Creating video stills with Lightroom 4. Suggestions for improvement.

I have to create a lot of videos stills from videos. I am doing it with iMovie and SnapzProX right now. I would like to do it with Lightroom 4 but the work-flow has to be improved. Right now it is pretty unusable for my special purpose. I explain why.
In iMovie I play a movie in full screen presentation mode. You can start and stop the movie with the space bar. You can navigate frame-by-frame with the arrow keys. Unfortunately you cannot jump by 10 frames if you press shift and arrow keys (like in other video apps). The video scrubbing area goes across the whole screen, so you have space enough to scrub and find the parts in the video that you like to grab. All in all this makes it pretty easy to find the exact still frames that you then can capture with SnapzProX. The down-side is that you have to organize the captured frames yourself by importing them into Lightroom.
Now we have video import in Lightroom 4 and we can capture frames. But the handling is not really comfortable.
You can start and stop the video with space but you cannot locate an exact frame with the arrow keys. You have to use the locator and scrub with the mouse. Since the scrubbing area is short it is pretty difficult to find the exact frame. To capture a frame you have to select the pop-up.
Here is my suggestions to turn the video feature in Lightroom 4 into a dream for people who need to capture video stills.
Make the video slider bigger. At least across the whole video.
Go to next and previous frame via arrow keys
Jump by +10 / -10 frames via shift + arrow keys
Keeping arrow keys pressed should repeat the action
Create a keyboard shortcut for capturing a frame
Imagine how this would improve the work-flow.
All videos stills would be automatically organized in Lightroom.
You have the original video file linked and can add more stills later.
You can color correct the stills.
AND - you can color correct the video.
I am just wondering how I would export the color corrected video to something like Apple Intermediate to process it further via Compressor for web delivery. I haven't tried this yet. Any ideas?
I hope my suggestions make sense and find their way in the finished product.
Andreas

While in video, using captured frame – my picture is extracted at 19 20 x 10 80.
Attempting to use this picture in the books module causes resolution problems yet the same picture when used in the print module and save to a picture file causes no resolution problems and becomes 255 0 x 3300 when using it in the book module.
another improvement would be to set the resolution so it reacts like it does in the print module and adjust the book module similary

Similar Messages

How can I repair my IPod n still have all my information in it or can i get a new one but still with all my information for how much?

How can I repair my IPod n still have all my information in it or can i get a new one but still with all my information for how much

- Apple will exchange your iPod for a refurbished one for this price. They do not fix yours. Apple does not transfer any data.
Apple - iPod Repair price
- To backup all your data to computer follow the instructions here. However, do not restore from backup until you have the replacement/repaired iPod.

Any suggestions for improving my efficiency?

These are the two methods I've come up with to use what I have for making movies. One is for DVDs. The other is for making QuickTime MOV files for CDs. This is the process I have to use because we don't yet have our digital video camera that is firewire compatible with Final Cut.
For DVDs that will play in DVD players or media software on your computer:
1. I take the Video_TS folder and run it through DVD Imager (free, macupdate.com) which converts it into an IMG file.
2. I use the Apple Disk Utility (part of OS X) and burn the IMG file to a DVD.
Simple enough.
Making our recorded footage editable in Final Cut and then exporting as a QuickTime movie is a little more complicated. There may be a simpler way to do all this (like get a fire-wire FC-compatible camera I can capture footage from) but this is the process I finally got to work:
1. In the Video_TS folder are two VOB files. The larger one is the one that actually has your video on it. I use MPEG Streamclip (free, squared5.com) to remove the timebreaks (otherwise all you get is the poster frame) and convert it to a Quicktime MOV file. For settings, I just use Apple Video, 720x480 NTSC, and 30 fps. You need to buy the Apple Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20, apple.com) for this free software to work.
2. Import the MOV file into Final Cut (I use Express which is $300 from apple.com) and do your editing and other yumminess. You'll need to render it first.
3. Export as an MOV file ... there's no .mov extension and the Info says it's a Final Cut Express Movie file, not a QT MOV which makes me nervous so I I open it in QuickTime Pro ($30, apple.com) and export it using the Movie to Quicktime Movie setting.
4. Then I burn my Quicktime movies to a CD.
Any suggestions for improving my efficiency?

"For DVDs that will play in DVD players..."
If what you want is just to make copies of a DVD you burned yourself (eg using iDVD or your DVD camcorder) there is a simpler way: just create an image of the DVD on your desktop using Disk Utility, and then burn it using Disk Utility.
You need to go into the process of copying the VIDEO_TS folder only if you want to make changes to it. For example you might need myDVDEdit, a very powerful free editor of the DVD structure (to change the menu button behaviour, or so). Or maybe if the image is of a different size, from a small DVD to a large one.
Piero

Suggestion for Improving Number

Hello Oracle Java community,
I've recently encountered some difficulties using the abstract class java.lang.Number, and have a suggestion for improvement.
I'm writing a class that computes statistical information on a list of numbers - it would be nice to not couple this class to Integer, Double, BigDecimal, or any other wrapper by using generics. I saw that there is a nice superclass that all Number objects inherit from.
I came up with:
public class Statistics<T extends Number> {
private List<T> data;
// statistical data that i wish to find and store, such as median, mean, standard dev, etc
public synchronized void setData(List<T> data) {
this.data = data;
if (this.data != null && !this.data.isEmpty()) calculateStatistics();
private void calculateStatistics() {
// Welcome to instanceof and casting hell...
h4. It would be nice to have richer functionality from the Number class, say to do mathematical operations with them or compare them.
h4. After all, in the real world it is possible to do so.
h4. Real numbers are much like BigDecimal. Why not take the idea of BigDecimal, and make that the parent of Integer, BigInteger, Double, Short, Byte, Float (I'm probably forgetting a few)? All of those are limited forms of real numbers. It would make comparison between Number datatypes easy, would probably remove all of that duplicated arithmetic code between all of the children of Number, and also allow Numbers to be used in powerful generic ways. The parent/replacement of BigDecimal could even be named RealNumber, which stays true to its math domain.
As a side note, I'm solving this problem by taking an initial step to convert the List<whatever type of Number that the user enters> into a List<BigDecimal> by getting the toString() value of each element when cast as a Number.
private List<BigDecimal> convertData(List<T> data) {
ArrayList<BigDecimal> converted = new ArrayList<BigDecimal>();
for (T element : data) {
converted.add(new BigDecimal(((Number) element).toString()));
return converted;
Criticism is always welcome.
Thanks for your time and thoughts.
-James Genac

How compareTo() came into existence is from Comparable interface. As I understand, Comparable came into existence since Collections API has sorting functions - which needs to be run with a matching Comparable object that knows how to determine which element is larger than the other (not limited to objects representing numbers, you might sort a list of Persons). Hence, compareTo() is not solely meant for the comparison of numbers. Existence of the method in BigDecimal is just one case.
Subclasses can override the equals() method, but that cannot be implemented in a cleaner manner and leads to a very poor design. For example, you might want to compare an Integer and a Float. So the Integer class's equals() method need to have some if-else structure to determine the other type and then compare. Same holds true for the Float class's equals() method as well. Ultimately, Everything becomes a mess. All subclasses of RealNumber needs to know about all other subclasses of RealNumber. And you will not be able to introduce new subtypes and expect the equals() method to work correctly.
To avoid this, you need to depend on a single representation form for all types of numbers. If that's the case, you might just live with something like BigDecimal and not use Byte, Float, Integer,... (which we kind of do in some cases - for example to represent monetary amounts). So we can live without Byte, Float, Integer,...
Then we need some utility classes that would contain some number type specific functions to work with primitives. So we will also have Byte, Float, Integer... unrelated to BigDecimal.
Clearly, the wrapper types are there not because of the need to represent real world number types, but because of the need to represent computer domain number types. Hence, they have been organized not according to relationships found in real world number types. Many of us find this way of modelling sufficient and have an understanding about the limitations. But if you need to model the real world number relationships for some special reason, you might write some new classes. Then again there will be real world aspects that you will not be able to model easily. So you will model some aspects and neglect the other.

It is Any suggestions for improving Oracle Tools GUI performance?

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving the GUI performance of Oracles Java Tools? Response to events is very sloooow i.e. click on a menu in Oracle Directory Manager wait three seconds before the menu items appear.
System Environment:
Dell Inspiron 8100
Windows XP Pro
256MB Ram
1 GHz
Oracle:
Oracle91 Enterprise Edition 9.0.1.1.1
Other:
No non Oracle Java components installed (JDKs, JREs etc.)
Thanks

If the database and the tools are just on the one box more memory is probably required. I had an nt box with 500MHz 256MB and Oracle 9i and the java tools were unusable. I upgraded to 768MB of ram and the java tools were much quicker. I use the java tools on my laptop 256MB and 800MHz and they work fine for remote databases (ie. no rdbms on the laptop).

Is there a way to create videos 'fast' with adobe products?

I am an affiliate marketer. I have produced a video Inspro Program: personal development planned and achieved - YouTube and I would like to know if there are ways to create videos within maybe 10 minutes with Adobe products. Please suggest a quick method.

Turnaround times ultimately depend on the skill of the person doing the work just as much as the programs' capabilities. And 10 minutes for editing a video? That's just ridiculous. Importing/ exporting footage or tweaking voice-over audio alone could take longer as could replacing/ re-typing text.
Mylenium

How to create new user, with same personal files, for troubleshooting?

I cannot find this answer in "Finder Help", nor in the Community discussions thus far. What I must do to troubleshoot the spinnign beach ball: My next step: I must troubleshoot my friend's iMac running Mac O.S 10.6.8 by setting up a new user, called "Test". This I can do easily. However, what I am unsure of is this: as this "new user", actually just me as a tester, I must be able to access the same email, Word files, Desktop, photos, etc. that I used to access. How, then? Copy all into a shared folder or what? There must be a less cumbersome way. I do NOT wish to delete anything. Of course, I have justmade a perfect backup of everything on my hard drive. Please advise re my next step: sharing the "User" little house files, with myself, as the new, possilbly temporary, user. Thank you so much, anyone and everyone!

You shouldn't do any of that for troubleshooting. The test user account should be pristine. If you copy stuff from the old account, then you also copy whatever is causing a problem.
Just use the Accounts/Users & Groups preferences to create a second user called, "test." Make this user an admin user. Then log out of the old account and log into the new one. That's it. You can still access and use applications in the Applications folder if you need to test third-party applications.
We could be more helpful if you explain just what you need to troubleshoot. If just the spinning beachball is your issue, then visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on resolving the SBOD problem.
If the computer is simply running slowly then read the following:
Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
                                  The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
                                  The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
                                  The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
                                  Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
          Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
          OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
          About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
    used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
    requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
    drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

How to create a user with read only access for ESB / BPEL Console

I need to create a user with read only access to ESB Console & BPEL Console. I have created a user
(esbreadonly) and assigned ascontrol_monitor role but user is still able to
delete services from ESB systems (such as DefaultSystem). Is there any way to
create a user that has strickly read only access to ESB Console & BPEL
Console
Thanks
Dinesh Patel

Check out this post.. I'm in the process of testing.
http://chintanblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-saw-numerous-people-asking-about-bpel_290.html

Can we create a analyses with measures as rows for comparision trend

I am working in OBIEE 11g.
Need to create a analyses with measures as rows and study their yearly progress in a single table
normally dimesions are used as rows and measures as columns but this one is slightly different ..tried using table and pivot but unable to show diff measures in single table
Something like this:
------------------------------------Yearly ------Prev year------change%
Shipped Qty ---------------------150----------100--------------50%
Delivered Qty---------------------150----------100--------------50%
Undelivered Qty-----------------150----------100--------------50%
Billed Qty---------------------------150----------100--------------50%
where shipped Qty , Delivered Qty , Billed Qty are the various measures
Please share your expertise in achieveing this
Would appreciate your help as its urgent
Regards
Pranati

Hi Pranati,
Create a Union report. You have one calculated column with just the text, eg.; 'Shipped Qty' and 3 columns with the 'Shipped Qty'-measures; Yearly ------Prev year------change%
Do the same for the other 3 Qty's
Good Luck,
Daan Bakboord
http://obibb.wordpress.com

Can't Video Chat with iChat and AIM for PC

I recently bought a MacBook Pro and I'm using iChat (obviously). I've tried many times to have a One-Way Video chat with my friend who is using Windows XP and the newest version of AIM for Windows. When we connect to the video chat I can see myself but on his end he only sees a black screen, he is unable to see me. Help??

Hi,
You could try Limiting the Bandwidth (ichat Menu > Preferences > Video Section > Bandwidth Limit) to 500kbps. (Possibly try 200kbps as well)
If the latest version of AIM on PC includes the "Real Time" Option, it should turned Off. (It is a feature to send Text as you type but effects the Video end as well).
Also read through this Users Tip http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1968438
There is no guarantee of success I am afraid, despite both apps supposedly being compatible.
9:13 PM Wednesday; July 28, 2010
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

Is it possible to video chat with AIM 4.7 for Mac?

My wife uses iChat on her new iMac (10.4.x). I'm on military deployment with our old PowerBook G4 (10.3.9). I installed AIM 4.7 for Mac but not able to video chat with her. I can't find a video option in AIM 4.7. I have a USB webcam. Am I missing something?

You need to use iChat.
AIM 4.7 for Mac does not Video.
A trial @mac name or an AIM Name are free.
Links and Instructions http://www.siriusaddict.com/ichat.html
8:52 PM Saturday; January 12, 2008

Moving toward a click-less OS: a suggestion for improving the Mac interface

This is a long post, so if you have a short attention span, or are not interested in UI design, have a nice day and move on to the next post!
A little history first. Back in the days of OS 7 and earlier, I recall a feature lacking from the OS that was really important. For a long time, Apple did not use sticky menus, and you had to use a third-party extension to have the ability to click once on a menu heading and have the pop down menu display and stay there without having to hold the mouse down. Around OS 8 or so I recall that they made sticky menus part of the OS and all applications, and that was a welcome ergonomic improvement. No need to click and hold when we explore menus. What I plan to talk about in this post is a similar improvement -- one designed to facilitate the easy exploration of files and folders while completely eliminating the need to click at all.
My idea was inspired by another feature of OS 8 (or thereabouts). This was the ability to display the files in a folder as buttons. This allowed the user to launch the application/file with a single click, rather than the ergonomically bad double-click required in previous OS's. (You could still select a file without launching it by clicking the label rather than the icon.) This very useful feature went away in OS X. So one is back to double clicking to launch all documents, photos, movies, or whatever. If you are editing hundreds of pictures in a folder as I am, and double clicking them to launch PREVIEW for a quick inspection, you start to develop problems with the tendons in the wrist. I have to switch hands regularly to deal with the fatigue.
The elimination of buttons was a huge step backward for me in OS X. It is simply not acceptable to have to double click files to launch them. I think a future OS -- truly improved, not just one with more flash -- must solve this problem. As I thought about how it should be implemented, I realized there is a much better and more general solution than that offered by buttons. One that allows the examination of files without ever clicking at all.
Imagine a folder with multiple file types: photos, mp3's, movies, text edit files, etc, and assume the files are displayed as icons (although my suggestion would work with list view as well). You see a jpg thumbnails and want to see some of them at full size. Or you see a song and want to hear it, or a movie and want to view it. Now imagine that there is a special "preview" mode which allows you to easily and quickly examine the contents of the files without having to launch them in an application by double clicking, then close the window with another click, go on to the next icon of interest, and do this again, and again, and again until your hand is ready to fall off. Instead, you toggle an assigned key (say F5), or select an appropriate menu choice in the Finder, in order to activate what I shall call dynamic preview mode (DPM). With DPM, whenever you move the cursor over a file icon you get a preview. For example, moving the cursor over a jpg file would immediately expand it to full size on the screen. The image would stay up for as long as the cursor remained over the file's icon (which may not be visible). Moving the cursor off the icon causes the preview image to "collapse" back into the file icon. Moving the cursor over another jpg would cause its image to expand to full size until you moved on to the next, and so on. Note that you are able to view ALL of the jpg images without ever clicking the mouse once, well enough twice. There isn't any way I can think of to make reviewing large numbers of images easier. All you have to do is move the mouse around and the images appear and disappear dynamically, without you doing anything other than moving the mouse. Since you would have to do that anyway to select a file for launching under OS X, DPM brings the effort down to the bare bones minimum (short of using a slide show -- but that has other problems, which is why I don't use it except at the end for the fully edited pics). Think of DPM as a super convenient way to browse images without launching applications, closing windows, double-clicking, and so on. When you find an image that you might want to do something with, say edit the color balance in Photoshop, you then launch it using the appropriate application.
Of course, applications are indeed launched during DPM. But not in the usual way. No doubt the Preview app would be used to handle the display of the jpg's in DPM but it would be modified somewhat for dynamically viewing images. When the cursor goes over a jpg, Preview opens it and displays it, but not in the usual window with a close box, but just as a simple untitled pane showing the image. And as soon as the cursor moves the pane disappears. Likewise, there is no Preview menu bar showing at the top of the screen, because Preview is only used for dynamic display, not editing of the jpg. Now, the user might want to launch the parent application when placing the cursor over the icon because they want to use the application to do something with it (besides viewing or listening). No problem. We simply design DPM so that when the option key is pressed while the cursor is moved over a file icon, it fully launches the application with the file, just as it now does when you double click the file icon. You get the usual titled window, application menu bar, etc. But note that you get the application running with the file loaded without having to double click. This click-less OS interaction, of course, could be implemented right now since it is a only a minor tweak on the OS.
What about other file types? Putting the cursor over an mp3 file (or other supported format) would start playing the song, and putting the cursor over a movie file would start playing the movie, again in an untitled pane. Presumably Quicktime would be used to handle both of these latter two tasks, but without launching in the usual way and taking over the menu bar. Putting the cursor over a text or RTF file would display it in a pane (possibly using Text Edit). More complicated file types (word processor, spreadsheet, statistical, etc.) would probably not be supported in a first-generation DPM. But jpg, mp3, mov, txt, and rtf files could be easily handled using just three applications that come with every Mac. Also, "compressed" stickie notes could now be deposited individually anywhere, in any folder or on the desktop, and putting the cursor over the note would expand it to full view. With the current OS, we need to run the stickies app which displays ALL the sticky notes at once, and which constrains them to the desktop only, both of which are serious limitations.
Of course, once we have DPM users will want to complicate things -- they always do. For example, they'll want the mp3 preview to have a play bar with a bug to position in the song, volume control, etc, just like the Quicktime player. But be careful what you ask for, or we are right back with full fledged apps loading with a menu bar and a window that has to be closed, and that defeats the point of a click-less preview. This is because any interaction the user might wish to have with the viewer or player will require moving the cursor, and in DPM that would normally cause the preview to cease. That's the point, after all. So I would argue that dynamic preview should be kept very simple: cursor on the icon opens a preview, cursor off the icon closes the preview.
Would this be enormously difficult to do? No. It is already being done -- kind of. For any of the file types discussed above, you can click on the file icon, then press command-I (Get Info), and you will see a preview at the bottom of the info box. If it is a pic, that's all you get. If a song or movie, you can play it. Unfortunately, if it is an rtf file, no preview is displayed -- kind of odd, that. (How hard is it to display some text?) The only thing not offered in the command-I previews for pics and movies is a full (or at least larger) screen preview. But that shouldn't be too difficult since Preview and Quicktime allow that as a matter of course.
Oh yeah. We can add folder icons to the list of icons supported by DPM. Right now, if I want to quickly peek at some folders just to see what they contain, I have to double-click each one to open it, and then click on the close box to close it again. With dynamic preview activated, all I would do is move the cursor over the folder icon and it would immediately expand to its usual size showing whatever contents can be seen in that view. Moving the cursor would make the folder collapse again. Again, all that is need to examine the contents of folders would be to move the cursor around. That's it.
(Don't get greedy -- you might want a scroll bar for the folder preview, but that defeats the point of a quick preview and would require cursor movement which, with DPM, would close the folder preview. Again, holding the option key down while placing the cursor over the folder icon could open the folder in the usual way, without needing to double click. But as with option-launched previews for images and the like, you will have to close the preview window yourself.)
Now, I do not think think dynamic preview should be activated out of the box, at least not at this point. Inexperienced users will be confused to see things popping up on the screen when they are moving the cursor around (or hearing songs). But for experienced users who have thousands of files archived in dozens of folders who need to quickly and easily examine them without the steps required now -- double-click, look or listen, close -- this would be a real improvement in the UI, one that would really make a difference. One, that once a user tried it (just like the first Mac OS) would make them say "I'll never go back!"
In closing, I must post a question, or fear being chastised for not following discussion group rules. So, what are the technical obstacles to doing what I am suggesting, and who else would like to see it done? (And, yes, I am sending these suggestions to Apple, so no need to tell me that.)
Drake

BDAqua wrote:
I agree with you totally... except the clickless preview though, since Apple doesn't like to give you options to turn stuff off or not use it at all if they go to the trouble of putting it in the OS!
Well, they give you the option to display the contents of a folder in list, icon, or column view. So why can't you have the option to view files with and without dynamic previewing? It is the dynamic equivalent (off vs on) of the static options provided by list, icon, and column view. Also, by the logic you give above (for Apple), one should not have preferences, because that makes the functioning of the OS or app different from one user to the next. And as a counter example, the features of the OS for people with disabilities are great to have, but they are not active just because they are there. One has to want to use them...
And if you think about it, Expose is an optional utility, as is Dashboard. Some people use them, some don't. DPM would be the same.
Every new OS release makes me spend a lot of time learning how to shut off/disable things like Spotlight, Dashboard, Time Machine, Transparent Dock & Menubar, ad infinitum!
Me too. Although I have learned to like Spotlight (although it has bugs), and the dock.
Did I ever tell you Leopard's System Preferences icon in the Dock looks like a Skull & Crossbones to me?
If you close one eye & squint the other one until it does to you, then you'll get an idea what OSX looks like to me... LOL.
I tried, but couldn't conjure it up! I must have too limited an imagination.
BTW, Are you aware you can select as many things to view at once as you want & drag them to say Preview's icon?
Sure. Have you ever selected several hundred pics and launched preview? Ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk, wheez! It is quicker and less demanding of system resources to view one jpg at a time, unless you want to compare them in some way or do a slide show. But for just exploring the files, I want to do it one at a time, especially if iTunes is playing in the background, Photoshop is running and waiting to load a pic that I might decide to edit, mail is up to let me know if anyone is trying to reach me (ding!), Safari is running so I can follow Apple Discussions, etc. In other words, a lot is going on. No need to make matters worse by loading a bunch of pics into Preview, when I am happy to view them singly. This is why I object to the Cover Flow aspect of Quick Look and Safari 4.0. It is just another way to dog down limited system resources.

Suggestions for improving sharing

Since Adobe Review is discontinued, I used with a couple of clients the new creative cloud sharing and I found some missing features or improvements needed:
1. When a client is reviewing a file (i.e. a picture) he must input the email address to post a comment, this is annoying since I sent the review email to his address, so it's already verified.
2. An important improvement would be a way to make a note (or link a comment) on a specific part of the picture/text so the comment can be highlighted in the context.
3. I'd like also to receive a notification of new comments or see on the dashboard if new comments are present on a file, so I can review all the latest comments.
4. There could be a button for "approval", if I put several versions of a work, client can approve the one he likes.
Maybe some features are still present, please tell me if I'm wrong.
thanks

Thank you for the suggestions. Improvements with sharing and collaboration are coming. You can read more here on this Adobe blog post http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/coming-soon-to-creative-cloud/.
Feel free to add more suggestions to the blog post or follow up here with more. We are listening.

Obvious and simple Iphone Suggestions for improvements

Iphone Suggestions:
by the way, where is the place one should post these suggestions for best possible chance for the mac brainies to hear it?
Thanks
- can't edit, add to or create groups in contacts on the phone
- can't add a whole group at once to an email "to"or cc or bcc field. have to keep adding one at a time..
- can't insert contact details to a SMS conversation.
- draft emails don't autosave, have lost a few like this.
and boy does it need a usb port, even one that can maybe stick out of the earphone jack as an accessory.
otherwise i love it.
:)c
Message was edited by: Craig Charnock

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Where can i submit suggestions for improvement of email?

I have a few suggestions to improve the email program used on the iPhone and iPad. How do I get them to Apple to be considered in the next iOS update? First suggestion is the ability to "mark" contacts when sending to multiple email contacts. Currently you have to select one for the "to" field then return to contacts to select the next one. Should be able to bring up contacts list and place a check beside each one you want to send to and the hit "done" to populate the "to, cc, or bcc" fields.
The second suggestion is the ability to create email groups directly on the iPad/iPhone for frequent lists I send to.
The third suggestion is the ability to have a "read receipt" option so I know that the email was delivered and read.
Thanks,
Keith

Specifically for the iPad.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Creating video stills with Lightroom 4. Suggestions for improvement.

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