Strategies For Controlling Aperture

Aperture's interface can be easily driven using the mouse or the keyboard, or some combination of the two. You'll usually perform your rating, sorting, and comparison tasks at the same time, so the controls for these features have been configured to make it easy to perform these tasks together.

Rating, Sorting, and Comparing Using the Mouse

If you're a mouse-oriented Mac user, then you'll be glad to know that you can perform all of the operations described in this chapter using the Aperture control bar.

Using the Next and Previous buttons on the control bar, you can step through all of your images and then rate them using the rating buttons and add keywords using the keyword buttons (assuming that you have defined the keyword buttons appropriately). Then you can use the Select button to apply a five-star rating to the currently selected image.

Don't forget to use the Toggle Primary Only button to alternate between adjustments to all selected images and adjustments to only the primary select.

Because all of these buttons are grouped together on the control bar, you can easily perform all of your sorting, rating, and comparison with very little mouse movement.

Rating, Sorting, and Comparing Using the Keyboard

If you prefer to drive your Mac using the keyboard, then you'll be pleased to find that Aperture is very keyboard friendly. When performing your sorting, rating, and keywording, you can use a simple set of keyboard controls to quickly navigate your images and apply the appropriate ratings and keywords.

Using the arrow keys, you can easily navigate from one image to another. In full-screen mode or the Viewer pane, the Left and Right Arrow keys will always take you to the previous and next images, respectively. In the Browser pane, you can use all four arrow keysUp, Down, Left, Rightto navigate your images.

To apply ratings, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Press Command-Option 1 to 5 to assign a rating of one to five stars.

• Press \ to add five stars to the current image.

• Press - to decrease the existing rating by one star.

• Press = to increase the existing rating by one star.

• Press 0 to assign no rating.

To assign keywords, configure the keyword buttons so that the keywords you want to use are on the first eight buttons. Then use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Press 1 to 8 to assign the corresponding keyword.

• Press . (period) to switch to the next button set.

• Press , (comma) to switch to the previous button set.

To compare images, press Return to set the currently selected image as the compare source. Then use the arrow keys to bring up additional comparison images. When you're done comparing, press Command-Shift-A to deselect all images.

Using Modifier Keys

Whether you're using the keyboard or the control bar, the following modifier keys will change the behavior of your selection and rating commands:

Shift: If you hold down the Shift key while either clicking the Next and Previous buttons or pressing the arrow keys, the selection will be extended to the next or previous image.

Command: If you hold down the Command key while navigating left or right, the selection will slide to the left or right.

Command-Option: Holding down both Command and Option while using the Next and Previous buttons or arrow keys will move to the previous or next image within the current selection. You won't be able to navigate beyond the images that are currently selected.

Like the navigation buttons, the ratings buttons are altered by simple modifier keys:

Control: Holding down Control increases the rating and automatically selects the next or previous image.

Shift: Holding down Shift while increasing or decreasing a rating will first erase any existing rating.

Control-Shift: Pressing Control-Shift clears the previous rating, applies the new one, and then navigates to the next or previous image.