iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual

138 iphoto ’08: the missing manual

 •Highlightthemandthenpressc-Delete (or choose PhotosÆRestore to Photo

Library). Think of it as the un-Trash command.

 •DragthethumbnailsoutoftheTrashandontothePhotosiconin theSource

list.

 •Control-click(orright-click)thephotoorphotosand,fromtheshortcutmenu,

choose Restore to Photo Library.

You’ve just rescued them from photo-reject limbo and put them back into your main

photo collection.

Tip: You can also move photos from the Trash back into your Library by selecting them—yes, in the Trash

“album”—and then pressing c-Delete.

To permanently delete what’s in the Trash, choose iPhotoÆEmpty Trash, or

Control-click (right-click) the Trash icon to access the Empty Trash command via

a shortcut menu. iPhoto then displays an alert message, warning you that emptying

the Trash removes these photos permanently and irreversibly. Only when you empty

the Trash does the iPhoto Library actually shrink in size.

(Of course, if you imported the photos from files on disk or haven’t deleted them from

your camera, you can still recover the original files and reimport them.)

Whatever pictures you throw out by emptying the Trash also disappear from any

albums you’ve created.

Note: If you use iPhoto to track photos that are not actually in iPhoto (they remain “out there” in folders on

your hard drive), deleting them in iPhoto doesn’t do much. They no longer show up in iPhoto, but they’re

still out there on the hard drive, right where they always were. See page 86 for more on this external photo-

tracking feature.

Customizing the Shoebox

iPhoto’s Photos view starts out looking just the way you probably see it now, with each

picture displayed as a small thumbnail against a plain white background. This view

makes it easy to browse through photos and work with iPhoto’s various tools.

But hey, this is your digital shoebox. With a little tweaking and fine-tuning, you can

completely customize the way iPhoto displays your photos.

Start with a visit to iPhotoÆPreferences and click the Appearance button.

Tip: You can open the iPhoto Preferences window at any time by pressing c-comma. This keystroke is

blissfully consistent across all the iLife programs.

Deleting Photos

chapter 5: the digital shoebox 139

Changing the View

The controls in the Appearance panel of the Preferences window let you make some

pretty significant changes to the overall look of your Library. See Figure 5-21 for an

example.

Here are your options:

 •Addorremoveaborderorshadow. The factory setting, Drop Shadow, puts a soft

black shadow behind each thumbnail in the photo-viewing pane, a subtle touch

that gives your Library an elegant 3-D look.

As pretty as this effect is, however, there are those who say that on slow Macs, it

can bog iPhoto down slightly, as the program has to continually redraw or resize

those fancy shadows behind each thumbnail whenever you scroll or zoom. In that

case, turning off the drop shadow might grant you slightly faster scrolling.

The Border setting puts a thin black or white frame around each picture—whatever

contrasts best with the screen background.

 •Changethebackgroundcolor. A slider here lets you adjust the background color

of the photo-viewing pane. Actually, the term “color” is a bit of an overstatement,

since your choices include only white, black, or any shade of gray in between.

 •Adjustthealignment. Turn on the “Align photos to grid” checkbox if you want the

thumbnails in your Library to snap into evenly spaced rows and columns, even if

your collection includes thumbnails of varying sizes and orientations, as shown

in Figure 5-22.

Figure 5-21:

Here’s a typical

Library with a

very different

look. Instead of

the usual white

background

with drop-shad-

owed thumb-

nails, this view

presents large

thumbnails,

with borders,

against dark

gray. The font

for the Source

list is enlarged,

and the titles

for each photo

are displayed.

Customizing

the Shoebox