Top tips and tricks for iLife beginners

Part of the appeal of Apple's iLife suite of creative applications is its simplicity and elegance. Considering they are free with a new Mac or inexpensive to buy on DVD, these multimedia tools are more than a match for many higher priced commercial alternatives.

The really clever part, and something which Apple is particularly adept at, is incorporating lots of tools and features into software while keeping the interface simple and the learning curve as gentle as possible.

So although you might be familiar with the basics of iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb and GarageBand, there are many tips and techniques that you may not be aware of and that can make your workflow quicker and your finished product more professional.

These range from tool modifier keys to access alternate functions, to seemingly hidden or obscure buttons, menus or commands that could be just what you've been wishing for. Discovering all of these little tricks and hidden features by yourself can take some time, but here we've gathered them together for you.

If you've been using iLife but feeling that there was something missing that would really complete your user experience, it may well be that it's there, you just haven't found it yet. Did you know for example that you can embed Google adverts in your iWeb pages, or that GarageBand lets you place clickable web links into a podcast? Read on to find out more.

Getting more from iPhoto

Digital stills can sometimes be a little hazy, especially when you blow them up. The Definition slider improves clarity and reduces haziness in pictures but, crucially, without adding lots of contrast.

It does this by adjusting the contrast in certain parts of the image rather than uniformly over the whole image, as the Contrast slider would do. Double-click on an image to open it in Edit view, then click the Adjust button.

DEFINITION SLIDER: The Definition slider is useful for sharpening up and improving the clarity of images without causing unwanted side effects

From the Adjust palette, move the Definition slider until you are satisfied with the results. You may be surprised by how hazy your original pictures were once you see them with definition applied.

Switch between effect settings

Being able to apply effects to images with the Effects palette is great, but they at first seem hard to control. If you click repeatedly on an effect – on the box above its name – you can step through different grades of effect and a little more will be applied with each click.

For many of the effects you'll see a number representing the effect level and two arrows, letting you step back and forward through the levels. If you hold the Option key whilst clicking, your clicks will move backwards rather than forwards, applying less effect until you get back to zero.

Tag your pictures with locations

iPhoto '09 lets you tag images with geographical locations. By clicking on a photo's Info button at its bottom right hand corner, you open its location window.

Here, you can enter a place name in the place field and select Find on map. This opens an integrated view of Google Maps and you can locate the place the picture was taken, dragging the blue circle around the location pin to widen the defined area.

Then click Assign to tag the picture with that location. You can also select the Places library in the left-hand column of iPhoto's window to view a list of all the locations you have tagged, then filter all tagged images based on where they were taken.

It's a great way to quickly find all images taken in a specific place. If an Event containing lots of pictures needs tagging with a single location, repeat the above steps but using the Info button on an Event's key photo in the Event view, which will tag all images associated with the event.

Search with facial recognition

iPhoto '09 features facial recognition, offering a great way to search through an image library to quickly identify people. Find a picture containing a face, and add the name of that person by clicking the Name button.

Then go to the Faces library and iPhoto will have located all other pictures which it thinks feature that person, based on its analysis of the images. Select all the images which actually do feature that person and click Confirm Name.

FACE FRIENDLY: Tag and name faces and iPhoto will find other photos in your library containing those people

Use the View button to toggle between whole image view and close-ups of the face. The more pictures you confirm, the better iPhoto will get at recognising that face in other and future images.

Use intelligent colour adjustment

Digital cameras often get colour balance wrong for various reasons, and this can be altered with the Temperature and Tint sliders in iPhoto's Adjust palette. If you click on the small colour dropper icon to the left of the Tint slider, you will be able to click on the image to select a particular colour to remove or tone down.

So, for example, with a picture that's washed out and blue, use the tool to click on an area of the offending blue and iPhoto will remove it, giving a warmer effect. Alternatively where a picture has come out too saturated or warm, click on an area of particular warmth to 'cool' the image down.

Edit multiple images side by side

When editing photos in iPhoto, viewing images side by side can help the process. If you have several images of one landscape that you wish to turn into a panorama, for example, this is great.

If you select multiple images by either Shift-clicking or drawing around them with the cursor then click Edit, you will see the selected images side by side in Edit view. For each one you select with the mouse you can use the left, right, up and down arrows to select other images to fill that slot, all without leaving Edit view.

This is a great way to work with and modify sets of photos without continually having to go back to the library. In this view, clicking the edit controls running along the bottom like Effects, Adjust, Red Eye or Enhance will affect only the selected image, which will remain alongside the others.

This trick is perfect for matching up sets of pictures – for ensuring that they all have matching colour and contrast settings, for example. You can use the Compare button to preview two images together in a similar way, but at a larger size.