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Two Random Tips
The theme of this entry is randomness, as in two completely unrelated, random tips that I've found while using Aperture 2 over the past few weeks. The first is related to file importing, and the second is about hotkeys and workspace customization.
In Aperture 2's import window, there's a new checkbox with the text "Do not import duplicates." As you might guess, turning this option on will cause Aperture to skip what it considers to be duplicates (from what I can tell, it does this based on filename and not content, but I haven't done very in-depth experiments; feel free to correct me if you know better!). The tip here is that if this checkbox is selected, Aperture won't show the duplicate images in the Import Browser! If you uncheck that option, all of your images will reappear (this freaked me out when I browsed to a folder where I had imported everything as referenced files already; I was afraid I'd deleted my images).
For the second tip, I'm sure you all know by now that pressing V cycles you through viewer modes, and W will cycle the tabs in the Inspector (if you have the browser and viewer open, Shift+W will rotate the workspace). You've probably also found that I will hide and show the inspector. But what you might not have noticed is that Shift+I will move the inspector from the left to the right side of the screen and back again.
Feel free to share if you've found any little, random tips for Aperture 2!
Comments (11)
This isn't new to Aperture 2, but I did find it interesting to find that cmd+clicking projects opens them in multiple tabs, which seems to be a somewhat unexplored feature (although, admittedly, I don't find a lot of use for it. I would like to know if anyone has figured out how to select multiple projects at once. I reorganized recently using more nested folders, and found myself unable to select multiple projects to move them into folders, which was pretty tedious and annoying.
Where did the import presets go? Now I have to enter my copyright info each time I import.
Are people having any troubles with Aperture? I love using aperture, and really enjoy using RAW files from my Canon PowerShot G9. But I have ran into several bugs. I have reported them to Apple and commented in the forums. I am just curious why Nobody in inside Aperture or any other blog I read, has mentioned any bugs. Is it because no blog authors have encountered bugs? or is there some philosophical reason? kinda, Let's not publish the dirty laundry until they have had some time to address it. I'm just curious...
Personally, I had major issues trying to adjust timestamps on multiple masters. Works fine if I just select one master, or if I only change the timestamp on Versions. If I try more than one master in on shot, all timestamps get screwy. (At least they maintain their realative timing i.e. two pictures taken 10 minutes apart remain 10 minutes apart.) WORKAROUND: modifiy the versions and not the masters.
The other issue was in hidding and showing the toolbar. Some how after a restart the preferences go haywire and a big ugly grey area shows up that cannot be removed... worse yet it can grow over time. for an example checkout my screenshots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tombolav/sets/72157603968499638/
WORKAROUND: remove your preferences file found in +yourhomefolder+/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Aperture.plist WARNING deleting this file will remove ALL your preferences! Only do this if you know what you are doing. (Personally I tried to search for the particular key causing this behavior to only remove it, but I failed in my search...
Finally... My computer has crashed on me about 5 times in the last week or so. Everytime it crashed I was using Aperture. Coincidence? Possibly... about the same timeframe as 10.5.2... Previous to that I've had only about 10 crashes in over two years... something is fishy... I don't know that it is Aperuture or something else... it's just that everytime I crash, the last thing on my screen is Aperture and not safari or XCode both of which I use more that A2.
What are your experiences like? Does everybody else have a smooth sailing experience?
I too have had Aperture crash on me frequently. Also, when viewing smart albums, previews seem to disappear and the number at the bottom of the screen which shows how many are being displayed goes down. If I come back to my Aperture library at a later time, the original amount is there so I don't believe anything is being deleted from the library. Its just weird that it disappears while just sitting there.
I have also had to manually relink tens of thousands of referenced files due to I believe Time Machine corruption and have also found missing metadata.
Frequent crashing is often caused by faulty RAM. And Aperture is prone to crash if there is faulty RAM, because it uses so much RAM during its processing.
I had this problem with my MacBook Pro. Then I checked my RAM with memtest and Rember and found that I had a faulty RAM stick. I had the faulty piece replaced and have had no further crashes.
Great thoughts everyone!
Peter, I'm not sure if there's a way to select multiple projects easily.
Jose and Steve, I know that Ellen mentioned a bug about watermarking images for email ~two weeks ago now, but aside from that, I don't think we've been seeing the issues you've had. Definitely do submit them to Apple with as much information as possible on how to reproduce them--I completely believe that you're having issues, even if I'm not, and others might be, too!
Joseph, great point about possible memory issues! It could also be a problem with something on your graphics card.
I am using the trial version of Aperture 2. I imported photos to it from USB flash memory. I like the way Aperture works. However when I select a photo to print, it prints a blank page instead. The preview also shows up as blank. Any idea of what I can do to fix this? Thanks.
Hi, I've recently started playing with Aperture 2, and for the most part I think it's great, one area I'm not impressed with is easy control over my file organisation. I imported a bunch of shoots, poped them into their own project folders, created a few albums inside projects to easily sort that shoot, but what I really want to be able to do is now create 2006, 2007 and 2008 project boxes and be able to just drag my other projects over into their relevant year. Is there something I'm missing? Is there no way to have directories with sub-directories? or rather projects with sub-projects, rather then just albums?
@Tracey - I think you're wanting to create a folder called "2006" with sub projects under that. I've seen other photogs do it this way. Personally I haven't. Why? With smart albums I do the same thing and put my photos where ever.
If you want you can even fine tune the Smart Album to something like "Summer 2006"
Create a New Smart Album
Click the + pulldown menu (near quick search)
Choose Date
Change it to "Capture Month of Year" and "is in the range"
Set the range to 6 and 8
Click the + pulldown menu (near quick search)
Choose Date
Change it to "Capture Year" and "is" and enter 2006
I LOVE this because I can see what I did during the summer. If it's in Project "Kids", "Weddings", "Experimental" it doesn't matter.
Ken, you beat me to the punch! Folders are the right way to group a collection of projects, and smart albums will let you make those date-based collections.
I have a MacPro 3hz 2 x quad core, 4gb. I just installed Aperture 2 and it installed ok. I imported iPhoto library (15k photos) and it keeps quiting. I am unable to open Aperture. I dragged Aperture to trash and reinstalled (which it did) and no change. After I try to open Aperture is closes unexpectedly.Very frustrating. Any thoughts much appreciated. Oh yes, I have Time Machine running with Time Capsule. No issues with Aperture 1 but now with Aperture 2 no joy.
thanks,
Ed