iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual

382 iphoto ’08: the missing manual

As Figure B-2 illustrates, you can now browse or search the old copies of your backups.

Each time you click on the big perspective arrow, Time Machine shows you the same

iPhoto window as it was the last time anything changed. The idea is that this way, you

can find the photo or album as it existed before it got deleted or damaged. (You can

also drag your cursor through the time ruler on the right side of the screen.)

When you find the missing photos or albums, select them (page 114), and then click

Restore. You return to your current iPhoto library, where the missing or damaged

photos are magically reimported—from the past.

Edit Menu

As you would expect, the commands in the Edit menu let you edit various parts of

your Photo Library, such as keywords, photo titles, and the sort order. The standard

Cut, Copy, and Paste commands operate on selected text and photos as normal.

Undo

Where would this world be without Undo? In iPhoto, you even have a multiple Undo;

using this command (and its keyboard equivalent, c-Z), you can reverse your last

series of actions in iPhoto, backing out of your bad decisions with no harm done

(Figure B-3). How nice to know that if you go too heavy on the contrast, delete an

important photo, or crop out your grandmother’s earlobe, there’s a quick and easy

way out.

File Menu

Figure B-2:

In Time

Machine view,

iPhoto is very

stripped down.

When you

select some

photos, and

then click

Restore, you

return to your

current iPhoto

setup, where

the rescued

photos are

reinstated. (Try

to avoid getting

your tears of

relief into the

keyboard.)

appendix b: iphoto ’08, menu by menu 383

Note that the Undo command tracks your changes in each window independently.

For example, suppose you’re in the main iPhoto window. You enter Edit mode, where

you crop a photo and rotate it. Now you double-click the photo so that it opens in its

own window. Here, you fix some red eye and adjust the contrast.

As long as you remain in the new window, you can undo the contrast and red-eye

adjustments—but if you return to the main window, you’ll find that the Undo com-

mand will take back only your original actions—the cropping and rotating.

So while iPhoto can handle multiple levels of undo, keep in mind that each window

maintains its own private stash of Undos.

Redo

Redo (Shift-c-Z) lets you undo what you just undid. In other words, it reapplies the

action you just reversed using the Undo command.

Cut, Copy, Paste

These commands work exactly the way they do in your word processor when you’re

editing photo titles, comments, keywords, or any other text fields. In addition, they

have a few special functions when they’re used in certain parts of iPhoto.

 •Inaphotoalbum(notthemainPhotoLibrary),youcanselectphotosanduseCut

to remove them from the album. (This doesn’t delete them from the Photo Library,

only from that particular album.) To move the photos to a different album, click

the album’s name, or click one of its photos, and then choose Paste.

 •YoucanassignphotosfromthemainPhotoLibrarytoaspecificalbumusingthe

Copy and Paste commands. Select a file, choose Copy, click the destination photo

album, and finally choose Paste.

 •Cut,Copy,andPasteareallinactivewhenyou’reinEditingmode(Chapter7).

Edit Menu

Figure B-3:

Just about any action you perform in iPhoto can be

reversed with the Undo command. The menu command

itself always spells out exactly what it’s going to undo—

Undo Add Photo to Album, Undo Cropping, and so

on—so that you know which action you’re backing out of.

The one un-undoable action to keep in mind is emptying

the iPhoto Trash. Once that’s done, your trashed photos

are gone for good.