Import display problem

[Roy Mathers]

Hello you experts - I'm sure one of you can help with my problem. I have just bought a Samsung N11' netbook so that I can download my pictures onto Lightroom while I'm travelling. I've loaded LR onto it, and all was well until I tried to import some pictures (using a card reader). The import dialogue box does not show the thumbnails. Also, the screen doesn't show the entire dialogue box so I can't see the bottom of it - I therefore can't complete the import process, even if I could see the thumbnails. The screen resolution of the netbook is 1'24 x 6''. Thanks for your help.

 

[clee01l]

I think the import dialog box is resizable. Just grab one of the edges/corners and make it smaller Or double click on the title bar to expand the window to full screen.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Failing that, Alt-Spacebar, then 'm', should allow you to drag the dialog around (without having to click on the window title bar), or to move it using the cursor arrow keys. Haven't actually tried it on a netbook, so I don't know for sure whether that'll help.

 

[Roy Mathers]

Thanks for your replies Cletus and Brad, but it doesn't seem to be successful. For a start, it seems that the import dialogue box isn't resizeable or, if it is, it's at its smallest - and it still doesn't explain why I haven't got the thumbnail pane.

I also have the same problem with the Preferences pane (can't see the bottom of it). Brad's Alt+spacebar+M trick works, but then I can't use the cursor to click 'OK' because when I come out of the Alt+spacebar+M mode, the panel goes back to where it was.

Lightroom must be used satisfactorily on netbooks all over the place, so there must be an answer to this!

 

[clee01l]

In v2.5 the Import dialog is resizable. The smallest size that I can make mine is 977X679 with the Preview pane open and 537X679 with the preview pane closed. . This should fit on any size netbook. If you right click on the title bar of the dialog, a context menu pops up with one of the menu choices being <Move>. If you select that, you can used the arrow keys or the mouse to drag the window around the screen.
As for the thumbnail/preview pane, there is a checkbox located in the lower left corner of the dailog to turn this on or off.

 

[Roy Mathers]

HI Cletus


Thanks for the ongoing help. I can find the contextual menu, and it certainly lets me move the import box around as you describe, but I still can't resize it to fit the 12'4x6'' screen. This leads me to think that the box still measures more than 6'' high and, although the cursor arrows indicate that i should be able to re-size it, all that happens is that the box moves.

As for the thumbnail preview pane, there doesn't appear to be a checkbox in the lower left corner of the box (or anywhere else in the box for that matter).

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=Roy Mathers link=topic=8165.msg55578#msg55578 date=1256316775]
HI Cletus


Thanks for the ongoing help. I can find the contextual menu, and it certainly lets me move the import box around as you describe, but I still can't resize it to fit the 12'4x6'' screen. This leads me to think that the box still measures more than 6'' high and, although the cursor arrows indicate that i should be able to re-size it, all that happens is that the box moves.

As for the thumbnail preview pane, there doesn't appear to be a checkbox in the lower left corner of the box (or anywhere else in the box for that matter).
[/quote]You will find that 679 is the smallest height dimension that the dialog will go to. You should still be able to alter the width to anything up to 12''px. or down to 977px. Standard VGA is 1'24X768. I see that many 9" netbooks are 1'24X6'' This is a limitation of netbooks that you will need to learn to work around.
I have attached the 977X679 dialog so you can see where the preview checkbox is found.

 

[Roy Mathers]

This is a real puzzle. I can move the box around but am unable to resize it. When I move the box up far enough to see the bottom of it, The lowest thing I see is the drop down list for Initial Previews (the box end immediately below that)

 

[Denis Pagé]

Roy, Under the first drop down list which is "File Handling" is the the list of where you import from. Click on one of those import from locations with their check marks on their left then press the "Tab" key ten times followed by SpaceBar. The import process will start. This is what I call "blind navigation". :fi_lone_ranger:

 

[Denis Pagé]

If you wish to :fi_lone_ranger: ly remove the previews, click once anywhere in the keywords box, tab 5 times then spacebar. Same to reactivate.

To cancel an Import: Click keywords box, 6 tabs, spacebar.

 

[Roy Mathers]

I'm not sure I understand this Denis. The box under the first dropdown box is 'Copy to', followed by 'Organize', both of which are destination boxes, not where you import from.

Secondly, apropos your second post, it isn't that I want to remove previews - I want the thumbnail previews pane to appear in the import dialogue box - which seems to be the problem at the moment.

 

[pknoot]

Roy, are you sure this netbook is the right choice for running LR? The Atom processor was not designed for CPU-intensive work and having only 1GB of RAM is extremely limiting. As you can see, the display resolution is not adequate either. Even if you did import the photos, I sense you would be frustrated with the performance. If all you want to do is download and store images while traveling, a stand-alone data storage unit would be far more cost-effective. They run about $13' for 16'GB....

 

[Roy Mathers]

Peter - I understand the limitations of the netbook (in any case, it's too late, as I already have it!) but it isn't exclusively for downloading images using Lightroom, but also accessing the internet and receiving email etc while travelling. Images will certainly be downloaded while on holiday for instance (and I will enter keywords and location details etc) but not serious work will be done on the images as the catalogue will be transferred to my main computer when I get home.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Roy, you can't see the checkbox for the previews because the dialog won't go small enough because it's smaller that LR's minimum screen res. If that's the only thing you need to change though, you could either attach a second screen temporarily so you can move the dialog, check the checkboxes, and move it back, or set your preferences up the way you like on another computer and then copy over the preferences file, should do the trick.

 

[Roy Mathers]

Thanks for that Victoria. However, someone on another forum has solved the problem for me. I posted screen shot of the problem on another forum and someone noticed that I had the file handling set at "Copy photos to a new location..." as well as importing from a memory card, hence the extra lines in the box.

It was suggested that, as a test, I first copy the images from memory card to a local folder I plannned on using for storage. Then I should import and change the file handling method to "Add photos to catalog without moving." I could then try resizing the window (either from top or bottom) to see if the bottom half shows up.

Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) this worked and I am now sorted! As a matter of interest, the import dialogue box in the Lightroom 3 Beta fits the window perfectly!

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Well that's nice to know!