Getting Started with MemoryMiner
No doubt, creating these digital stories is work, but we can assure you, it's completely worth the effort. Our job is to give you the best tools we can create to help you gather the raw materials of your stories, and coming soon, some really interesting ways to share them over a network. The world is waiting: what have you got to say?Importing and Linking Photos
To use MemoryMiner you need digital photos. If you use iPhoto, you can automatically synchronize the contents of your entire iPhoto library automatically every time MemoryMiner starts up. You can happily use iPhoto and MemoryMiner at the same time. If you're working with scanned photos, or photos stored in any folder on any hard drive or CD/DVD, you can import using the Open Panel, or by drag and drop from a Finder window, from iPhoto, or other photo manager applications. In all cases, the original files are left where they are, and thumbnails are automatically generated and kept online. Duplicates are eliminated through the use of checksums, which is a type of unique identifier based on the file's data, thus preventing the same file from being imported twice, regardless of its name or location.
Who's in the Photo?
Once you have photos, you can then begin the annotation process. To designate people, you draw selection areas over the photos, immediately after which, the standard Address Book panel is shown where you can select an existing person, or create a new one. A new Person object is created in MemoryMiner, and is linked to the Address Book entry. In MemoryMiner, you specify the birth date and relationship of this person to you.
Attachments: Adding Depth and Context
In addition to specifying the People in a photo, you can attach any type of file, or URL with a simple drag and drop. For example, you may wish to interview the people in the photo, or people who know something about the places or events depicted in the photo. Using QuickTime Pro's new Audio/Video recording features, you can record directly using your computer's built-in microphone, iSight Camera, etc. However you create your audio or video, simply drag and drop the file icon onto the photo. Use the same technique for dragging URL's of any web page (such as a Wikipedia article). Using this technique to collect and link media to a story frame is similar to the technique professional chefs use to organize ingredients together in one place, thus making it a breeze to create lots of different dishes.
Places: Where in the World?
A final, unifying element for your story board is Place. MemoryMiner uses web services to automatically fetch maps and latitude/longitude values for virtually any location on Earth. As you build up your places collection, you drag and drop them onto one more photos either in the contact sheet view, or while editing. Referring to place using this technique is much more precise than using a simple text tag such as "Paris" (Paris, Texas? Paris, France? Paris Hilton?!). Using the intersection of people and places, MemoryMiner graphically displays locations for people on a high-quality global map projection.