via Command-L or Window -> Show Snapshots:
- Click the left button to create a new Snapshot of the current Adjust palette.
- Click the trash button to delete the selected Snapshots.
- Click the tool button to edit or rename a Snapshot:
Tip: To copy your Snapshots to a different computer or user account simply use the Export Snapshots and Import Snapshots... commands of the File menu.
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3. iPhoto Full Screen Editing
Full Screen Editing in iPhoto is a great way to use the complete space your screen provides. Except in iPhoto 7 (where you can copy and paste the slider positions of the Adjust palette) applying the same Adjust palette values up to now meant entering them manually photo by photo.
Since changing the frontmost application also exits Full Screen Editing, using iPhoto Batch Enhancer wasn't an option. Now there is a solution to this dilemma with the new Snapshot Menu Item of iPhoto Batch Enhancer. It's always available in the menu bar and lets you create and apply Snapshots while using iPhoto's Full Screen Editing mode:
Clicking on the Snaphot Menu Icon you have the following options:
- You can create a New Snapshot based on the current slider positions of the Adjust palette.
- Choose Apply Snapshot -> All and select a Snapshot to apply from the complete list of your Snapshots.
- Choose Apply Snapshot -> Recent and select a Snapshot to apply from up to five recently used Snapshots. The last used or created Snapshot is always first in the list, so applying the latest Snapshot you created couldn't be easier.
When using the
Snapshot Menu Item the completion of the task is indicated with a sound, because no visual feedback is possible while using iPhoto's Full Screen mode.
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4. Scripts
Up to now iPhoto Batch Enhancer only offered to automate the image editing capabilities within iPhoto. Now there are a few additional basic image editing capabilities available for you to choose from:
- Free Rotate
- Rotate or Flip
- Scale by ratio
- Scale to size
To apply a Script simply choose the action type Script and then select the desired Script from the list. To edit the Script parameters click onto the Tool button:
Important: iPhoto Batch Enhancer has to be set as external editor in iPhoto to make sure the photos stay integrated in the iPhoto library. In order to achieve this iPhoto is being restarted at the beginning and the end of a batch run including Script Actions.
Scripts require at least Mac OS X 10.4 and iPhoto 6.
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5. Preferences
By choosing Preferences from the iPhoto Batch Enhancer menu or by pressing Command-Comma you can open the Preferences window with the following options:
General
- Adding skipped photos means that any object that cannot be processed will be added to the iPhoto album iPhoto Batch Enhancer - Skipped. Skipping occurs when you try to process a movie, on a type mismatch for Snapshots (RAW or Standard) and if there are missing or unconnected data files within iPhoto.
- When activated autochecking will connect once a week to the feroXsoft server to check whether a new version of iPhoto Batch Enhancer is available.
Snapshots
- Preservation of the iPhoto 7 clipboard means that the latest Adjust values that were copied within iPhoto will be preserved while using iPhoto Batch Enhancer. Activating this option will slow down iPhoto Batch Enhancer.
- Furthermore you can determine how a type mismatch (RAW or standard) between a Snapshot and the current photo should be dealt with:
- Slider values with different ranges for RAW and standard photos are being converted into each other or
- Photos that don't match the type of the Snapshot are being skipped.
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6. Installing iPhoto Batch Enhancer
- Open the downloaded disk image file by double clicking it.
- Drag the application icon
into the Applications directory on your disk.
- If you haven't activated UI Scripting yet, you should do it now: Simply enable the checkbox Enable access for assistive devices in the Universal Access panel in the System Preferences application.
- Double click on the application icon to launch iPhoto Batch Enhancer.
Uninstalling iPhoto Batch Enhancer
- Drag the application icon iPhoto Batch Enhancer to the trash.
- Open your home directory by pressing Command-Shift-H. From here navigate to the Library and then Preferences directories and then locate the file de.feroxsoft.xIBE.plist and move it to the trash.
System requirements
- iPhoto Batch Enhancer 3 works with iPhoto 4 to iPhoto 7. Please make sure you use the latest bugfix release of iPhoto.
- The program has been tested with Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther", 10.4 "Tiger" and 10.5 "Leopard".
- As mentioned above you need to activate UI Scripting to let iPhoto Batch Enhancer control iPhoto.
- iPhoto Batch Enhancer is compiled as Universal Binary to support Macintosh computers with PowerPC or Intel Processors.
- Scripts require at least Mac OS X 10.4 and iPhoto 6.
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7. Got problems?
- All the latest information on iPhoto Batch Enhancer can be found on the internet: www.feroxsoft.com.
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