iPhoto for iOS introduces a clever new way to share you photos with loved ones courtesy of Journals, a feature which debuted on the mobile app and will presumably arrive on the Mac with the next major update as well. Flummoxed by using Journals? Take a deep breath and read on...
Get Organized
To ease in the creation of your first Journal, you may want to consolidate your photos into one album first. Unfortunately, iPhoto for iOS can’t really handle this task for you right now, but the built-in Photos app can. Tap Edit, then New Album and enter a name for this collection. Tap Save and you’ll be prompted to add photos from your existing library -- simply tap on the ones you’d like to add (which can include everything in another album thanks to the “Select All Photos” button), then tap Done.
Create a Journal
With your new album created, jump over to iPhoto for iOS. Starting a Journal is easy: First select any photo (which also includes videos), album or event (in this case, you’ll want to select the album you just created in Photos) and tap on the Share icon, then select Journal. From here you’ll be able to choose only the selected photo, any flagged photos, all of the photos in the selected album or event or tap Choose to make a custom selection (but again, this only works from the selected album).
Next you’re prompted to name your Journal and select one of the six included themes: Cotton, Border, Denim, Light, Dark or Mosaic. We won’t get in the way of your creative freedom here, so make a selection and tap Create Journal to commit to it. In a moment, you’ll see confirmation that the Journal has been created, with the option to Show it now or return to iPhoto.
Editing Your Journal
Let’s tap Show to view our Journal now. It probably looks pretty good, but we can make it even better. Tap the Edit button; first let’s change the name to something else by double-tapping on it, backspacing over the current entry and typing in the new name. Tap outside of the text to deselect it, then single tap on it again -- now you can choose to put the headline in its own grid, keep it where it is (at full width) or even delete it altogether.
Next, tap on any photo or video in your Journal. You can now resize that image by dragging any of the selection handles; to keep the current aspect ratio, you’ll want to drag from the lower right corner. Moving an entire photo is as easy as touching it and holding as you drag it to the desired spot on the screen. If you’d prefer some descriptive text to go along with the image, tap Add a Caption and enter it.
For every photo you select, you’ll have the option to Remove or Edit it above -- the latter sends you back into iPhoto for additional quick fixes, while the former deletes the image from your Journal (but not from your iPhoto library). Last but not least, you can move the image to adjust which portion of it is displayed by double-tapping on the photo, then dragging it inside the frame. Tap on the photo again to commit your change.
Adding to An Existing Journal
While working on a Journal, you may decide it needs a few more images to be perfect. Jump back to the main menu and select the Albums, Photos or Events tab where your desired image resides, then choose the photo(s) you want to add. Tap the Share icon again, select Journal and then Selected to import only the photos you’ve chosen. This time, tap the Journal > New field and then tap on the name of the Journal you want to add the photos to. Tap on Add to Journal, then tap Show to view the change.
Dress Up Your Journal
iPhoto Journals aren’t only about photos and videos -- users can add a variety of custom items as well, including maps or weather information that uses GPS data embedded within photos to display where they were taken, the date, notes or even food that you happened to enjoy during a trip.
With your Journal open, tap Edit, then tap the + symbol -- now choose which element you’d like to add. Once it’s placed in your Journal, simply touch and hold to drag it wherever you’d like. Double-tapping on a custom item also allows you to further customize it -- headers, notes, text, food, memory and quote items can have descriptive text added, while maps can be dragged to change their view or even pinched with two finger to zoom into a specific location. The weather and date custom items can have their automatic settings turned off, allowing you to select a specific setting of your own.
Publish to iCloud
iPhoto for iOS offers three ways to share your journal -- as a slideshow, via iTunes Sharing (which can be uploaded to any web server via FTP) or through iCloud, which is the method we’ll show you now. You’ll need an iCloud account to use it, of course, so be sure to sign up for one before proceeding -- it’s free, after all!
With your Journal open, tap the Share icon and select iCloud; move the Publish to iCloud switch to the On position and wait as iPhoto generates your images -- how long depends on how many photos or videos are included in your Journal. (If you change your mind, just hit Cancel to stop.) When finished, you’ll find an option to Add to Home Page; this will display the Journal on your public iCloud home page for anyone to view.
While your Journal is uploading to iCloud, you won’t be able to tap on the other buttons -- you’ll see a spinning indicator at the top right of the iCloud pop-up that shows iPhoto is working, but in a few moments you’ll have two other options: Tell a Friend or View in Safari, both for the Journal you just published as well as the Home Page, if you chose this option.
“Tell a Friend” emails a link to your newly published Journal, and you’re likely to want to add your own address to that, because Apple’s URLs are ridiculously long at this point (as shown in the screenshot above) -- not to mention, this is currently the only way for you to see them. (Yes, unbelievably, published Journals can’t be accessed from iCloud.com -- at least not yet.) If you’d rather just see the finished work online, tap “View in Safari,” from where you can also bookmark that crazy long URL in case you want to access it again later. (We suggest adding it to your Reading List, where it will then show up on your Mac as well.)
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