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November 20, 2007

tips

Leopard opens dialog with your iLife library

Posted Nov. 20, ’07, 9:35 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Tips

iLife browserYou know, when I first started looking at Leopard’s features, I remember reading that the new Open/Save dialog boxes would allow for browsing your iLife media, but I’d admit that I totally forgot about it when blinded by the new Dock, transparent menu, and Time Machine. It just kind of slipped by the wayside.

But our friend David Chartier over at Infinite Loop points out that this functionality is present and accounted for, even though you might overlook it. The Open/Save dialog boxes feature a sidebar that’s remarkably similar to the one you see in Leopard’s Finder windows, but if you look farther down the left-hand column (which may be below the scroll depending on how long your sidebar is), you ought to see a “Media” section—though both its presence as well as the types of Media may depend on the application you’re in. For example, Safari only lets you browse your Photos, while iTunes will let you browse Photos, Movies, or Music.

The implementation is nice: each type of media is presented in a fashion that’s specifically tailored to it. Photos lets you browse your iPhoto library via events, albums, or other criteria, as well as your Photo Booth pictures; Music gets you both your iTunes library as well as your Garage Band projects; and Movies lets you see videos in your iTunes library, iMovie projects, and files in your Movies folder, complete with thumbnail previews.

Pretty nifty, and a heck of a lot easier than trying to browse deep into your Music/iTunes Library folder hierarchy and you can’t remember who sang “Nothing from Nothing” (the unparalleled Billy Preston, in case you’re wondering).


2 Comments

wesg Author Profile Page said:

This is a great functionality, as the only way I've found to open an iPhoto picture to upload, for example, was to open iPhoto and drag the photo into the Safari dialog box. This is much easier... leave it to Apple!

November 20, 2007 10:34 AM
Curt Goodpasture said:

Will this finally allow my wife to upload her iphoto pics to ebay while posting an auction? Now in tiger it only lets you scan thru the photo booth photos for upload not the iphoto pics. This is when useing ebays browse to upload auction pics while listing.

November 21, 2007 8:29 AM

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