I love travel. I love maps. So here’s a map of where I’ve traveled:

Create your own visited country map.

A few details:

• I omit Norway since I’ve only been through the Oslo airport. IMHO an airport transfer doesn’t count as a visit to the country.
• I’ve visited every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada.
• There are people who have visited every county in the U.S. I don’t plan to be one of them.

Note: Last year, on the Lightroom Journal, I wrote about using worklist keywords to keep track of your keywording efforts. In this article, I look at some new and improved ways to accomplish the same thing with Lightroom 2.0.

I use worklists to keep track of work I want to do on my photography collection. It’s well suited for tasks that I do incrementally — a bit at a time, rather than all at once. Examples include:

• keywording,
• editing (by this I mean deciding which photos remain in the collection and which get deleted or archived out),
• publishing,
• geocoding, and
• registering copyright.

In last year’s article, I described how to do this by using specially-named keywords and some tricks in the Find panel. With Lightroom 2.0, smart collections make this process easier and more logical.

Creating the Worklist

I’ll use the same example I used before: I want to keep track of keywording status for a certain subset of my keywording tree: the people I know. In other words, I want to be able to ask these questions and get accurate answers:

• Which photos have I already keyworded for people I know? (even just to note that there’s nobody I know in the photo)
  
• And the inverse of that: Which photos have I not yet keyworded for people I know? (i.e. my to-do list)

I used to use keywords for this because they were easier to assign than collections, but with Lightroom 2, it makes more sense (to me, anyway) to use collections. Here’s why:

• Collections appear in the left panel track and keywords are now in the right panel track, meaning that in this workflow, you don’t have to scroll to use both.
• Collection membership doesn’t appear in exported metadata for your photos, but keywords do by default. Typically you wouldn’t want to share your worklist status with the general public.
• You can make any collection act as the quick collection, meaning that the B key becomes a quick assign/unassign shortcut.

The screen shot on the right shows the Collections panel with my worklist keywords highlighted.

There’s a collection here that matches each of the questions I asked earlier:

The collection titled “people I know»reviewed” answers the question: “Which photos have I already keyworded.” I add each photo to this collection as I do the work of keywording for people I know. When I achieve my goal of having reviewed every photo in my library for people I know, every photo in my catalog will be a member of this collection.

The smart collection above it, titled “people I know: to review,” answers the inverse question: “Which photos have I not yet keyworded.” We’ll get to how it’s built in a moment, but it’s basically constructed as the inverse of the first collection. When I achieve my goal of having reviewed every photo in my library for people I know, this collection will be empty.

Now that I’ve explained what I’m trying to accomplish, here’s how I do it:

Step 1: Create the collection set that will contain this worklist. Click on the plus-arrow at the top-right of the Collections panel and choose Create Collection Set…. Give the set a descriptive name. If you want to place this set inside another set (as I’ve done, placing it inside my “keywording status” collection set), you can do this here.

Step 2: Create the collection that will represent your completed work. First, click on the collection set to make sure that it’s highlighted. Then click on the plus-arrow and choose Create Collection…. Choose a name for this collection. Make sure the Set popup still points to the desired collection set, and make sure the “Include selected photos” checkbox is turned off.

Important: The name of this collection must include a single word that does not appear in the name of any other collection you have. I recommend including some special character or symbol that’s not otherwise likely to appear instead of a space. You’ll see why in a moment when we build the smart collection. This is why my collection has the slightly unusual name “people I know»reviewed.” The word “know»reviewed” is what I’ll be searching for. (Mac users: You can type the » character — on an English keyboard at least — by typing Option-Shift-backslash. Windows users: I recommend using something simpler like ~.)

Step 3: Create the smart collection that will represent your to-do list. Make sure the collection set is still highlighted. Then click the plus-arrow and choose Create Smart Collection…. Again, make sure the Set popup points to the desired parent collection set. Then configure the collection as shown below:

Hrm. That screenshot is a little scrunched. The popups read, in order: “Collection” “doesn’t contain” “know»reviewed”. The important part is that the text field contains the same single word you chose above in step 2 — and nothing more. If you enter multiple words separated by spaces, it will look for all of those words separately, which is not what you want.

That’s it! You should now have the same arrangement in your Collections panel that I highlighted in the first screen shot above. Your “reviewed” collection should have zero photos in it, and your “to review” smart collection should have the same number of photos as the “All Photographs” entry in the Catalog panel.

So … we’ve got keywording to do! Let’s get to it!

Doing the Work and Keeping Track

When I’m ready to do some keywording, I lay just a little bit of groundwork first:

Step 1: Right-click on the “reviewed” collection and choose Set as Target Collection. You should see a + appear after the collection’s name. This means that the B key will add or remove a photo from this collection.

Step 2: Click on the “to review” smart collection.

Simple, eh? The photos in your library grid are the photos that you haven’t reviewed yet.

You select individual photos or groups of related photos. Assign the relevant keywords to them. (Notice that the photos remain in view at this point. This is a good thing — you might have to assign several keywords. You wouldn’t want the photo to disappear after the first keyword, right?) When you’re sure you have the right keywords assigned to the selected photo(s), press the B key.

The selected photos disappear immediately from view. Handy, huh?

Even if no keyword in this list applies (i.e. there’s nobody you know in a particular photo), press the B key anyway. This just means that you’ve reviewed the photo and you’re sure that it’s correctly keyworded for people you know.

Turns out you can whittle through a worklist pretty quickly this way. The things I really like about this technique are:

• It doesn’t matter in what order you work through the photos. If you don’t feel like keywording a particular group of photos, no problem. Skip around them and catch ‘em next time.
• It doesn’t matter how many of the photos you sort through at any one time. If you don’t do any keywording for six months, the “reviewed” keyword will still keep track of the work you’ve already done. Your to-do list will remain exactly the same, except for any new photos you may have imported since then.

Variation: Sorting Photos Into Two Bins

I use a variation on this technique to sort photos into two distinct bins for my editing decision workflow.

Background: I don’t particularly care to sort through the dozens or even hundreds of variations on a particular theme that I might shoot on a particularly trigger-happy day. But I also don’t want to permanently delete them. So instead I create “archive” catalogs where I park the second-tier photos in case I need them someday. (In practice, that means I never really look at them again, but that’s another story…)

So every one of the photos in my main catalog is sorted into two bins, plus a “not yet decided” pile:

• keep: I’ve decided this is worth keeping in the main catalog. It’s the best rendition I have of a particular subject (or at least, it’s one of a small number of best shots).
• archive: Worth saving “just in case,” but doesn’t rise to the very top of the pile.

The “keep” pile is a standard collection, just like I described earlier.

The “archive” pile is a keyword with a special name. I decided to use keywords here for a couple of reasons:

• These photos are not likely to be exported, so I don’t care as much about stray metadata.
• The B key is already used for the “keep” pile (target collection). But the Shift-K shortcut (right-click on  a keyword and select “Use This as Keyword Shortcut”) is still available.

The “to do” list is only slightly more complicated than in the first case I described earlier. I create two conditions. (Click on the + to the right of the first condition to add another row.) They are:

• Collection / doesn’t contain / edit»keep (change this to suit your “keep” collection’s name)
• Keyword / doesn’t contain / edit»move (again, change to match your keyword’s name)

Then I just move through the to-do list, typing B for those photos I want to keep and Shift-K for those I want to archive out.

When I’m done with my edits, I select all the photos with the “edit»move to archive” keyword, export them as an independent catalog (File > Export as Catalog…), and delete them from the main catalog.

Thank you for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and that it helps you be more efficient and productive in Lightroom.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been experimenting with downloading apps on my iPhone. Mostly it’s a good experience, although I’m looking forward to the apps maturing a bit.

I got burned today by iTunes’ handling of downloaded apps and I thought I should share it with those of you who use multiple machines.

I have two computers: a laptop (MacBook Pro) and a desktop (G5 tower). When I first got the 3G, I downloaded a few apps and installed them via the laptop before I even got home.

Yesterday, I hooked the phone up to my desktop machine and synced again. I was watching closely for any odd behavior and didn’t see any, so I didn’t think much of it.

Today I synced again with the desktop machine. Having synced successfully yesterday, I wasn’t watching as closely. Clicked the Sync button and let it go.

And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the status message read: “Uninstalling application Bylines”.

No-oooooooooooo!

I tried to cancel the sync, but the damage was already done. All 12 of my downloaded apps were gone from the phone.

I was eventually able to get them back (by manually copying the .ipa files from the laptop to the desktop), but this was definitely unexpected and undesired behavior. Oh … and all the preferences/settings for each of these applications was wiped out too, so I got to reconfigure each one of them. Feh.

A friend and I went to the Apple Store in Seattle on Friday morning thinking we could pick up one of the spiffy new iPhones. Us and many hundred other folks. (See photo of the line at right.) Rick and I both looked at each other and decided we weren’t that hard core.

Rick is now off vacationing with his family in Wyoming (a state that lacks Apple Stores), but I came back this afternoon and decided I could deal with today’s much shorter line (just one hour).

Line Hospitality

Props to Apple for their hospitality for those of us in line. This fellow came around several times with water, sunblock, and free newspapers.

Nice.

Once my number came up, the purchase process actually went pretty smoothly, and I think I was out of the store again in something like ten minutes at most.

First Experience: iTunes Store Fail

After running a few other errands, we were finally on the ferry on the way home a few hours later. What better time to hook up with my laptop and try downloading some apps, right?

Wrong.

Somehow my laptop managed to lose its authentication against the iTunes Store, so I kept clicking the “get app / buy app” links in the store. Each time I would get a warning that I had exceeded the number of authorized computers on my account. But it let me download/purchase anyway.

What it wouldn’t let me do, I found out a few minutes later, was to transfer the newly purchased/downloaded apps onto my phone.

Argh.

I did eventually manage to sort out the authentication issue, but it seems to me unwise to let somebody purchase apps if they can’t do anything with them.

First Handful of Apps

I’ve downloaded quite the set of applications so far, and I thought I’d share my first impressions about them:

• Byline: I’d like a dedicated app for reading my feeds. I do this through the online Google Reader site. At first glance, Byline looks really sweet, but it’s missing one really key feature: the ability to browse tags assigned in Google Reader. Some feeds are very legible on the iPhone, some (photos from Flickr contacts, for example) are not. I tag the phone-suitable feeds with “iPhone” in Google Reader, and I really want to read just those tags on my phone and leave the other feeds for when I have more screen real-estate. Until Byline (or another RSS app) does this, I’m probably back to the regular web experience.
• Google Mobile App: I don’t really see the point of this app. It’s a minor improvement at best on the Google search experience already available in the web browser. The thing that’s missing from both the existing Google web site and GMA is a rendering of search results that’s tuned for mobile display. Why there’s an iPhone specific version of Google Reader and GMail, but not Google search is kind of baffling to me.
• Jott for iPhone: First, let me say that Jott really rocks. I’ve been using it for most of a year (see my review of Jott and Remember the Milk from last fall) and I’m still very happy with it. So far I’ve only tested the mobile app version once and I didn’t get any e-mail from it. The recording I made is still available on the phone, but that isn’t really the purpose, is it?
• Places: Looks very cool! I tested it when at home and the recommendations match closely with my own experiences at local restaurants, etc., so I expect I’ll be making use of it when I’m on the road again.
• Remote: Also looks very cool. Some friends pointed me at this application, and I bought an Airport Express based on that recommendation. I think it will be replacing the Roku SoundBridge in our living room, which, though functional, has never really become popular in our home.

I haven’t given enough of a trial yet to comment on the other applications in my screen shot above.

Last Year’s Wish List

Last year, near the end of my “iPhone Review” article, I posted a wish list. Let’s see how the new phone measures up:

• BlueTooth. No improvement really.
• GPS. Check.
• Independent sync with .Mac / Google Calendar. Check, sort of. I still find the $99 price tag a bit steep, since all I’m using from .Mac MobileMe is contact synchronization. I’m hoping that there’s a way to push-sync with Gmail contacts soon.
• True third-party apps. Check.
• Faster wireless. Check.
• Custom ring tones (i.e. snippets of my MP3s). Check.
• AIM/Jabber chat. Check.
• A decent shared notebook service. No. I’m hoping the folks at 37signals are working on something in the background.
• VPN at least for work e-mail, etc. Check.

This Year’s Wish List

In addition to the items hinted at above, I’m hoping the phone can improve in the following ways this year:

• Better Google integration. My e-mail and calendar life lives on Google, and I’d like the phone to play directly in that space.
• GPS track log support. I’d love it if I didn’t have to carry a separate GPS unit with me just to geocode my photos. Ideally I could have the phone simply e-mail me the track logs whenever I needed them.
• Better navigation. Our first foray into using step-by-step directions from the phone was unimpressive. Unlike any of the in-car units I’ve ever used, the iPhone failed to recalculate automatically when I diverged from the designated route. When driving, I can’t afford to manually reset the navigation on the phone.
• Document viewing. I’d like to be able to transfer important documents (flight plans, etc.) in PDF form to the phone and have them viewable on short notice.

I think most of these things can be covered off by application upgrades. Here’s hoping!

Last night I updated the look and feel of my entire site. I want to give a big shout out to Chris Pearson, who developed the excellent Thesis theme. The look of all three components of my site (portfolio, photoblog, and this blog) is based on Chris’s work.

There are something like fourteen billion WordPress themes out there. Most of them are pretty cheesy, honestly, so it was very nice to run across one that had an inherently appealing structure and typography that’s about as good as is possible on the web.

I’ve done quite a bit of customization on the template (mostly moving the sidebar to the left and creating a solid-color background), but most of the credit for the visual design goes to Chris. Thanks, Chris!

P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the redesign!

So we’re on vacation in Fiji. Our flight gets delayed, so I called my parents (who were picking us up) to let them know the new plan. Hung up. Stuck the phone in my pocket. Went for a walk. Didn’t think about the phone for almost an hour. Pulled the phone out of my pocket. Discovered that it had redialed my father … 50 minutes ago. At $3.49 per minute. So we got this little gem in the “voice roaming” section of our bill:

Ouch.

I can’t really blame anyone but myself since I didn’t think to hit the lock button, but still … ouch.

I’d love it if Apple came out with an iPhone Flip.

We arrived this morning in Auckland. Qantas made the flight about as pleasant as possible, given that it was a twelve-and-a-half hour flight. This was helped in part by having a flight that wasn’t entirely full, but also by the fact that Qantas’ international flight crews are among the most thoughtful I’ve encountered on any airplane in a long time. Nicely done.

We busied ourselves today by settling into our hotel and doing an extensive walking tour of Auckland’s central business district. I’ll post more shortly on the photoblog about some striking similarities between Auckland and Seattle, but we’ve found the city very relaxed and amazingly well-kept.

I must rant for a minute about the delightful meal we’ve just enjoyed. If you ever find yourself in Auckland, do yourself a favor and truck on over to La Zeppa, a tapas bar on the west side of the Central Business District. The food was absolutely delightful (we especially enjoyed the lamb koftas and the profiteroles) and the service was also top-notch. Highly recommended.

I’m writing this article from the International Terminal at Los Angeles airport, while we wait our turn to board an overnight flight to Auckland, New Zealand. One of Adobe’s great benefits is the ability to take a sabbatical every five years; this is three weeks off in addition to your normal (very generous) allotment of vacation time.

We thought we should use this time to venture to places new to us, and New Zealand just sounded like fun.

In time for this new adventure, I’ve decided to start a photoblog in an effort to share more recent and interesting photography. If you have a moment, please venture on over to photoblog.ericscouten.com. There should be something new most days, and there are handy e-mail and RSS subscription links.

Two new (still in beta) web services have become favorite parts of my digital life: Jott and Remember the Milk.

Remember the Milk is a nicely done personal to-do list application. I’ve been using it for about two months now and it’s become the official repository for all of my “honey-do” lists. Most web apps that I have an opportunity to use are still stuck in the 1990s-era “fill in the form and wait for me to think about it” mode. RTM very nearly approaches the speed and flexibility of a desktop app, using single-key shortcuts for many of its common actions. (Type ‘c’ to mark a task as completed, for example.) It is also available offline, courtesy of its use of Google Gears. The Gears integration feels completely natural.

Jott does one small thing and it does it well. It lets you e-mail yourself (or anyone else you’ve entered into your Jott contacts list) from your mobile phone. It’s currently available as a free public beta, and I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that when they come out of beta, the cost is reasonable. I’ve only been using it a week, but I’m already addicted.

Why am I writing about these two services in one article? I found a very neat trick. I send myself to-do list items in Remember the Milk by calling Jott. These two services don’t know anything of each other, but they play very nicely together. Here’s how (assuming you’ve already signed up for both services):

The Setup

Do this once to get things rolling:

• Find your Remember the Milk inbox address. It’s under Settings > Info > Inbox E-mail Address. Copy this address.
  
  
• Add it to your Jott contact list. In your Contacts page, click on “Add Contacts.” Paste the address, as shown here:
  
  
• Add the Jott phone number to the speed dial on your mobile phone.
• That’s it!

Remembering the Milk from Your Phone

• Call Jott. When asked “Who do you want to Jott?”, say “Remember the Milk.” (You might have to speak this one extra carefully since Jott seems to have a hard time understanding that phrase.) After the beep, speak your task.
• After a few minutes, your task appears in your inbox on Remember the Milk.