Too Many Clicks - shortcuts for adding Faces?

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Level 1

115 points

Too Many Clicks - shortcuts for adding Faces?

Yes, I'm paraphrasing Emperor Joseph II... But I'm also hoping someone has figured out a shortcut. When I manually add a Face to an image from the Events mode. I have to click Five times and switch mouse/keyboard twice:

1. (Hand on mouse) Click the Faces rotator arrow if not already open
2. Click Add a Face
3. Move the middle of the box over the person's head
4. Click-drag the box down to the right size
5. Click the "click to name" box
6. (Hand off mouse) Start typing and, if the person's name isn't at the top, use the arrow keys to find them or finish typing by hand. Return, then arrows to the next photo or space to go back out.

The crazy thing is that this could all be done with one click-drag: if I [hold a key and?] click-drag when I'm NOT in edit mode, it makes that a Faces box and [guesses the Face and?] highlights the name box so I can just type in.

Overall, the new iPhoto is INSANELY click-heavy. I don't mind experimentation that goes away from Apple's old window-based usability guidelines, but they have to get back to their heuristic guidelines. These are repetitive tasks when importing photos and speed and accuracy should the guiding principles.

So, please, anyone have a solution?

iMac 24" 2.8ghz aluminum +, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 16, 2011 2:53 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

216,118 points

Jan 16, 2011 4:31 PM in response to Dennis Serras

Don't tell us. We're just users like yourself. If you want to get the attention of the developers tell Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html.

OT

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Answer 2

Dennis Serras Author

Level 1

115 points

Jan 16, 2011 6:03 PM in response to Old Toad

Oh, I did... I'm also hoping for a solution that doesn't involve waiting for iPhoto 2047.

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Answer 3

dankohn

Level 1

30 points

Jan 19, 2011 11:05 AM in response to Dennis Serras

I just added Faces info on 4000 photos, so I've found a few shortcuts. First, in System Preferences: Keyboard, you can make a shortcut key (I use a command shift D) for the command Edit: Detect Missing Faces. This often finds additional faces beyond the original import. Then, hit the tab key to switch between faces. Type the first few characters of a name, then hit down arrow to select the right name from the list, enter to select, and tab to move to the next face.

When iPhoto doesn't find a face, after manually clicking "add a face", I always position the box so the bottom left corner is in the correct place, then hold down the option key to stretch the box to cover the face. I find this is much faster and more accurate then centering and trying to resize.

It's still a lot of time, but adding faces is worth it when you sync to an iPhone or iPad and can quickly pop up (for example) all the pictures of a friend's kid when you see him on the street.

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Answer 4

Dennis Serras Author

Level 1

115 points

Jan 23, 2011 1:10 PM in response to dankohn

Thanks for the tips - those are certainly a step in the right direction. I forgot that you can add quick keys in the system preferences now for Apple apps. The option-corner option is definitely a time saver too. My '09 library recognized names better, I'm hoping that '11 will start favoring me over the few other "den..."s who show up sooner alphabetically than I do. I'm a fan of faces too - and I think it's pretty cool that it's even possible to do it.

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Answer 5

varak

Level 1

0 points

Aug 17, 2011 10:14 PM in response to Dennis Serras

Found an app to help speed up this workflow in the Mac App Store: http://www.prygunkov.com/addaface/

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Answer 6

Oct 14, 2014 1:54 AM in response to varak

Sorry to revive and old thread, but I've just started using "Add A Face" and it does make the process quicker. But i did find that after placing the box around the face, you still couldn't Tab to the "click to name" bad to enter the name. But if you move to the next photo and then go back, the "click to name" changes to "unnamed" and you can now Tab to it. Especially useful if you are adding multiple faces to the one photo-add all the boxes, 1 finger swipe (or arrow key) to next photo, 1 finger swipe back, then tab to name each face.

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Answer 7

SFO.13

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2014 2:23 AM in response to Dennis Serras

I read that Apple is "Killing iPhoto". May be you need to google what the new Apple Photo app is named; and go from there?

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Answer 8

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,050 points

Oct 14, 2014 2:26 AM in response to SFO.13

Oh please, stop telling people what you've misread.

1. Apple is not "killing iPhoto". Apple will replace iPhoto in 2015 with a new app, and will offer a migration path from iPhoto to the newer application.

2. As it stands, iPhoto is not replaced, and is not "killed". It works normally, and will continue to run normally on any machine it is currently installed on. It will also run normally on 10.10 when that's released. It may even run on whatever OS comes after that.

3. Even if Apple cease developing iPhoto they have no way whatever to "kill" it on your machine.

4. How this is meant to help anyone who finds it takes too many clicks to add Faces is beyond me.

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