iPhoto 6 Review, Part 2

There is also way too much to cover in a simple column.? Last week I taught a two hour iPhoto class for beginners and had a 15 page handout.? I canit put all that in a column!? Besides, there are commercial books by respected authors that do a better job than I can do.? My personal recommendation is? Adam Engstis iPhoto 6 for Mac OS X, which is published by Peachpit Press.? Mr. Engstis book (US$24.99 – retail, $16.49 – Amazon) is well written, easy to follow, and contains lots of in-depth information to help you become an iPhoto expert quickly.? It is just that when I am helping beginners I always fall back into beginner mode myself and want to include everything that I needed to know to learn to use whatever it is we are discussing.

Nevertheless, after all of my angst, I am going to do what I said I was going to do in the first place — talk about what is new and different in iPhoto 6.

Slideshow

You can still create a great personalized slideshow by creating a folder of handpicked photos which you can then instantly turn into a beautiful slideshow, complete with music from the 11 iPhoto music choices? or your own iTunes library.?

Now you can even create a slideshow of your entire library by selecting the first image in your library itself and selecting slideshow.? Another new addition to the slideshow options is the ability to have your slideshow timing automatically adjust to the music you choose.? While in slideshow mode select settings and put a check in the box next to “fit slideshow to music.”

Greeting Cards

I had iPhoto 6 for months before I even looked at this new feature because I made an assumption that was not true.? I assumed that any card design would have to be ordered by the box.? That is so not true.? You can order one card if you wish.? The price is the same, U.S. $1.99 for each card, no matter how many you order.? Therefore you can design a special card for someone and have it printed professionally.? What you have to do is plan ahead so that it can be printed and mailed back to you in time for you to get it to the recipient.? There are numerous designs and you can select any font that is available on your individual machine.

iPhoto will warn you if the quality of your photo is such that you will get a poor quality end product so that you can make adjustments or select alternate photos before finalizing your card(s).? This feature, which? has been in place from the beginning for the photo albums, is also in place for the new calendar option which I will look at next.? The warning, a yellow triangle, can be seen in the following sample of a card.