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Quick Media Browser

afterglow's picture

Media BrowserThis is a 10.4 tip that was first reported on macosxhints a few days ago. It uses a saved Automator action to call up a pane similar to the iLife Media Browser.

The nice feature of this is the ability to quickly call up your iPhoto library if you need to drag and drop a picture into a project without booting iPhoto. The same function works for your music or media files. It's great timesaver for mocking up ideas in InDesign or other drag and drop aware programs. Normally, it involves booting iPhoto, waiting for it to load, finding the right pic, right clicking and noting the location of the file within the iPhoto folder structure before placing it.

Directions
1.Open up Automator.
2.Click on the iPhoto Icon in the left hand pane
3. Click on the "Ask for Photos" action and drag it to the right hand pane.
4. Save as an Application (or contextual menu item).
5. Drop the new Application in your Dock.
6 You can use the same "Ask for.." function with iTunes or Quicktime.

Jammo's picture

Great stuff!

Great find Cian !

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GOO

Ivan's picture

Wow!

That's neat. Why is the Ask for Photos menu item spinning all the time?

afterglow's picture

Basically, it's the first

Basically, it's the first step in a workflow action which you never actually finish.Clicking cancel on the dialog box after you have chosen your photo will stop the workflow and the workflow menu icon.

Next step is to build a proper Icon for this new "PhotoBrowser" app ;)

afterglow.ie - Icons, interfaces, illustration

Waleed's picture

iLife Needed?

Which version of iPhoto do I need?
I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.6 and iPhoto 2 is part of my Applications, but it does not show on Automator's list. Do I need the new iLife for it to show?

Thanks,
Waleed
www.waleedsgallery.biz

afterglow's picture

I only tested this with the

I only tested this with the latest version of iPhoto but I am guessing iLife 05 or 06 are the versions which are Automator aware.

afterglow.ie - Icons, interfaces, illustration

sami's picture

danke

echt eine super sache. und das mit dem drag and drop, ist leinwand.

Jammo's picture

hehe

my german isnt too great, but for anyone trying to work out what you said, i think its: "[thanks] This is genuinly a super thing and is just drag and drop"

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GOO

Pete.'s picture

I've been looking for

I've been looking for something like this for months! Thankyou very much!!! (all we need now is to have it built into the finder - i thought that'd be an obvious idea APPLE hint hint).

Papilionoidea's picture

Hooom ...

that's actually a rather handy little hint. Thanks!

awoyemia's picture

"power" users?

Pete, I believe apple abe giving us "power" users the oportinuty to tweak the interface to our needs. But everyone else would not really need this kinds of thing as they don't have the same workflow as us ;)

Mintsauce's picture

Schweet!

Now that's handy. Pity Photoshop won't take drag and drops. {Hint : can I change that?}

Mintsauce's picture

Schweet!

Now that's handy. Pity Photoshop won't take drag and drops. {Hint : can I change that?}

afterglow's picture

You can just drag the image

You can just drag the image on top of the Photoshop icon and it will open the pic.

afterglow.ie - Icons, interfaces, illustration

Mintsauce's picture

Thanks

Thanks. That's a help.

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