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Rotating pictures in Preview

A co-author and I are writing a book. Research entailed visiting many archives, and photographing pages of cellar books, and of wine catalogues. Naturally enough, pages were photographed in order: at each archive, oldest books first, and within each book the pages from oldest entry to newest.


We have about fifteen thousand pictures, my folder structure on my computer being the same as that on his.


With Snow-Leopard Preview I would go to the folder for that archive, command-A command-O, and all the pictures would open. I could scroll from one picture to the next, either gesturing within the sidebar, or with appropriate keys. About half of all pictures needed rotating, done with command-R. So far, so good. Indeed, so excellent.


Now to my new Mac, a 27" beauty that came with OS Lion. The large screen is to see big pictures at the same time as editing the words of the book. And again, command-A, command-R, and scroll away. Ooooh: that picture is at ninety degrees: command-R. Annoying rhythm-breaking dialog box asks whether I want to unlock it (no, never ever change my original pictures, just never) or duplicate it (or, uselessly, cancel). Duplicate. So now there is a new window with just that picture, rotated. About half of all pictures need rotating, so quite quickly my screen is a disorganised mess of one-picture windows.


I have owned a Mac since 1988: please let this not be Apple’s Mr Clippy moment. Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to the Apple store I go. I get some sympathy, and some agreement that for my purposes new Preview doesn’t work well. Suggestion: download the old Preview from somewhere. So to my old Mac, now somebody else’s; archive Preview (and TextEdit); FTP up; back to my machine; FTP down and unpack.


Preview has a long complicated error message, the crunchy bit perhaps being “Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MeshKit.framework/Versions/A/MeshKit”.


(Aside: TextEdit works, which I hoped was great—no more over-writing my files behind my back. Alas the new TextEdit in the applications folder is super-locked and can’t be overwritten.)


Back to Preview. Please, how can I have a bulk open of pictures, in the right order, which are not altered by Preview, which are easily rotated (no dialog box), and which post-rotation remain in the right order? No new files; and no changes to the old (=only) files. Rephrased, Snow-Leopard Preview was really good: please could I have it back?

iMac

Posted on Nov 7, 2011 11:51 AM

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123 replies

Nov 13, 2011 1:14 PM in response to jdaw1

And then I thought it was fixed. I opened some new pictures, and wasn’t pestered with pop-ups.


Later I realised that Apple had been over-writing my files because I had looked at them. How dare Apple do this? Do not tamper with my files—not all of which are strictly mine—except by my command, or with my permission.


Meanwhile, please could a reader help. It seems that Apple is happy overwrite ‘new’ files without asking. How do I set the definition of new to be as small as possible?


(Why is this happening? Why is control being taken from me. Is it the iPhone, which has a small user interface, so needs to do things without asking. Is Apple trying to iPhone-ize the computers? Please no. Computers are for manipulating files: spreadsheets, printable documents, computer code, pictures. Please do not needlessly shrink my control over that process merely because Apple’s phone has a small screen. Please.)

Nov 14, 2011 11:56 AM in response to jdaw1

Nasty decision time. My new Mac acnnot be used for the purpose for which my old Mac could be used. I need an old version of Preview. Please would readers with a pre-Snow Preview compress and email to me? Contact info at http://www.jdawiseman.com/author.html


Yes, I realise that this is a security weakness. But I have to choose between Apple definitely tampering with my files, or a small probability of somebody else doing so. Not a nice choice. Apple: be ashamed.


It took a large fraction of a decade for Microsoft to tell itself the truth about Mr Clippy. Please do not repeat that mistake. Allowing the OS to tamper with my files behind my back is a terrible decision. When the popular press catches up with your mistake, your reputation will be badly dented. Please fix today.


Summary:

• Allow me to view files without being pestered with duplicate questions.

• Never ever tamper with the user’s files, except by permission. Command-S is permission. Asking on exit can be permission. Command-R to see a picture in the correct orientation is not permission.


Readers: thank you.

Apple: today!

Nov 16, 2011 5:22 AM in response to jdaw1

Just to understand your issue. Under 10.6 you wanted to be able to open and rotate pictures in Preview. You confirmed everything was fine by pressing CMD-S or via the exit dialogue.


In 10.7 you cannot do the same because the files are locked. This is a new feature in 10.7. Files are locked if they are not modified within 2 weeks. You can switch this off via Preferences->Time Machine->Options. One of the features of 10.7 is that under Preview->File->Revert Document you can go back to a previous versions even after you have exited the program.


Rather than unlock them, you choose to duplicate them, creating a new window for each one. Once you have rotated it, if you want to save it, you have to choose a name, location and confirm it. Duplicating the file creates a new one with the "Date Created" attribute that seems important to you for your file structure changed to the new save date.


What you seem to want to do is modify the original file. You can do this by unlocking it and pressing CMD-R. I can understand that you might like then to confirm the rotation with CMD-S before it is saved but for most other users that is probably annoying. You can revert to the original by pressing CMD-R several times. This will change the "Date Modified" attribute on the file. If you want to go back without doing that CMD-Z will restore it back to the original.


This is what happened in 10.6 when you rotated an image in Preview. A peice of Meta-Data in the file was changed to indicate the rotation of the picture. The only difference between 10.6 and 10.7 is that once the file is unlocked under 10.7, Preview no longer asks permission to save.


Under 10.7, if you have exited the program - you can use the Revert Document feature to go back to the original file. Revert Document does not use Time Machine but changes to files are stored locally - once reverted you can change back to the newer file as well.


What might be confusing is that the "Date Created" attribute is no longer on the List View in Finder by default - you can add this by ctrl-clicking on the column titles and selecting it. This should give you the original creation date of the file (assuming you have not duplicated and overwriten the original) and preserve your original photo ordering.


No previous version of Preview is guaranteed to work in 10.7. The file attributes have been changed to allow new features such as Revert Document.


This is not even close to Mr. Clippy. I hope this helps.

Nov 16, 2011 4:06 PM in response to jdaw1

I am not sure you understand file locking in Lion. 0 seconds would be pointless.


If you are not turning off - set it to 1 year. You will then be able to edit files for a year without unlocking.


And do you want to duplicate all the JPEGs? That was not what you were doing in Snow-Leopard, you were modifying them.


If Preview is opening all files in separate windows - goto Preview->Preferences->[General] and make sure Open groups of files in the same window is checked rather than Open each file in its own window.


Apart from file locking Lion is almost exactly the same as Snow-Leopard.

Nov 16, 2011 4:14 PM in response to Stoaty

I want the OS never to change my files without my explicit consent. If I command-R, to see a photographed page at the correct orientation, I do not want the original file changed. It is the original, and should be inviolate.


Also I don’t want Preview pestering me with dialog boxes and new windows if I should wish to see a picture 90° different.


Just like the excellent Snow-Leopard Preview.

Nov 16, 2011 5:37 PM in response to jdaw1

jdaw1 wrote:


I want the OS never to change my files without my explicit consent. If I command-R, to see a photographed page at the correct orientation, I do not want the original file changed. It is the original, and should be inviolate.


Well, now your talking about Versions. And if you ⌘R, you are giving explicit consent to change your files. If you don't want the original changed, then work with a copy (Preview->File->Duplicate)



Also I don’t want Preview pestering me with dialog boxes and new windows if I should wish to see a picture 90° different.


Preview does not 'pester' me. I guess you left the lock option checked.


User uploaded file

Nov 16, 2011 10:56 PM in response to Tony T1

So I open 80 JPGs, photographs of a cellar book. Whizz through, command-R’ing as necessary to orientate. Then, to get back the original file, I have to revert each separately. (If on a drive where possible: is it guaranteed to be possible on all cameras’ flash drives? Like, really guaranteed?)


Or I leave the JPGs locked — as in, just don’t tamper with my originals, not ever — and instead have to fight with dialog boxes and several dozen windows.


Apple has badly broken the user workflow. If I had wanted a fight with a computer I would have bought Windows.

Rotating pictures in Preview

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