Chapter 01 · Starting out
1.5Getting started
Getting Started explains the current view and its controls as you work, from adding photographs to exporting an edit.
Your first photograph. The welcome screen shows a photograph and offers Photos or a folder. Once photographs are available, a small tip on the Choose button says what Choose is for. In Choose, the next tip sits on Keep; after your first keeper, a tip on Develop suggests an edit. Each tip points at the control you will keep using and stays until its step is done: the Choose and Keep tips until your first keeper, the Develop tip until your first saved edit. The control beside a tip works as usual while the tip is shown. Closing any tip ends them for good. Existing progress files and worked catalogues skip them. On iPhone in portrait the modes are tabs, so only the Keep tip appears there.
Tips. Later, a tip can appear on a control when its feature would help: Focus Peaking after a few photographs in the loupe, for example, or Looks on a later visit to Develop. At most one feature’s tip appears a day, and none appears during a presentation, an export or a drag. Closing a tip retires it. Show tips and Reset Tips are in Settings › General on the Mac, iPhone and iPad, and the Mac’s Help menu also has Reset Tips. With Show tips off, no tip appears, the first-step tips included. Reset Tips brings back the tips you closed.
The companion on Mac. Open Getting Started from Help › Getting Started whenever you want guidance alongside your photographs. It opens when requested. A progress bar tracks eight introductory tasks. Click the bar to show the task list. Below it, an introduction explains the help overlay: click the photograph window and press ? to reveal shortcuts and mouse gestures beside its controls. In Develop, question-mark buttons explain the tools and sliders. Press ? again or esc to close the overlay, or use Help › Help Overlay in the photograph window. Read about the help overlay opens its manual chapter. A window overview then highlights the control being described.
| Task | Completed when | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choose where your photographs are | A source is added |
| 2 | Let Frames read them | The first photograph is catalogued |
| 3 | Look at one up close | A photograph opens in Loupe (⌘2) |
| 4 | Put two side by side | Compare contains two photographs (⌘3) |
| 5 | Keep one, reject one | Both verdicts have been used (\ and X) |
| 6 | Give one a rating | A rating from 1 to 5 is set |
| 7 | Develop one | An edit is saved (D) |
| 8 | Export one | An export writes a file (E) |
Tasks update automatically. A zero rating, a comparison with fewer than two panes or an export that writes no file does not complete its task.
Exploring the interface. Getting Started covers ten sections: the first-run screen, Browse, Loupe, Compare, the four Choose phases, Develop and Masking. Loupe and Compare each count once, regardless of the mode used to open them. In Choose they name the phase in their heading, show the phase description under their own, and list the phase’s judging controls ahead of their own. Controls and sections that have not been explored appear dimmed in the overview. Click a section in the overview to preview its instructions. The Preview label indicates that the main window has not changed. Getting Started follows the main window again when you change views, modes or phases.
Learning a control. Hover over a control in the main window, use its keyboard shortcut or click its row in Getting Started to read the instructions. An outline highlights the corresponding control in the main window. Each row lists available shortcuts. Click the book icon to open the manual topic.
Suggested next step. Below the controls, a suggestion shows the next task or a control to explore. If the next task requires another section, the suggestion includes directions. After the tasks, it suggests sections that have not been visited. The suggestion disappears when everything is complete.
Putting away. Click Put Away… at the bottom of the window and confirm to stop tracking introductory tasks. Progress is saved. Choose Help › Getting Started to reopen it and continue. Closing the window with its close button leaves task tracking enabled. After all eight tasks, the progress bar expands to show activity counts and sections explored.
Progress is saved in Frames’ storage. Five tasks are also checked against the catalogue on launch. If the progress file is deleted, those five are restored. Loupe, Compare and export tasks, rooms seen and controls reached must be earned again.
Task and room transitions do not animate with Reduce Motion enabled.