Smart Collection Workflow - 0 Overview

This article covers the Overview section of the Smart Collections Workflow and is part of the complete Smart Collection Workflow for Lightroom.

The Overview section of the Smart Collection Workflow is labeled at placeholder zero (0) so that it will appear first in the list. The overview contains, as you might expect, collections that give you an overview of your work. More important is the first collection of the group.

Current Work

This first collection is called the Current Work collection and is a normal collection, not a smart collection. The heart of the entire Smart Collection Workflow is with the Current Work collection. Just about every Smart Collection in the Workflow uses the images in the Current Work collection. Thus, a filter in the smart collection is as follows:

Collection contains 'Current Workflow'

To use the Smart Collection Workflow, the Current Work collection must contain images. Once it is populated with images, the remainder of the work flow will populate with results. Don't worry about particulars yet, this is a summary of the Overview section of the work flow. We will discuss how to use the Smart Collection Workflow after we go through each section.

Components of the Overview

The first item to notice is how the numbering system works. The base collection set is labeled: 0 Workflow. Notice how each collection name begins with a number. The reason this occurs is to properly sort the items. With no number at the front, the collections would be sorted alphabetically and not in the correct order.

The next level of Collection Sets starts with 0 and moves forward in 0.1 increments. These are as follows:

0 Current Work
0.1 Edited - All Library
0.2 Flagged - Current
0.3 File Conversions
0.4 Images Taken - All Library
0.5 Current Work Composition

So the next item to notice after the numbering is the description. If the description includes 'All Library' then the entire image library is the scope of the Smart Collection. Thus, the 0.1 Edited collection includes images that have been edited recently through the current week. These are without regard to the Current Work collection and are based on the entire library.

If the collection includes the tag 'Current' then it only applies to the Current Work collection. Thus, the 0.2 Flagged collection shows images in the Current Work collection split by type of flag the image has. If the image is deleted (rejected) or contains no flag and is a member of the Current Work collection, then the image would appear here.

Collection Descriptions

We will discuss each section of collections and a description of the type of information gleaned by the collections. Not all of the Smart Collections are important to the actual work at hand in the Current Work collection. Some are just to give you a feel for how much (or little) work you have accomplished and what the makeup of your library is. The remaining workflow steps after the Overview are more focussed to the work.

0.1 Edited - All Library

As we alluded to above, the edited list of Smart Collections tells us the volume of work that has been done at various time intervals. These intervals are one hour, this day, yesterday and this week. Since the Smart Collection filters the entire image library, you can see how much work you have accomplished over the week.

I also added a new item - Deleted - All Library. The purpose of this collection is to indicate which images in the entire library are marked as rejects and ready for deleting. I use the reject flag to determine which images need to be deleted. Then I use the Lightroom command to delete the rejected images from the disk. This collection prevents me from accidentally deleting other images. I check this collection before I start a workflow session and it should be empty. If not, I verify those images still want to be deleted.

0.2 Flagged - Current

This group of collections lets you see at a glance the status of your images - but only as they relate to the Current Work. Images outside of the Current Work collection are not reviewed.

Thus, as rejects are flagged during the early processing of the working collection, they are segregated here. Any images that are Flagged are shown here as well as images that have no flag (Unflagged). The confusing collection is the one I added - A No Rating collection. The difference between an Unflagged collection and a No Rating collection is the difference between a flag and a star rating. Unflagged collections have no flag and no reject flag assigned. A No Rating collection is one that has no stars for a rating and is not selected as a reject. Thus, even though an image might be flagged, until it receives at least a one star rating it will show up in this collection.

EDIT 11/19/2008:

I have found with the help of some of the folks very close to Lightroom, that flags are specific to a collection and the library. Thus a single image can have different flag status: picked, not flagged and rejected. This is possible when an image is a member of different collections. More importantly, even using two rules in a smart collection: a) collection name contains 'Current Work' and b) pick flag isPicked, the pick flag rule only looks at the library, not the collection returned from the first rule. Thus, for now, 0.2 Flagged - Current does not work.

0.3 File Conversions

This collection shows the group of images that are being worked on and their current file type. If the image is a RAW image it is collected in the first group. A DNG file is recorded in the second type and any files converted to Adobe Photoshop files are listed in the last group - PSD Files. Since I shoot with a Leica M8 that saves images in an Adobe native DNG format, I shouldn't see any RAW files. If I do, I can look to see where they came from. I can also see quickly if I converted any files to Photoshop files. If you use JPEGs or TIFFs, then you can add those smart collections as well.

0.4 Images Taken

Images Shot just sounds poor in writing even though we might say it that way. Images Taken represent the entire library and when the images were taken. Using these smart collections you can get a quick grasp on how many images you have been taking over time. You can add other time frames if your goals are broken down differently.

0.5 Current Work Composition

The composition group indicates the makeup of the Current Work collection. How many are actually virtual images? How many images are the real thing - the original master copy? Finally, how many are black and white (Bnw) virtuals and master copies. In my workflow, I want to know how many have been converted to black and white, or greyscale, and how many actually started that way. You could add two more to show color virtuals and color masters if you wanted to.

Conclusion

The numbering for the Overview is done with sections less than 1.0. At the same time, section numbers within each type are listed as 10, 20, 30 so that they could be moved around without having to be renumbered.

Also, the key collection is the Current Work collection. The Current Work collection drives the remainder of the workflow. We see how the Overview section tells us some information about the group of images we are working on as well as the status of the library as a whole.

Next we will discuss the Metadata section to see what data hasn't been input properly. Stay tuned!

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Smart Collection Workflow - Contents

Simply presenting a file for downloading with a smart collection workflow will not help anyone actually use it. Because smart collections are customizable, I want you to understand each section and how it works. Then you can further customize it for your specific workflow. Here is a list of each section with a link to the corresponding article describing it. Thus, you can use this as instructions for using the Smart Collection Workflow.

NOTE: The download will be added last after all the other articles are written.

NOTE2: This workflow concept was adapted and improved from John Beardsworth's Smart Collection Workflow.

Table of Contents

• Overview of Smart Collections and Workflow
• 0 - Overview
• 1 - Metadata Entry
• 2 - Edited List
• 3 - Adjustments
• 4 - Style
• 6 - Color Labels
• 7 - Final Review

This represents a start to the Smart Collection Workflow. As Adobe allows a more fully accessed use of the Metadata in Lightroom with Smart Collections, we can add to this workflow.

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Smart Collection Workflow

This is an introduction to Smart Collections and is part of the complete Smart Collection Workflow for Lightroom.

With the advent of Smart Collections in Lightroom 2, the web is abound with uses for them. Many of the uses presented are fancy filtering concepts. I ran across a great adaptation of Smart Collections to assist in the everyday workflow in August. Unfortunately, it's taken me until now to modify everything to fit my workflow. Here we discuss the concept of Smart Collections and our adaptation into the Digital Image Workflow.

First, credit goes where credit is due. John Beardsworth posted the original idea for Smart Collection Workflows on his blog in August 2008. This was my starting point. Thanks, John!

Smart Collection Concepts

We won't cover all the details of Smart Collections here, although that is the subject of a future planned post which I'll link here as it gets done. We will cover the concept and a few pitfalls in the most current release of Lightroom.

Smart Collections were designed to provide a group of images based on some predefined forumula or formulas. These forumulas can be based on much, but not all, of the metadata in the images. They can also be based on attributes of the images such as flags, assigned colors, some development characteristics and others.

NOTE: Adobe is hearing from many of us that we would like ALL of the metadata to be searchable for a Smart Collection. As of release 2.1, this is not the case, but we are getting closer, I am sure.

Because several statements can be used to filter out which images belong in a Smart Collection, the ability to create complex formulas exists. In fact, Smart Collections can be created to search within an existing collection or the entire library.

Smart Collections in the Image Workflow

As a result of these complex queries, Smart Collections are a logical choice to use for creating the ultimate Image Workflow. John Beardsworth created the framework for one such Image Workflow. I have adapted that workflow to my needs, adding some additional steps along the way. Further, I adapted his numbering system to be more flexible for others to add steps in their workflow.

The image to the left shows you a sample of the changes I have made. By using 10, 20 , 30 as indexes within each step, you can customize the workflow by inserting your own step or renumbering the parent step without having to change each step it contains. I added dashes in between the number and the step to make them more readable.

I also used the rating system customized to my own taste. For example, if I have an image rated as a 5 star image, then it is one of the 'absolute best' as are other ratings. Using the color labels I also customized the text to the meaning for my color labels. You can change any of these rules to suite your taste.

Finally, I expanded the ISO range. I use a Leica M8 and the ISO ratings are different. I wanted to know which images really need noise reduction and which one's are fine as shot. I can also more quickly tell which images are lower ISO and good quality for enlargements.

Conclusion

Smart Collections add value to your workflow. Keep an eye out here and I'll make the workflow availablle for download.

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VMWare: Booting From a CD or DVD

There are many cases when you need to boot from a CD or DVD with VMWare Workstation machine. Booting is easy when you have a brand new machine with no operating system. However, when you have a live operating system, how do you keep the machine from booting the OS and skipping the CD Rom? Forcing the CD Rom boot in that case isn't so easy! Here's the trick.

First Things First

Before I tell you the secret, I need to give you a quick blurb on using CD's and DVD's in VMWare Workstation. While it isn't difficult to use an actual CD or DVD by placing it in your CD Rom Drive, there are better ways to use CD's and DVD's with Workstation.

If you are using an Operating System CD or DVD, then my recommendation is to burn an ISO to disk first. An ISO file is simply an image of the CD or DVD. This means you cannot use it on your computer with normal software, but you can use it in place of a CD or DVD drive. Roxio and Sonic both have software packages that burn CD's and make ISO's. I use WinImage which has the added benefit of making images of floppy disks (those really outdated tiny square things you used to put into a disk drive, and yes the really old ones were floppy and not stiff like the more recent ones). There is a trial version available, but I recommend supporting the developer and purchasing one.

Why go to this trouble? Because, you will most likely never get it the way you want the first time around. It's kind of like the old video games. If you loose all your players, you just restart the game - it's too easy. Well, with VMWare Workstation, creating a machine is so easy you can make them until you get one you like. I use a 4gb USB drive to store disk ISO's for Windows and Linux as well as storing my program setup files.

Booting Within a VMWare Machine

Ok, now to the good part. When the bios screen starts on VMWare Workstation, you have to move fast. If you have a slow computer and you can read the bios screen, your PC is too slow to use virtual machines! To select a boot mode, press the ESCAPE key when the bios screen is showing.

However, the first part is to make sure that the window is accepting your key presses! Be sure to click the window or set your machine to accept mouse and key presses when using the keyboard.

Sometimes it takes me two or three attempts to get the key press accepted, so keep trying. Yes, that means you may have to use CTRL-ALT-DEL some more, but be sure you are rebooting your virtual machine and not your PC!

Hope this helps. I have a whole group of articles planned, time is the constraint!
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Lightroom 2.1 Is Ready!

I have been using the beta version of Lightroom 2.1 for the last month or so with great success. Well, now Lightroom 2.1 is ready for release! You can get the downloads for Windows here and for Macintosh here.

The readme file can be Downloaded here. A few things to note are below.

Formats Not Supported

Formats that are not supported with this update are CMYK Files, Photoshop files WITHOUT the Maximize Compatibility setting (no composite image), REALLY large image files and video files (get video editing software if this one is a problem).

New Feature Highlights

Some memory leaks and folder synching issues have been resolved. The downloadable fix for upgrading keywords in a LR 1.4 Catalog to a LR 2.1 Catalog is included in this release. Some Photoshop integration issues were fixed.

All in all not a huge update, but several important Metadata fixes are included. The beta for Lightroom 2.1 has been stable for me, so I would recommend upgrading when you can.
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Virtual Machine List

After getting a few tests and trials to run with VMWare Workstation and ending up with acceptable execution speed, I began to plan the types of machines I needed. This is how my list ended up:

Operating System Machines - Base Class

• Win2k Base - Windows 2000 with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
• Win2k Plus - Win2k Base with Open Office
• Win2k Enterprise - Win2k Base with SQL and IIS
• WinXP Base - Windows XP with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
• WinXP Plus - WinXP Base with Open Office (or MS Office)
• Suse Linux Base - Base Suse Linux Install
• Suse Linux LAMP - Base Suse Linux with Apache, MySQL and PHP

Machines

• Win2k Plus - Finance Programs
• WinXP Base - Lightroom and Photography
• Win2k Plus - Writing
• Win2k Plus - Hobbies
• Win2k Plus - Visual Studio Programming
• Suse Linux LAMP - Test Web Site for Publishing

These machines all have varying disk sizes, memory requirements and settings to allow for fast execution. I will address each of these items and the workarounds I discovered in future posts.
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Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

VMWare Workstation

I have been working on ways to create separate machines on my pc using VMWare Workstation. The concept is to create the minimum operating system necessary to run a group of programs related to a specific area or task.

Benefits?

What are the benefits? I see several benefits. First, Microsoft Windows is known for getting corrupted over time with extra items in a registry, failed installs left over, incompatibilities with hardware and other programs as well as an inability to perform testing of new programs without mucking up the existing install. Thus, a separate machine for separate tasks can potentially leave the operating system working quickly and efficiently over a longer period of time.

Second, what about those legacy programs you have, but cannot afford to update or no longer carry updates. I have several financial programs I use that work well in windows 2000 and have not been updated for 32 bit operating systems. I also have some old DOS games (who doesn't?) that I can easily pull up and play for stress release. Finally, I keep visual studio separate from everything else because there are way too many programs loading at startup.

Finally, how about portability? Hardware seems to last less than software. THe proof is here: how many of you are still using some DOS, Windows 98, Windows 2000 or Windows XP programs (Windows Vista is the current operating system)? I know I am. However, I am not using the same laptop I was two years ago, nor the same desktop. It will be nice with the next hardware change to move some of these virtual machines to a new computer and keep working.

Pitfalls

How about the pitfalls? There are many, I won't lie to you. First, the operating system can be slower. You have to have good strong processors and as much memory as your system can take. Second, with Windows XP forward, you have to reauthorize your computer if you move a virtual machine around because of the change in hardware. Prior versions of windows do not require this. That said, it is your responsibility to comply with the licensing agreement and only use operating systems you have valid licenses for.

Also, disk space needs increase with the use of Virtual Machines. You have repetitive updates and installs to keep up with. This takes time.

Conclusion

My personal feeling is that taking the time to setup an operating system, be it Windows 2000, Windows 98 or Windows XP, with all the specific tweaks I like, and then cloning that machine for different tasks takes less time than worrying about having to reinstall with the next hardware change.

I believe backing up individual machines and knowing that it will work on any hardware platform that I can get VMWare Workstation on, is a lower risk than keeping cd's made from a backup software that becomes obsolete.

Going Foward

I will be posting a series of articles on using VMWare Workstation for this type of individual application. The focus of these articles will all be on creating separate machines on one pc for performing various related tasks. To find these articles, use the VMWARE tag on the list to the right.

Feel free to leave comments!
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Excellent Backup Questions for Lightroom

Backups continue to be a widely written about topic. One of the issues with this is that all backups are treated the same. In fact, some backups are important and some may not be so important. Here we discuss these finer points and try to apply the old 80/20 rule.

Foray from Film into Digital

As I continue to get pushed along the sweeping current into digital and out of film, new issues emerge that I haven't had to deal with. Backups are the main issue.

With film, I scan the negatives, and then import into Lightroom. I discard any of the rejects or images that I don't assign a single star. I don't worry about backing the digital files files up of the rejects, because I have negatives that can always be re-scanned. I do backup the 'good' images that are left, but only to easily recover them without having to re-scan. The thinking here is that if I reject it, I probably won't need it, but if I decide I do, then I'll scan it again. In all likelihood, even after re-scanning a reject negative I'll still decide not to use it.

Digital Only - Applying a Film Technique

Several sites have posted recent articles on determining whether some backups are worth keeping. I stumbled across one at Inside Lightroom which talks about Why Do We Backup So Much? and it talks about backing up rejects - why or why not.

One of the 'Eurekas' that I had while reading this post was to apply my film technique to digital imaging backups with respect to rejected images. As I said above, I use the negatives as a backup for rejects because I can always rescan them and the life of a properly developed negative is substantial. As a footnote, I have negatives that are 30 years old that look the same as the day I developed them.

Application for Digital Images

So how does this apply to digital rejected images? I'll give you an overview and then list the steps I perform. First, remember that DVD's and CD's don't really have a long lifespan. They are prone to scratches, defects in the surface and degrading over time. However, they can still read even after being exposed to a magnetic field and they are cheap storage. Thus, I backup rejects on DVD as they are identified from importing into Lightroom.

That's not the entire process, however. I use two storage drawers for DVD's. The first is where I place the newly copied rejected images - Reject Backups. Then, I wait. Yes, you read the idea correctly, I wait. Should I ever need one of those rejected images, I go back to the DVD. If it is still readable, then I import the image back into Lightroom and move the DVD to the second drawer - Acessed Rejects. If the DVD doesn't read, I discard it. This gives me a simple backup which, like the negative, will degrade over time and eventually be useless. But, chances are I'll never need it anyway.

Using this technique still has one more problem - storage space. Eventually, the first drawer - Reject Backups - will get full. When that happens, I will discard the oldest DVD in the drawer. This limits my space requirements to one drawer of DVD's. Also, discarding the oldest DVD shouldn't be a problem, because I haven't ever used it or it would have been placed in drawer two.

If ever drawer two - Accessed Rejects - were to fill up, then I would again discard the oldest one. The image that was accessed is now in the main catalog and should be part of the regular backup process.

Sound Familiar?

Does all this sound familiar? If you were like my family growing up and had at least one parent that was a 'pack-rat', then you would most likely have followed this same procedure with boxed up stuff stored in a closet. Our family regularly found boxes that hadn't been opened since the last time we moved. That made it time to discard the box!

Reject Workflow Steps

This is part of my Image Rating and Selection Workflow.

• Import images into Lightroom
• Identify rejects
• Identify all images greater than or equal to one star
• Filter for the last download all images that are a) rejects or b) no star rating
• Copy these images to CD / DVD
• Delete images from Lightroom Catalog and Hard Drive
• Follow remaining main catalog backup steps

Conclusion

It always seems to boil down to time, cost and benefit. There is little chance that you will need a rejected image ever in the future. To protect that little chance you don't want to spend a lot of money and time, but maybe a little money and time is ok. This workflow for rejected images takes little time to make a single CD or DVD and those medium are still relatively cheap. The lifespan of the backup is limited, but should protect you for long enough to determine whether you will ever really use the image. The workflow is safe because you do have a chance to get the rejected image back and use it again. Finally, the workflow takes up limited space through a routine to get rid of the oldest rejected images - again a low cost use. The space needs vary by how many images you file as rejects and how often you shoot. You can set a drawer size customized to your usage levels.

Enjoy!


I had been giving it more thought and the Inside Lightroom article seemed to help me get an answer.
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Translations for LRG Complete Basic User's Guide

We have a good group of international folks using Lightroom Galleries LRG Complete for Adobe Lightroom. If anyone would like to volunteer to translate the Basic User's Guide that comes with the Web Gallery then read on.

I would be happy to work with anyone wanting to translate the Basic User's Guide to another language for LRG Complete. I use a program called Help & Manual by EC Software. It allows me to produce high quality PDF files as well as help files and web sites, all from one document.

The good news about Help & Manual is not only the publishing flexibility, but they also designed a superior translation method. I can send a simple file with the English text to someone. They can edit it in Help & Manual and translate the English to another language. Then they can return that file to me and I can publish it with pictures, table of contents and all! As more changes are made, new sections are synchronized to the foreign language file and then the translation for the new sections can be added. It's extremely easy to keep all the changes properly synched.

Now for the bad news. The best way to be sure everything is kept intact and synched is to use Help & Manual, which costs some money.

If you are interested, take a look at Help & Manual and see if you are still interested. You can contact me from my web page at Outdoor Images Fine Art. Be sure to leave me a valid email address!

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LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide is Here!

Thank you to everyone who has been patient while we write the Advanced User's Guide for the LRG Complete Web Gallery that plugs into Adobe Lightroom. This Advanced Guide has been in the making for over four months during the development of LRG Complete and the writing of the Basic User's Guide. With over 300 pages, this Advanced Guide covers a lot of material.

First, I want you to know that we have made a decision that LRG Complete and the accompanying Basic User's Guide have been and will remain free. That has been the concept from the start.

Below is a list of the contents in the Advanced User's Guide. With all of the additional time and experimenting to develop these techniques and How To's we have set a price for the Advanced User's Guide of $24.99. This gives you a lifetime download link so that you get every new edition for free, for life. In addition, we use Vibralogix LinkLokIPN for PayPal to provide you with this Advanced User's Guide. Know that 1/2 of the proceeds will go to Lightroom Galleries to support Joe's work on LRG Complete.

To purchase this guide, use the Buy Now button on the side bar. You will be taken to PayPal where you will receive an instant email containing a download link. Let me know if you have any problems.

The Advanced User's Guide is in the same type of PDF format that the Basic User's Guide is. The PDF can be printed and is formatted for 8 1/2 x 11 paper. The index has been totally redone to allow for main and subtopics. This makes finding information in the index MUCH easier!

Now for a partial list of what's included. The table of contents is 6 pages long, so this is only some of what is included.

• The same Installation and Setup information to help you get ready
• Information on how to setup a test web site before you go live
• How to determine if PHP is properly installed on your web site, including a test page you can create and upload to your web site
• Best Practices Workflows to keep your use of LRG Complete efficient
• Other items like conventions, definitions, etc.

Advanced Shell Features

• a discussion on search engine optimization and integration of SEO with LRG Complete
• how to use and setup site traffic tools like Google Analytics and StatCounter
• Setting up CoolIris
• Exhaustive use of the MP3 player
• Various ways to use the Adobe Identity Plate
• Over half a dozen ways to setup the Heading of your web site with examples
• Hiding the Site Name and Description the proper way
• HTML in the Shell
• Creative modes of Navigation
• Many, many ways of using the Side Menu including adding pages, sorting properly to leave room for later expansion and pages to use for E-Commerce

Advance Page Features

• Hyperlinks, Underlines, Blockquotes, Paragraphs: all in the Body Text
• A new way to use the Adobe Watermark
• Adding multiple lines and special HTML in Image Captions and Titles
• Slideshows and Image Positioning
• Sorting Image Order for Pages
• Creative Pages
• Advanced password usage

Advanced Gallery Features

• Many of the same HTML tags that are used in Pages work in Galleries
• The best methods of using galleries for additional navigation: Image Links
• E-Commerce galleries that show customers your Order Process: an Example
• Linking Images to Pages: over 10 pages on Image Links for Pages and Galleries
• Creative use of Image Frames
• Using Free Downloads to your advantage

NOTE: Digital Image Downloading will be in the next version of the Advanced User's Guide, which you will receive a link to if you purchase this version. We are using the setup of our web site to create a hands on guide for using Digital Image Downloading. Already we have had to insert some custom code for SMTP emailing with DID, but the update will show you how.

Advanced Contact Pages

• The importance of Emails
• How to setup professional email messages and their content
• How to use SMTP email with LRG Complete

Example Web Sites

• many non-photography examples of E-Commerce web sites

A whole new troubleshooting section sorted by Web Gallery type was included in this Guide. All of the known issues and troubleshooting items we have uncovered over time are added here with solutions should the be available.

An appendix with over 20 worksheets and planning tools to help you create a cohesive web site for use with LRG Complete. See all the settings necessary as you plan each page and keep an overview of how your site will work. These worksheets and planning tools include items like:

• Site Information Worksheet
• Base Site Structure Worksheet
• Gallery Structure Worksheet
• Store Structure Worksheet
• Web Site Category Planning Tool
• Contact Email Planning Tool
• About Me Planning Tool
• About My Product Planning Tool
• Blank Page Planning Tool
• Blank Gallery Planning Tool
• Gallery With Page Links Planning Tool
• Text Identity Worksheet
• Web Site Color Planning Tool
• Mail.php Settings Worksheet
• Google Checkout Shipping Worksheet
• PayPal Shipping Worksheet
• Google Checkout Tax Worksheet
• PayPal Tax Worksheet

Note that the Shipping and Tax worksheets include both US and International rates.

This guide is not only how to use LRG Complete, but how to setup a sucessful web site using LRG Complete and Adobe Lightroom.

Thank you again for all your support of our efforts! We will be working to continue to develop high quality user's guides and web galleries for use with Lightroom!
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LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide on the Way!

I am making the final edits to the Advanced User's Guide for LRG Complete and trying to reduce the 20 megabyte file size. This Advanced Guide contains many examples and screen shots, so the filesize is large.

I promised to have it by September 30th and it looks like it will be out this week, so I'm sorry for a few days delay.

As a sneak preview, you already saw the chapter on setting up CoolIris to work with LRG Complete. Some other topics include tips on setting up test site, seven different ways to setup the Site Name and Description, several step by step examples on using Image Links in your Galleries and five different ways to setup your Image Titles and Captions. There is also 11+ pages on setting up emails and an effective email system.

A new feature I added to the Advanced User's Guide was an appendix that contains over 20 worksheets and planning aids to help you design an effective web site with LRG Complete. Using this Advanced Guide along with the Basic User's Guide and the LRG Complete Web Gallery, you will be able to create a custom web site that can be easily maintained through Adobe Lightroom.

Keep watching for the first edition this week!
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Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.