Grumbling about Pages and iWeb

On Nov 16, 2007, at 9:08 AM, John Massengale wrote:

> In both Pages and iWeb, Apple has set the chooser boxes so that
> only photos in iPhoto can be inserted. I don't use iPhoto, and I
> use photos.
>
> I can not find anywhere where I can change the settings. That's
> like software for kindergarteners.

John,

Just a simple drag and drop from the Finder or any Finder window will
work quite easily.

Regards,

Howard

On Nov 16, 2007, at 9:08 AM, John Massengale wrote:

> In both Pages and iWeb, Apple has set the chooser boxes so that
> only photos in iPhoto can be inserted. I don't use iPhoto, and I
> use photos.
>
> I can not find anywhere where I can change the settings.

Download the PDF user's guide for Pages from the Apple web site here:

http://www.apple.com/support/pages/

It shows you three different ways to place images in Pages docs, and
only one of those depends on the Media Browser that shows you only
what's in iPhoto. The one you're probably looking for is where you
simply drag a photo file in from the Finder and drop it where you
want it. It can be placed there as either "in-line object" or a
"floating object."

Dick

On Nov 16, 2007, at 9:08 AM, John Massengale wrote:

> In both Pages and iWeb, Apple has set the chooser boxes so that
> only photos in iPhoto can be inserted. I don't use iPhoto, and I
> use photos.
>


I do use iPhoto as my primary source but I just checked using a Kodak
easy share (non iPhoto) download and had no problem dragging and
dropping into Pages.
Additionally according to the Help Menu you can also do Insert >
Choose then navigate to the file. I did and again had good results.
The only one which "forces" you to use iPhoto is the Media browser.

Having said that I am using an iBook G-4, OS 10.4.11 and Pages
version 1.0.2. This may have changed in the more recent versions.

Hope this helps.

Jean

At 16/11/07 06:08 -0800 John Massengale wrote:

>In both Pages and iWeb, Apple has set the chooser boxes so that only
>photos in iPhoto can be inserted. I don't use iPhoto, and I use
>photos.
>
>I can not find anywhere where I can change the settings. That's like
>software for kindergarteners

Jon - I don't understand how your setup is preventing you from
choosing whatever image you want. I can't speak for iWeb, but I'm
using Pages 08 v3.0.1 on OS X 10.4.10.

When I want to insert anything, I open the "Insert" menu; the last
item is "Choose..." and the resulting dialoge box allows me to pick
any file I wish. What part of that does not work for you?

regards

Rowland
--
| Rowland Carson ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
| <rowlandcarsongooglemail.com> http://home.clara.net/rowil/

>Jon - I don't understand how your setup is preventing you from
>choosing whatever image you want. I can't speak for iWeb, but I'm
>using Pages 08 v3.0.1 on OS X 10.4.10.
>
>When I want to insert anything, I open the "Insert" menu; the last
>item is "Choose..." and the resulting dialoge box allows me to pick
>any file I wish. What part of that does not work for you?

It's simple, I didn't get that far. Here's why.

When you look under the Insert menu, there are several choices, like Shape and Table, but nothing that says Photo, Image, etc. In my 20 years of using Macs I've never used Insert > Choose, and Choose apparently didn't say "Photo" to me.

I did notice that Shapes was a choice in the menu bar, so I started looking there and may not have even seen Choose at the bottom of the menu. Then I saw Media in the menu bar, and that will not lead you to choose.

Now that you've brought this to my attention, I see that Keynote also has Insert > Choose, but the few other Apple apps I use don't. And none of the non-Apple apps I use work that way. I don't think making the most obvious ways to insert photos only access iPhoto was a very user-friendly decision.

Thanks to everyone who pointed out you can drag and drop, although dragging from my hard drive to Pages or iWeb is not the best solution, since on my laptop Pages and iWeb hide the hard drive window.

iPhoto just doesn't meet my needs, and I don't like have to use work arounds instead of straightforward menu and key commands because of that. It's the type of thing I expect from Microsoft.

Thanks to everyone who pointed out you can drag and drop, although dragging from my hard drive to Pages or iWeb is not the best solution, since on my laptop Pages and iWeb hide the hard drive window.

You can start the drag from the Finder and then Command-Tab to another application before "dropping". This allows you to drag into a window that is hidden. I must admit it had never occurred to me to use the media browser; I had always dragged from the Finder or iPhoto or Mail or whatever application the photo was in.

>> Thanks to everyone who pointed out you can drag and drop, although dragging
>> from my hard drive to Pages or iWeb is not the best solution, since on
>> my laptop Pages and iWeb hide the hard drive window.
>
>You can start the drag from the Finder and then Command-Tab to another application before "dropping". This allows you to drag into a window that is hidden. I must admit it had never occurred to me to use the media browser; I had always dragged from the Finder or iPhoto or Mail or whatever application the photo was in.

That's interesting. Funnily enough, I never learned about Command-Tab until this week. I still think it would have been better, though, if Apple had let the Media chooser not be locked into iPhoto.

John

It sounds like you might be interested in Karelia's free iMedia browser: http://www.karelia.com/imedia/

Incidentally, though I'm accustomed to using Command-Tab while dragging, this does require a certain amount of dexterity, and beginners tend to make a lot of errors. I think applications should all allow for drilling down through a dialogue box to find what you need, if that's the way you prefer to work.

On 26-Nov-2007, at 01:25, John Massengale wrote:
> That's interesting. Funnily enough, I never learned about Command-
> Tab until this week.

You can also use any spaces and exposé keys, so you have hit F9 to see
all the windows on the current space, hit F8 to see all the windows on
all the spaces, drag to the space you want, then the window you want,
and drop.

> I still think it would have been better, though, if Apple had let
> the Media chooser not be locked into iPhoto.

And how would they have done that? The media browser accesses the
library file for iPhoto or iTunes.

>And how would they have done that? The media browser accesses the
>library file for iPhoto or iTunes.

I think we're about to get an email saying this thread has run its course, but it started when I said most of my media is not in iPhoto or iTunes, and I would prefer a media browser that accessed all my media. This was followed by extensive discussion.

John

Noting that the title says, "...and iWeb"

iWeb can't open other html files, only its own. I would like to open my existing website.

Has anyone found a way to do this?

Thanks.

On Nov 29, 2007, at 5:10 AM, shane700 wrote:
> iWeb can't open other html files, only its own. I would like to
> open my existing website.
>
> Has anyone found a way to do this?

iWeb can't open or import any html files, no matter how they were
made. It is a basic characteristic of the way it works, and in the
two years iWeb has been available no one has developed any way around
this.

On Nov 29, 2007 4:10 AM, shane700 <shanewonk.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Noting that the title says, "...and iWeb"
>
> iWeb can't open other html files, only its own. I would like to open my existing website.

iWeb's target audience is people like me who are too lazy to learn
HTML but still want to set up a Web site.

I don't think iWeb has ever been intended to be a true Web designing
program. I'm glad, in a way, that it cannot open other HTML files.
Apple decided to keep it simple and I prefer it that way.

____________________
Ryoichi Morita

LewisGmail <gkremegmail.com> wrote:

> On 29-Nov-2007, at 05:10, shane700 wrote:
> > iWeb can't open other html files, only its own. I would like to open
> > my existing website.
> >
> > Has anyone found a way to do this?
>
> No. iWeb doesn't understand html. It uses XML internally and the
> only time it does anything with html is when it publishes the site and
> generates the html on the fly.

Thanks for that Lewis.

I no not to bother with it.

--
Regards, Shane

I'd be interested to hear whether the iMedia browser suggestion earlier in the thread was of any use.

> I'd be interested to hear whether the iMedia browser suggestion earlier in the
> thread was of any use.

I sure found it VERY useful! It does exactly what the original poster
complained that Apple's Media Browser does not do: access photos and music
anywhere on your system.