This week’s installment of “What I Use” concerns an amazing tool for managing digital media – iView Media Pro.

Now, there are many ways to manage digital media on the Mac – the iLife applications for movies, photos and music; the File Browser in Photoshop; and even through the OSX Finder preview windows. But iView MediaPro handles them all in one place. Open MediaPro into it’s Catalog page and drop in a QuickTime movie, an MPEG, a JPEG or GIF, a Photoshop file, an MP3, a PDF file, a Flash animation, or a folder full of all the above. You can then view your stuff in three ways – a Content list, Thumbnails with adjustable sizes, or a window with the Media itself. MediaPro catalogs where the media is located, and you can move the media to other locations, delete it from your drive, or name, rename and batch rename.

Got a folder full of pictures? MediaPro can present them in a slide show on your computer, build a QuickTime movie from them with transitions, build a contact sheet, build a web page gallery with thumbnails and large-size versions, even back them up on CD. MediaPro supports importing from digital cameras, and crops, sharpens, inverts and color-corrects images as well.

I use MediaPro to organize and storyboard my video projects before getting into the Final Cut Pro process – I drop the project photos and movie clips into a Catalog, then move them around into the order I want. I can then run a slide show and see whether the order gives me the feel I want.

Another feature I really like is the ability to drag JPEG thumbnails off the Thumbnail page and drop them right onto the Photoshop Dock icon to open Photoshop to edit them, or drop QuickTime movie thumbnails right into the Clips window in iMovie 3 or Final Cut Pro.

If you are seriously into digital media, then iView MediaPro is a must-have application. You can download a demo and order online at: http://www.iview-multimedia.com.

In other news, I’ve received several emails about the location of the nearest Apple reseller. Turns out there’s Reliable Computers, with stores in Bangor, Belfast, and just up the road in Rockport. They’re also Apple Specialists, which means they offer seminars, training programs and special events. Visit them at 643 Rockland Street in Rockport.

That’s all for this week. Keep those emails coming to petez@macmaineiac.com, and, as always, have a great weekend and Semper Mac!

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski