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More than three ways to crank it up
Most of us are familiar with three ways of starting up Aperture. We can, and we usually do, any one of the following:
- Double-clicking on the Aperture icon from inside the Applications window.
- Single-clicking on the Aperture icon that have been placed on the Dock.
- And, if you’ve set Aperture as the default application, it will automatically pop up when you attach a camera or connect a photo card through the card reader.
I’ve done all of the above, but usually, I favor the painless method of single-clicking the the Aperture icon in the Dock to launch the software.
There are, however, three other additional ways that you may want to know on how to launch Aperture.
Some of us may not yet be familiar with these opening gambits. I'm not sure if you'll find these useful or more convenient, but it's good to know you have other options available to you. These are:
- Double-clicking on any of your Aperture library icon. The primary libary is set inside your Photos folder, but you can create different libraries anywhere you choose, incluiding connected drives. You can click on any of these that you want to open.
- You can also click and drag the selected Aperture library that you want to open, and super-impose it to the Aperture icon in your Dock. When you see that Aperture has been selected, with the “Aperture” name is recognized, you can let go.
- And, if you have several Aperture libraries and you want to open a different one but you don’t want to open and close the application by setting it in the Preference pane, press Option and then click on the Aperture icon. A dialog box will pop up that gives you the option to “choose an existing Aperture library or create a new one.” It also shows you the location of your previously selected library location. With this dialog box, you have the option to create a new library, choose a different library, select the current library, or, if you change your mind, you can just press Quit.
Oh, by the way, if you want Aperture to automatically start and be ready when you power up your Mac, go inside System Preferences, Accounts. Click on Login Items, and then click on the plus sign to add Aperture. Just follow the prompts and you'd be able to add Aperture to the start-up items. By the way, you will be prompted to key in Admin passworld to be able to change and update the settings. And, to make sure that Aperture opens right up to the main interface, uncheck the “Show the Welcome Screen at Startup” of the opening splash page.
Of course, to quit Aperture, there are two ways, which, I'm quite sure, you already know how to do. Nope, force-quitting or deliberately crashing the application are not the two ways to close the software. Come to think of it, Aperture is so stable that it’s actually tough to crash it. It takes a special talent to do it.
[Note: Domnique James is a professional photographer currently based in Atlanta, GA. He is an Apple Certified Trainer for Aperture 2.0. Send email to Dominique James or visit The Studio and The Playground.]
Comments (12)
Don't forget typing all or part of the phrase "Aperture" in spotlight. Command-Space, type the text, then enter will open it without a mouse (applications are always at the top of a spotlight search).
Does anyone know of a way like iTunes to pick which library you want to use? In that instance, if you hold down the Option key when iTunes is starting up, it will ask you to point to the library you want to use. Apple is usually good about consistency when it comes to these things...
"Does anyone know of a way like iTunes to pick which library you want to use? In that instance, if you hold down the Option key when iTunes is starting up, it will ask you to point to the library you want to use. Apple is usually good about consistency when it comes to these things..."
Mmm.... yeah: press the option key as it says in the article ;-)
Daniel, excellent point. Yes, indeed, you can start up Aperture from the Spotlight. Thanks for sharing.
There is another way to open up Aperture: create an alias, and put it in your desktop or anywhere you want. You can create many different aliases placing them in different locations.
Yeah, I gotta say...most often people forget searching for apps to launch them. I myself currently use launchbar, but there's also butler, quicksilver, google desktop and more in addition to Spotlight as daniel already mentioned.
I really think though that the Dock and Apps folder are the same way of opening something. It should just be simplified to "By clicking an Aperture icon or alias to Aperture" because you can put an app icon anyway even on the desktop (which is the most common way for windows users)
In addition there's recent items and Terminal - though I really doubt anyone launches apps via terminal.
Michael, great additional information you provided! It's easy to forget the many other ways to open an application. Thanks for sharing.
At the bottom of this post you have some credits...... Copyright of a "screenshot" of an application???!!!! You must be kidding!!!!!
Does this mean I can take screenshots of Google Earth (which I have done) and copyright them?
Bob
You can also click and drag the selected Aperture library that you want to open, and super-impose it to the Aperture icon in your Dock. When you see that Aperture has been selected, with the “Aperture” name is recognized, you can let go.
A.K.A., "Drag and drop an Aperture Library onto Aperture's dock icon." ;)
...or you can drag your Aperture libraries to the dock, or make aliases of them and keep all the aliases together in one folder or on the desktop...
On a tangent - I use Aperture in conjunction with Spaces. Aperture has space-4 all to itself completely uncluttered by emails and browsers. It's neat that when you launch (or switch back to) Aperture all the desktop clutter just slides off the screen to give Aperture pride of place. My scanning software (Vuescan) has space-3.
Mark Thomas, yes, that's the short of the long of it. Thanks.
WetcoastBob, the "template" has been updated. Thanks for letting me know. Now, I kid you not.
Anaxagoras, very nice setup.