TIPS AND TRICKS: iCloud’s PhotoStream

January 30th, 2012

One of the new features of iCloud is called “Photostream.” It allows all the pictures you take on your iPhone or iPad to appear on all your devices in a matter of seconds.

It also uploads your pictures into your iPhoto without you having to plug in and synchronize!

To use it, you’ll first need to start using iCloud. But that’s a topic for another day (you’re welcome to call Jamie at 503-504-6392 to schedule a time to set it up)! Once you’ve registered for iCloud, go into the System Preferences>iCloud pane and slide the Photostream slider to the right to turn it on.

If you see a message that you need to upgrade your iPhoto, go to the App Store and either Update or Purchase the new version. Then you’ll be able to flip the switch!

Next, go into the settings on your iPhone and iPad through Settings>iCloud, and turn Photostream on there as well.

Now, every time you take a picture, it will be available to you in a new Photostream Album that appears in iPhoto or in the Photos app on your device.

You can’t delete pictures out of the Photostream – they stay in your stream for 90 days or 1000 pictures, whichever comes first. There’s no way to selectively delete individual shots. If you absolutely have to delete them, go to www.iCloud.com and turn Photostream off from there. It will erase ALL the photos, and you can start over.

In iPhoto, Photostream will also instantly import your photos into your library. You’ll need to manually delete the bad or extra pictures, just as you do with a regular import.

To delete photos from your Camera Roll after Photostream imports them, you’ll need to either do it manually right on your iPhone or iPad, or plug into your computer. When you plug in, you’ll get a dialog box that looks like this, and you can then remove all the shots at once.

While Photostream makes it easy to import and share pictures in your iCloud, for which I am grateful, the lack of ability to delete easily may convince you to turn the feature back off. As iCloud matures, Apple will certainly smooth out the workflow!

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TIPS AND TRICKS: Quicklook

December 1st, 2010

Quicklook

Quicklook

While for many of you this tip is well-known, if you haven’t discovered this yourself, you’ll be delighted. “Quicklook” allows you to instantly view the contents of most files, without even opening the program.

For example, I have several Word documents in a folder, and I’m not sure which is the one I need. Instead of waiting while Word starts up, and then opening all of the files in question, I can use Quicklook right from the Finder.

Another way I use this is when I need a little piece of info from a file, but don’t want to take the time to open the program just to grab a little snippet. Quicklook will do the trick!

To give Quicklook a try, go to the Finder and open a new window (File>New Finder Window). Go into your Documents folder and find a file you want to peek at. Click on it ONE time to select it (not twice – a double-click will launch the file’s application, which is exactly what you’re trying to avoid).

Now, press the Spacebar on your keyboard. An overlay will appear on the screen, showing you the contents of the file. You can scroll around, skim from page to page, and even play movies or presentations.

To see another file, simply click on it back in the Finder window while this Quicklook overlay is open – it will switch to that next file. Or, use your up and down arrows on your keyboard to scroll through your list.

I use this feature several times a day. It’s the one biggest productivity feature I can’t do without – whenever I have to work on a PC, I’m lost without it…

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You’ve Got Options!

July 1st, 2010

Ever wonder what that Option key was for, tucked between your Command key* and the Control key**? It has several hidden tricks up its sleeve!

1. Diacritical marks. As I discussed in last month’s Tip and Trick, hold down the Option key, type a vowel to get a diacritical mark, let go, then type the letter you want that mark above. For example, “Option – e – let go – a” gives you an “á”.

2. iPhoto’s Rotate. By default, the Rotate button turns your picture 90° counter-clockwise. Hold down the Option key and it will change to clockwise.

3. Degrees and other special characters. Notice that degree symbol in #2 above? I held down the Option key when typing the asterisk. “Option-Shift-8” gave me an “°”. This will work on several keyboard combinations. ¡E??e®îmeñ†! (Experiment!)

4. Switch your speakers or microphone. Hold down your Option key and click on the Speaker icon in the upper right corner of your screen. If you have speakers, a microphone, or headphones plugged in, you’ll be able to choose them off a list. So if you want to switch back to your computer’s internal speakers, you can do so in a flash.

5. Open System Preferences. Hold down your Option key and tap on any of your F keys, the top row on your keyboard. You can immediately open up System Preferences directly to Brightness, Expose, Keyboard, or Sound.

6. Jump down a page. Right now, if you click in your scrollbar above or below the blue bubble, it will either jump you up/down a page, or to that place in the document. Hold down the Option key and it will reverse the setting. Find a long page in Safari or Word and give it a try! Very handy!

7. Open up new Inspectors. This trick works in Keynote or Pages. Open your Inspector, the panel that contains all the commands. Option-click on one of the buttons across its top, and you can have your Text pane open at the same time as your Object pane!

*for keyboard commands
**for right-click shortcut menus

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