Working in the File Browser

One of the first things you'll need to do with any Motion project is locate, preview, and bring in media files from your computer. You can accomplish all of these goals using the File Browser.

The upper pane of the File Browser contains icons for locations on your computer, including your hard drives, servers, and home folder. The lower pane displays the folders and contents for whatever location you have selected in the upper pane.

Let's explore the File Browser and see how it works.

1.	At the upper left of the Utility window, click the File Browser tab if it is not already selected. Notice that the name at the top of the Utility window is File Browser, to indicate that the File Browser tab is active.
2.	In the upper pane of the File Browser window, click the Desktop icon to open your Desktop in the lower pane.
3.	In the lower pane, double-click the MOTION_INTRO Book Files folder to open it. Then double-click the Lesson_01 folder to open it in the lower pane of the File Browser. The Lesson_01 folder contains all of the projects and media needed for this lesson.

Changing the File View

Now that you have opened the Lesson_01 folder in the lower pane of the File Browser, let's take a look at the different ways that you can view your files.

The Motion File Browser allows you to view your files in either List or Icon view. To change the way you view your files, you simply click the appropriate view button. Once you've changed to either List or Icon view, the Motion Browser will remain that way until you change it again. The Utility window, including the File Browser and view selection, is part of Motion, not specific to a particular project. Therefore, whichever view is selected when you quit Motion will be the default when you relaunch the program.

Let's modify the file view in the File Browser. The previous task showed the files displayed in the Icon view, so let's switch to the List view.

1.	At the middle right of the File Browser, click the List view button. It's a small button with three horizontal lines on it, representing a list. The files in the lower pane of the File Browser now appear in the List view. List view is very useful if you are working with a lot of files and want to sort them alphabetically.
2.	Click the Icon view button, located to the left of the List view button, to change back to the Icon view. The Icon view button has four squares on it. The Icon view is very useful if you want to see a visual representation of your files. You can resize the icons using the Scale slider located at the bottom left of the File Browser.
3.	Click and then drag the Scale slider to the left to make the icons smaller; drag right to make them larger.
4.	Resize the icons until you can easily see all files included in this lesson.

Previewing Files in the File Browser

With your files displayed in the bottom pane, you can easily preview any of them in the Preview area at the top of the File Browser.

To preview a file in Motion, you simply click the file icon to select it. You can preview a file in either the List view or the Icon view.

1.	Locate the file called background.jpg and click to select it. The file opens in the Preview area of the File Browser. The Preview area includes a viewer, a Play/Pause button for video and audio files, and information about the file.
2.	Select the file Maui shoreline to preview it. The still photo titled Maui shoreline opens in the preview area.
3.	Select the remaining two files, Images and Shapes, to preview them in the File Browser. These are the files you'll use to build your first composite project. NOTE You cannot view the Motion Project files 1-1 Graphics start or 1-2 Graphics finished in the Preview area. Now that you're familiar with the Utility window, let's move on to the Canvas window.