Tutorial

Whether you're the "pick up and play" type or not,
our short tutorial will get you going quickly.

Overview

To get the most out of Tidepool™ and Storymill™, follow these simple steps. Soon, you will be able to browse your photo memories in ways never before possible, using our unique tagging feature. And, you will be easily sharing photos and stories with your friends and family.

Set up the tutorial window alongside Tidepool to make it easy to follow along:

Relax, Have Fun!

The Tidepool user interface is designed to be easily explored simply by clicking around and trying things. Here are a few basics to consider.

We make extensive use of the mouse. Hovering your mouse over an item will reveal a pop-up tool tip. You can also try right-clicking on elements.

We don't ever edit or alter your photos in any way — even rotate doesn't do anything to your actual photo. We make it hard to permanently delete a photo — we hide photos by default. Deletion requires getting past multiple warnings!

You can feel free to experiment with Tidepool as much as you like, knowing that your photos are not at risk of being altered, lost, or damaged. Click on things, double-click, right-click, drag — just to see what different things you might be able to do. If ever an action is going to result in something like delete, we always provide a dialog box to ensure you want to take the action.

Explore. Have fun!

User Interface overview

Docks

An obvious component of Tidepool is our use of a large "border" area around the photos. These are known as the "Tag Docks." You'll soon see that tags are descriptive bits of information you can create for each photo, to later help you find photos. The four borders around the centerpane are the Who, What, Where, and When "docks."

Docks are where the tags reside once you create them. You'll see how to drag tags off of the dock and onto items in the centerpane, and how you can click on tags to show photos with those tags.

The View Bar

The top bar contains a set of buttons deal primarily with "view" elements to change or control what you see in the centerpane.

	Click this to return to a previous view state. Click it to return from within a box or story. Click it again to clear any view toggles or filters.
	Toggle: Show tagged or untagged photos.
	Toggle: Show/hide boxes.
	Toggle: Show/hide stories.
[title]	Search bar, will show search tags. When in a Box or Story, it shows the title.
	Clear all tag filters
	Arrange thumb columns to more closely "fit to width," right-click to make permanent
	Slide show to view photos in the centerpane in full-screen mode.
	Switch between viewing thumbnails or complete photo.

The Action Bar

The lower bar contains a set of buttons that are more action-oriented. Some of the buttons are only enabled when it makes sense for them to provide the functionality.

	Open/close a "Thumb Lister" panel on the left that shows thumbnails.
	Make a new tag.
	Make a box from currently selected search tags.
	Make a story from currently selected images.
	Go to first image in centerpane.
	Go to previous image in centerpane.
	Rotate selected image(s).
	Go to next image in centerpane.
	Go to last image in centerpane.
	Unhide thumbs (this button only appears when you have chosen to hide a photo).
	Gather photos from locations on your computer.
	Share photos with friends via Storymill.
	Get help on Tidepool.

Help

From within Tidepool, press the F1 key or click on to open up the help window.

Tooltips

If you position your mouse cursor over an element in the user interface (or, "hover"), you will see an informative "tooltip." For example:

In this case, the tip lets you know that clicking this button will rotate the photo 90° counterclockwise (to the left). The tip also lets you know that you can use a keyboard shortcut to achieve the same effect as clicking on the button: Ctrl+L (on Windows, hold down your "Ctrl" key and then press the "L" key).

Hopefully you'll find these tips helpful to make it easy to learn and experiment with Tidepool.

If you have any questions, visit our online discussion forums to post a question.

Gather

When Tidepool first starts up, you need to tell it where to find your photos. We default to typical photo locations used on Macs and PCs. But this may not be the correct location for where to find photos on your computer.

We do not yet support memory cards, CDs, or any removable media. You must first copy the files to the hard drive.

NOTE: Though Tidepool can handle thousands of photos, we recommend you start off with a smaller quantity while you learn about Tidepool. For example, maybe you have 10,000 well-organized photos:

Or, maybe not!

Tidepool will automatically find all photos in the selected folder and in any folders below that. So, if you chose the "Photos" folder (above, left), it would find every photo in the dozens of sub-folders, reading as many "levels" deep as needed... If you choose a folder like "OhioLaborDay2002" (above, center), you would only get photos from that folder and its 3 sub-folders.

If you just have all photos magically copied by your camera software to something like "Pictures" (above, right) then you have little choice but to have Tidepool gather them all.

Again, if possible, point to a folder that has only a few hundred or so photos — just while you get used to the features.

1. If the gather dialog is not already open, click on to tell Tidepool where to find photos on your computer (more details...).
2. Simply change the existing path to point to the appropriate folder.
3. Press to proceed with gathering.

After initial gathering is complete, you will see "thumbnail" versions of your photos begin to appear in the centerpane. On a typical PC (512MB memory, Pentium III), initial gathering occurs at about 0.10 seconds per photo or less. So, if you are gathering 10,000 photos, go grab a cup of coffee!

Start Tagging

Now that you have gathered some photos, let's add some descriptive bits of information to each one — we call these "Tags." You can attach tags to photos so that later you can search by tags, and create different stories and boxes...

We can tag photos with Who, What, and Where information (When comes from the photo date). As you will soon see, this will allow for rapid finding and browsing of your photos, in ways you never imagined! You can be "organized" without the pain and chore of typical computer organizational drudgery methods (like keywords, hierarchies, file folders) which are not even a tenth as effective as what you will experience with Tidepool!

Some guidelines to get you started. We organize tags loosely in the following categories:

The more creative your tags (especially the "What"), the more interesting the ability to retrieve your photos (sunset + beach + Caribbean + drink, for example).

However, keep tags simple. Instead of "Sunset on the Beach" consider two tags: "Sunset" and "Beach."

But, lets start slowly... just a taste of Tidepool's unique and powerful tagging!

Creating tags is very easy, select a photo and start typing!

1. Click a thumbnail to select a photo with some people and an interesting item or two. (The thumb "sleeve" will become highlighted to indicate being selected.)
2. Simply begin to type the name of the person(s) in the photo.
3. You will see the "Tag Chooser" appear:
   
   
   
   Finish typing the name. Choose the "Who" tag type if it is not already selected. Press Enter. This will create the new tag and attach it to ("tag") the photo. Easy!
   
   
   
   Create as many Who Tags as needed for others in the photo. You will see each tag show up on the respective side/sleeve of the photo.
   
   
4. Type Where the photo was taken. Change the tag type to "Where" by clicking on the down arrow (or press Ctrl+e). Press Enter.
   
   
   
   
5. Now create the What tag (Ctrl+a).
   
   
   
   
6. You can see the Who, What, Where tags on the respective sleeves of the thumbnail (place/hover your mouse cursor over a tag to see its name):
   
   
   
   
7. You can also add a caption in full zoom mode. Double-click a thumbnail, or click the "Full Size" button .
   • Click on the caption area below the photo.
     
     
     
     
   • Type your caption.
   • Press Enter when finished.

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Tag More Photos

The more photos you tag, the more fun you can have. A few simple tips, and you can be tagging dozens of photos all at once.

1. Select multiple photos (learn how here) with the same "Where," for example:
   
   
   • For many photos all next to each other,
     • Click on the first photo.
     • Hold down the Shift key while you click on the last photo ("Shift+click").
       
       
       
       
   • For photos spread across the centerpane,
     • Click the first photo.
     • For each subsequent photo, hold down the Ctrl key while you click ("Ctrl+click").
       
       
       
       
2. Now tag these selected photos as follows:

   Choose the rapid tagging style that suits you:

   • Tag Chooser:
     • Start to type the first few letters of the tag.
     • You should see Tag Chooser with a list of tags that match by name.
     • Press the down arrow or click on the desired tag. Press Enter. Now all photos get that tag.
       
       
       
       
     • You can also create a new tag this way — be sure to choose the proper tag type.
       
       
   • Drag-and-Drop: You can drag a tag from the dock and drop it on any one of the selected photos. The result is to tag all selected photo(s) with that tag.
     
     
     
     
   • Later, you'll see how you can tag photos by dragging them into a "Box"
     
     
3. Regions on your photos
   
   

   You can also tag regions on your photos. To learn about this and other aspects of our innovative tagging feature, click here.

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Edit a Tag

You can customize tags to change their name, add an email or URL, or change the icon image that appears for the tag.

1. Right-click on a tag.
   
2. You can edit the name or e-mail/URL for a Who or Where/What tag, respectively.
   
   
   
   
3. You can also assign a different image to the tag by clicking on "Choose Icon", where you can choose an icon image or select a photo or a region of a photo. Click here for more details.

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Browse By Tag

Now for the fun part! As you tag more and more photos, you'll see how great it is to be able to use those tags to pull up any combination of photos that you desire. You'll impress yourself with how quickly you can find specific photos. Your friends will think you have become incredibly organized with your photos!

1. Use tags to show only those photos with that tag. For example:
   • Click on one of your Who tags to see only those photos with that tag:
     
     
     
     You can see the selected tag(s) in the Search Bar .
     
     
   • Click on one of your Where tags
     
     
     
     
   • You should now see only those photos of that person in that location
     
     
2. Click on a tag again to deselect that tag.
   
   
3. Revert to showing all photos by pressing to "Clear Filters" and deselect all tags.

Browse by Search Bar

Alternatively, you can also click on the search bar and start to type the name of the tag to invoke the familiar Tag Chooser:

Click:

Type:

Select tag:

Click in the search bar and type again to add another tag:

You can do many things with browsing your memories with tags. Click here for more details.

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Boxes

Boxes can make it easy to always find the same types of photos; for example, "Patrick / Diana / Birthday" — even as you add new photos of the kid's birthdays over the years. The box will always show the latest additions to your photo collection. Think of it as saving you from having to manually create this tag browse every time you need it.

1. Click on some tags (on the docks) to browse a selection of photos.
   
   
   
2. Click on the Make Box button: to "save" the current selected tag(s) for this box.
   
   
3. You can accept the default name, or type in a new name for the box.
   
   
4. You are now "inside" the box, looking at only those selected photos.
   
   
5. Revert back to normal mode, press: or
   
   
6. You will see a thumbnail view of your box and its photos:
   
   
   
   
7. Double-click on the box to see the photos in the box.

NOTE: the same photo can appear in any number of boxes. You can do many more things with boxes, including dragging photos into a box to automatically tag the photo, making stories from boxes, etc. Click here for more details.

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Stories

Stories are like photo albums, where you select photos and put them in a specific order of appearance.

1. Select some photos
   
   
2. Click on the Make Story button:
   
   
3. Drag photos to rearrange their order
   
   
   
   
4. You are now "inside" the story, looking at only those selected photos.
   
   
5. Revert back to normal mode, press Home:
   
   
6. You will see a thumbnail view of your story and its photos:
   
   
   
   
7. Double-click on the story to see the photos inside.

Click here for more details.

Share

Share selected photos with your friends and family via the Web. It's easy!

Photos can be public for all to see, or private so that only those who you have chosen to share the photos to, have access.

We'll send a notification e-mail to your friends so that they can go online and see the photos.

You Share Photos

Friends get e-mail

Friends Browse your photos

1. Select some photos (or a story or a box).
   
   
2. Click on the Share button:
   
   
   
   
3. By default, your contact list is your Who Tags
   
   
4. Select if the photos should be public (visible to the whole world), or private (to restrict them to being visible to just those people you choose to email).
   
   
5. You can also add/edit contacts here in the share dialog as follows:
   
   
   • Double-click on the e-mail area to type in the address, or
   • Select the name, and choose "Edit...", or
   • Add e-mail addresses in the space provided, then press "Add to Contacts"
   • Note: you can convert a basic contact to a tag, select it and choose "Edit..."
     
     
6. Press "Share Now!" to initiate the share process, uploading your photos and tags to your Storymill account.

You will notice shared photos are indicated by a thin colored border around the frame.

You can change tags, captions, etc., and re-share the photo to update the Storymill web site or to share to new people.