Sometimes it helps to go back

This New York Times piece by David Brooks, describes how Sting lost his muse and found it again by going back and thinking about his childhood:  http://nyti.ms/1gYz8po

The author writes about "historical consciousness" which can inspire creativity as well as be catalyzing and reinvigorating. We think it can also be fun.

With Timebox, we want to help you preserve the past - yesterday or years ago - for the future. 

Because maybe someday you or someone in your family will want to go back to the photos and stories from your childhood.

 

Same trip, 2 different Timeboxes

Last month, Len and I went to New Zealand for 2 wonderful weeks. New Zealand had been on our list for many years and we bought the guide books in 2009. Needless to say, we did update the books for our trip.

At our company, Len does all the coding and I do everything else. I am a heavy Timebox user and always have a list of features that I think would be useful. Many things are on the list. We have also heard from other people and we are working on adding them as fast as we can.

Click to see the full Timebox story

Click to see the full Timebox story

Len took most of the photos with our new camera because he likes doing that more than I do. Thanks to the new iPhoto sharing via Dropbox I was able to easily select and add my favorites pics to Timebox from his iPhoto library.

Interestingly, we each created very different stories about out trip in our Timeboxes. Len structured his like a book and plans to make an ebook to share. I made a short story that I shared on Facebook thinking that my friends and family may not have the stamina for the long story. My long story is for me and anyone else interested in more photos and details.

We designed Timebox to be flexible. Long or short stories. Just for yourself or for sharing. Always ready for more.

We loved New Zealand and would go back in a second. Here is my short Timebox story if you want to take a look.  Enjoy!

Mary Ellen 

Sharing iPhoto Photos via Dropbox

Do other members of your family regularly ask you if they can access photos that you've got in your iPhoto library on your Mac? Maybe you took some great shots of a vacation or a wedding which they’d like to include in their own Timebox stories? Or maybe your iPhoto library contains the scanned images of your father's family slides?

In our family we’ve tried a number of different ways to solve this problem, but lately we’ve had the most success using Dropbox and its recently introduced feature called “Import Photos from iPhoto.” If you use iPhoto and Dropbox but haven’t put them together yet, you may find this post helpful.

Adding Your iPhoto Photos to Dropbox

The Import Photos from iPhoto feature in the Dropbox app on the Mac lets you easily “import” all of your iPhoto photos to a new subfolder in your Dropbox folder. If you haven’t tried this feature, here’s how to use it on your Mac:

  1. Click the Dropbox icon on the menu bar.
  2. Click the gear icon and select Preferences… from the menu.
  3. Select the Import tab.
  4. Click Import Photos from iPhoto…

If you have a lot of photos in iPhoto and depending on how fast your Mac’s connection to the Internet goes, it may take a few minutes or a few hours to import and upload all of your photos. Once the Import and upload are completed, you’ll find a new folder in your Dropbox account called "Photos from iPhoto." 

For further info on setting up Dropbox with iPhoto, see https://www.dropbox.com/help/1963

Sharing Your iPhoto Photos via Dropbox

Dropbox allows you to share any folder in your Dropbox account with any other Dropbox users. 

To share your Photos from iPhoto folder from your Mac:

  1. Open your Dropbox folder in the Finder.
  2. Click to select the Photos from iPhoto folder in your Dropbox folder.
  3. Choose Share this Folder from the Dropbox menu button on the toolbar.
  4. The Share this Folder button will open dropbox.com in Safari and display a dialog box that lets you specify the email addresses of people you’d like to share with.
  5. Enter their email addresses and then click Done to invite them to share your photos.

Using Dropbox and iPhoto Photos with Timebox

If you open the Photos from iPhoto folder in the Finder you’ll see that Dropbox has created subfolders that correspond to each of your iPhoto Events. If like me, you have a random mess of iPhoto Events, you can end up with a lot of equally messy subfolders. This is where the Timebox 2.3 update really helps out!

In Timebox 2.3 we added special support for Dropbox so it will merge all the messy Photos from iPhoto subfolders and give you one great-looking 3D timeline with all your photos.

Timebox now also “caches" your Dropbox folder info on your iOS device. It may take a few seconds for Timebox to open a Photos from iPhoto folder the first time, but after that, it should be pretty fast.

Following these steps you can share all your iPhoto photos with family members and you can all use each other’s photos to create your Timebox stories!

Len