Using the Favorites Feature in the Spitfire Image Library

Using the Favorites Feature

The library has a feature called Favorites, that allows you to create a collection or collections of images you would like to save for future reference. If you are familiar with the image lightbox feature from a website like iStockPhoto.com, this is very similar to that feature.

When you are viewing a page of images the view will include 2 icons below each image. The magnifying glass icon will take you to another page where you will see that image in the largest size available on the web page in the program.

The other icon, a small grid of 9 squares, will add that image (see below) to your currently open Favorites group. It's important to understand that "currently open" determines which of your Favorites groups the saved images will be put into.

There is also the default Favorites and this simply implies which Favorites group will open when you click on the Favorites link.

You can easily create more than one group of Favorites and can easily switch between them using a drop down menu. So be careful that you have the one open that you want the saved images to go into. If you do drop them in the wrong Favorites group, don't worry, you can easily move them to the correct group. At the upper right are options to Copy selected (Favorites) and to Move selected (Favorites).

When you click on Favorites as a link on the horizontal menu at the top you will be presented with a view similar to the one below. This shows a Favorites group that already has images added to it. Yours may be empty if you are a new user.

If you don't want a particular image in this Favorites group that has been put here, just click the check mark under the image and it will be taken out.

Note: Any images you put into a Favorites group are just copies of the images from the general library and whatever you do in Favorites will not affect the original in the general library.

The panel on the left is where you will find a number of options. The really interesting and useful ones are below the headings Favorites Downloads and Favorites Options.

Here is more detailed information about these options.

Favorites Downloads

Download images to computer - This will download a file named lightbox.zip to wherever your default download area is. You can choose to download either high-res or medium-res files. Simply send this file or do a standard unzip and expand and you have all the files at once. Note that you will need a fast connection for this option to work well if you have many images. It can time out on a slow connection.
FTP images to another computer - Input server data and the program will upload the images to your server. if you don't understand how to FTP, skip this option.
Email a download invite - Put in a name and an email address and it will email a link in the email to download a zip file containing the images in the Favorites group. This option will allow people outside of UT Dallas to download the zip file. If it looks like the email did not arrive, check your spam/junk mail folder for the email. We have tested this and Yahoo Mail did put the email in the spam folder.

Favorites Options

Share this Favorites with others - This will send an email to a current library user. When they click on the link and login to the library, they will have a new Favorites group created with the same name as the group you sent them that contains all the images you had in that group.
Email link to this Favorites - It does just that! The person must be a library user. The link opens up that Favorites group once the user is logged in. This will create a new Favorites group in your user account.
Copy this Favorites - Makes a new Favorites group in your account with the same name and Copy of added to the front of the name. You do get a chance to edit the name before you do the copy. For use inside your user account only.
Print contact sheet - Does exactly that. You have the choice of seeing the contact sheet as simply images with the image name or as a list showing additional details. For use inside your user account only.
Empty this Favorites - Removes any images in the Favorites group, but retains the group. For use inside your user account only.
Delete this Favorites - Totally deletes the Favorites group and any images saved inside the group. For use inside your user account only.
Hide Favorites toolbar in gallery - Honestly, we don't know what this option does. It does not seem to have any visible effect.

If you have questions about anything outlined on this document, please contact University Web Services at extension 4995 or 4994 and ask for Dennis Guten for help with any Spitfire Image Library related issues.