The Media Window

What Is the Media Window?

Opening the Media Window

Showing Thumbnails for Different Locations

Changing the Location of a Media Item

Resizing and Moving the Media Window

Zooming Images

Cropping Images

Working with Group Photos

Multiple Page PDF Files in the Media Window

The Information Panel

Description

File Name, Format, Size

Sorting and Rearranging Multimedia Items

Sensitive Items

Treat as Document

Comments

Metadata

Adding and Removing Items in the Media Window

Rotating an Image in the Media Window

The Tools Button

Playing a Slideshow From the Media Window

Missing Pictures in the Media Window

Taking a Picture With Your Mac

The Multimedia Sidebar

Printing Pictures

Pictures in Charts

Pictures in Reports

What Is the Media Window?

The Media window is a separate window, containing...

Many of the features in the Media window also appear in the Multimedia sidebar and the Event, Fact and Marriage media panels; however, the unique features of the Media window are...

The Media window is a separate window and should not be confused with pictures in charts, reports, books, event, fact or marriage media panels, or pictures inside person buttons in the family view.

What you see in a Media window is what will appear (although at different sizes) in charts, reports, and inside person buttons in the family view. Thus, the Media window is the place to define/crop exactly what portion of an image will be used throughout Reunion for a person/couple.

Any image may be linked to multiple people and, for each person/couple to whom the image is linked, a different part of the picture may be defined/cropped to appear in the Media window. See the section Working with Group Photos.

Opening the Media Window

To open the Media window...

Showing Thumbnails for Different Locations

Media can be linked to different locations within person and family records...

The Media window will only show the thumbnails for one media location at a time. To change the location for the listed thumbnails, click on the display location button at the top-left of the media window.

Click on the display location button to see a menu of every possible location where media items can be added. If media items are already present in any of the locations, the number of media items that have been linked to that location will be displayed. Select the desired location from the menu of locations and the thumbnails for that location will be displayed. If no media items have been linked to the selected location, no thumbnails will be displayed.

Media items can be added and removed from the selected location using any of the methods outlined in the Adding and Removing Items section.

Changing the Location of a Media Item

There will be times when a media item has been assigned to one location for a person or family when there is a more suitable different location for that media item within the same person or family.

For example: It would be preferable to move a picture of a grave marker located in a person’s general media to the burial event.

To change a media item’s location, control-click (or right-click) on the thumbnail and a menu will appear.

Select the Move to submenu and choose the desired location for the media item.

As soon as a new location is selected, the media item will disappear from the media window. The media item disappears because the new location for this media item is not being displayed in the media window.

To see the moved media item in its new location, click on the Display Location button at the top of the media window and select the location of the moved media item. This will change the location being displayed in the media window and the moved media item will be visible.

Resizing and Moving the Media Window

To resize an image, simply resize the Media window: click and drag the resize button in the lower-right corner of the Media window.

To move the Media window, click and drag the title bar (at the top of the Media window) or the bottom bar. The Media window can be placed beneath or above the Reunion window or other windows (List window, Source window, etc.).

If the Media window becomes completely hidden beneath another Reunion window, you can choose Window > Cycle Through Windows to bring a picture to the "front."

The maximum dimensions of the Media window are limited only by the size of your display. The minimum dimensions are 632 x 524 pixels.

To close the Media window, click its Close button (in the upper-left corner of its window). When closed, Reunion will remember its attributes — where it was on the screen, how big it was, etc.

Zooming Images, Opening in the Preview App

Making Reunion's Media window larger will make an image larger; however, the size of the Media window is limited by your display. Thus, if you want to zoom in (to inspect an image very closely, for example a census scan), the fastest way is to double-click the image in the Media window which will open it in Apple's Preview app. Then use Apple's Preview app to zoom in (by pressing Command-+). Another way to see an image in Preview is to Control-click a thumbnail (in the sidebar on the left side of the Media window) and choose Open in Preview.

A quick, although lower resolution, alternative is using Apple's system-wide zoom shortcut: pressing the Control key and scroll up and down with the mouse, or on a trackpad (with two fingers) to zoom in and out. This feature has been available for a long time. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Accessibility, then click Zoom (in the list on the left). Then check the button Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom. The default modifier key is the Control key.

Cropping Images

As you collect genealogical images, you'll have the option to crop (and otherwise edit) them using whatever photo-editing software you own, such as iPhoto, Photos, or Photoshop Elements. Or, you can crop the image in Reunion. (Actually, Reunion does not change the original image file; it just lets you show whatever portion of the image you desire.) Or, you can do both. Many Reunion users will initially adjust and filter images in Photoshop, for example. And later do some cropping in Reunion.

Reunion's crop feature lets you define the exact portion of the original image that will appear in the family view, in charts, in reports, in slideshows, etc.

To crop an image in Reunion's Media window...

  1. Click a media item in the family view or double-click any image thumbnail in the Multimedia sidebar. This opens the Media window.
  2. Click the Crop button in the bottom bar. A light "cropping rectangle" will appear over the image with handles you can drag. The borders of the overlaid rectangle can also be moved. If you previously cropped the image, the cropping rectangle will remember its location and size.
  3. When you're finished, click the Apply button in the bottom bar. Or click Cancel to revert to the previous cropping.

Note that the Crop button appears filled with "yellow" when an image has previously been cropped in Reunion.

Working with Group Photos

If you have a group photo showing several of your ancestors, you can link several people to the same image (the group photo) and then, using Reunion's Media window, simply use the cropping tool so that only the headshot of each individual person appears in their button in the family view. By doing this, only one copy of the picture file is necessary. (The alternative is to make duplicate copies of the group photo and then crop each image file in your image editing software, thus creating multiple image files on disk.)

Here's the process for using a single group photo with multiple people...

  1. In Reunion, navigate to a person who appears in a group photo.
  2. Drag the group image file (from the Finder or iPhoto/Photos) and drop it on his button. This will add the group photo to his record. Put another way, it will link him to the group photo.
  3. Choose Multimedia in the list of Sidebars and you should see a thumbnail of the group photo. Double click the thumbnail to open the Media window.
  4. Use Reunion's Crop button (in the bottom bar) to crop the image in the Media window so that only his face appears. Don't forget to click the Apply button and close the Media window.
  5. As a result, only his face will appear in the family view and in reports, charts, slideshows, etc. The entire group photo does not appear.
  6. Navigate to another person's record who also appears in the group photo and repeat steps 2 through 5.

Remember that cropping an image in Reunion does not alter the original image file on disk.

Multiple Page PDF Images in the Media Window

When a PDF file is linked to a person or family and opened in the Media window, the first page will appear by default. To see other pages of a multiple page PDF document, click the up/down arrow buttons at the bottom of the image, or enter a page number in the Current Page field. To zoom a PDF document, click the Display button.

The Information Panel

The Information panel shows details, options, and fields for the selected multimedia item in the Media window. The panel appears in the lower-part of the Media window. You can show or hide the Information panel. (You might want to hide the panel if you're showing pictures to friends or family.)

To show/hide the Information panel, click the purple Info button in the bottom bar of the Media window.

The media details, options, and fields are described below.


Description

When a multimedia item is first added to a person/family, the "description" is identical to the name of the file on your hard drive. However, you may want to be more verbose in describing the item.

To edit the description of a multimedia item...

  1. Click a thumbnail image in the family view or double-click any item in the Multimedia sidebar. This opens the Media window.
  2. In the Media window, make sure the Information panel appears in the lower-left. If not, click the purple Info button in the bottom bar.
  3. Click into the descr field in the Information panel to enter/edit a description.

Up to 255 characters can be used to describe a multimedia file.

Where is the Description field used...

File Name, Format, Size

The Information Panel also shows the file name, format (file type) and size (in bytes) of the item selected in the Media window. These fields are not editable. Rather, they simply reflect the attributes of the file on disk.

Sorting and Rearranging Multimedia Items

Thumbnails in the Multimedia sidebar (or Media window) can be dragged and dropped to change their position/order. The order of items here determines the order that the images will appear in a slideshow.

To sort items automatically...

  1. Select Multimedia in the Sidebar list. This opens the Multimedia sidebar.
  2. toolsiconSelect any thumbnail to enable the Tools button. Click the Tools button.
  3. Click Sort Multimedia Items.
  4. Choose the key for sorting: file type, file name, file size, and description.

Tip: as a shortcut, Control-click a thumbnail and choose Sort Multimedia Items > [sort key].

Note: Automatic sorting is only supported for general media; media linked to marriage, events, and facts can be dragged and dropped.

Sensitive Items

To designate a multimedia item as sensitive and thereby omit it from reports...

  1. Click a media item in the family view or double-click any item in the Multimedia sidebar. This opens the Media window.
  2. In the Media window, make sure the Information panel appears in the lower-left. If not, click the purple Info button in the bottom bar.
  3. Select the thumbnail (for the sensitive item).
  4. Check the Sensitive button in the Information panel.

Tip: Here are three shortcuts for toggling the sensitive status of a multimedia item...

Treat as Document

In the Media window, a distinction is made between document files and image files.

Document files linked to people and families have limitations compared to image files. For example, a "preferred" picture must be an image file (such as a JPEG, PNG, or PDF file) and can't be a document file (such as an RTF or Text file). Document files will not appear in ReunionTouch on your devices.

You may have some image files linked to people and families that you'd prefer to treat as "document" files, rather than as image files. To do so...

  1. Click a picture in the family view or double-click any item in the Multimedia sidebar. This opens the Media window.
  2. In the Media window, make sure the Information panel appears in the lower-left. If not, click the purple Info button in the bottom bar.
  3. Select the thumbnail for the item you want to "treat as document."
  4. Check the Treat as document button in the Information panel.

Image files (such as PDF, PNG, and JPEG files) with the Treat as document button checked have the following limitations...

Comments

For each multimedia item, you can record up to 1,000 characters of miscellaneous text in the Comments field. To add or edit the comments...

photo comments
picture comments
  1. Click a thumbnail image in the family view or double-click any item in the Multimedia sidebar. This opens the Media window.
  2. In the Media window, make sure the Information panel appears in the lower-left. If not, click the purple Info button in the bottom bar.
  3. Select a thumbnail (the item for which you want to add/edit comments).
  4. Enter text in the Comments field relating to the selected item.

Where is the Comments field used...

To search for text in the Comments field...

  1. Click Find in the navbar.
  2. Select People or Couples, depending on whether you are searching for comments relating to a person or family multimedia item.
  3. Set up a condition like this...

Importing images from Photos or iPhoto...

When thumbnails from Apple's Photos or iPhoto (version 6 or newer) apps are dragged/dropped into Reunion, any comments entered in the Photos/iPhoto Description field will be imported into Reunion's Comments field.

Metadata

If an image file contains metadata (embedded information about the image, such as "date taken," "location," etc.), you can import the metadata into the Comments field in Reunion's Media window.

To import metadata...

  1. Select an image file in the Media window.
  2. If the image contains metadata, the green Metadata button will become enabled in the bottom-right of the Media window, just before the name of the media file, ala this example...

  3. Click the Metadata button to import the metadata into the Comments field. The metadata will be highlighted.

Reunion imports EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) and IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) data, two different metadata standards that generally contain different pieces of information. Photos can contain data in both standards, or just in one or the other.

Metadata Imported by Reunion
EXIF
UserComment:
Comments added by the user.
EXIF
DateTimeOriginal
The day and time the image was taken/created.
IPTC
Sublocation
This could be something like a specific area within a city (Manhattan), a well-known location (Giza Pyramids), etc.
IPTC
City
City in which the image was taken.
IPTC
ProvinceState
State/Province in which the image was taken.
IPTC
CountryPrimaryLocationName
Full country name in which the image was taken.
IPTC
Caption/Abstract
Comments added by the user. If EXIF UserComment and IPTC Caption/Abstract are the same, only one will get imported. Otherwise both get imported.
IPTC
ObjectName
Name/Title added by the user.
IPTC
ContactAddress
Address of the person who took the picture.
IPTC
ContactCity
City of the person who took the picture.
IPTC
ContactState
State of the person who took the picture.
IPTC
ContactZIP
Zip code of the person who took the picture.
IPTC
ContactCountry
Country of the person who took the picture.

Adding and Removing Items In the Media Window

If the Media window is already open for a person/family, multimedia items may be added by clicking the Add button (plus sign) in the bottom bar. Generally, it's easier to add multimedia items using the family view or the Multimedia sidebar, as described here.

To remove a multimedia item displayed in the Media window, click the Remove button (the minus sign) in the bottom bar. This will remove the item from a person or family. Multimedia items can also be removed using the Multimedia sidebar, as described here.

Rotating an Image in the Media Window

rotateiconTo rotate an image that appears in the Media window, click the Rotate button in the bottom bar. Click the button multiple times to rotate incrementally (by 90 degrees).

Images can also be rotated in the Multimedia sidebar, as described here.

The Tools Button

A Tools button appears in the bottom bar of the Media window and the bottom bar of the Multimedia sidebar. Most of the items in the Tools window also appear in a pop-up menu if you Control-click a thumbnail image in the Media window or Multimedia sidebar.

Depending on what type of file is selected, items in the Tools window will vary; however, all are listed below. Follow the links for more information about each feature...

Note: The Tool menu items Duplicate, Reveal in Finder, and Rotate are disabled if the original multimedia file is missing.

Playing a Slideshow From the Media Window

A Slideshow button appears in the lower-left corner of the Media window. When clicked, the slideshow will begin immediately and include all images in the left side of the Media window. Learn more about slideshows.

Missing Pictures in the Media Window

As explained earlier in this chapter, the Media window appears when you click a thumbnail in the family view, or double-click a thumbnail in the Multimedia sidebar. One purpose of the Media window is to show a larger full-res version of the image. However, if the original image file is missing, then Reunion will display the message/buttons shown below...

missingmedia

Some scenarios that may cause this include...

Before showing the warning above, Reunion will automatically search through all of the folders specified in the multimedia search folders to see if the multimedia files are located in any of those folders. If it finds the multimedia file, it will automatically re-link the file and display the full-res version in the Media window.

When a missing multimedia item is found and its new link established, a larger version will appear in the Media window, and the message/buttons shown above will disappear.

Note: The Multimedia Usage report will list all missing multimedia files. Learn more.

Taking a Picture With Your Mac

If your Mac has a built-in camera or a USB-connected camera, you can take a picture from within Reunion's media window, and add it to any person or family. To do this...

  1. Navigate to the person or family where you'd like to add a picture.
  2. Open the Media window for the desired person (by clicking any picture or silhouette in the family view).
  3. Click the Take Picture button in the bottom bar of the Media window. This button will be disabled if there is no camera connected to your Mac.

The Take Picture window looks like this...

The Mirror preview button simply flips the image (probably what you're accustomed to seeing in a self-facing camera).

After taking the picture, the image will appear in a window, along with three buttons...