Drag and Drop Images Straight from the Browser

Don’t overload your computer – drag and drop images straight into your Pages document without first downloading them to your hard disc. The image will be stored with the Pages document and could always be easily extracted when needed as a separate file.

When you find an image you want on the internet click on it and hold, then drag it from an open browser window to an open Pages document. When Pages are ready to receive the image a blue outline will appear in the document. The blue contour shows where the images will sit: just on the page or inside a shape that you have already created in the Pages document.

Now, to get the image back from Pages open Inspector>Metrics and click on the little icon that shows in the Metrics file window. Hold and drag it to the Desktop or wherever you want it to sit.

That's it, easy-peasy!

This trick may be especially useful for Windows switchers. Macusers know that a lot of work is done by dragging and dropping.

Remember about copyright: look for free domain images on wikipedia or some such, or ask for permission to use an image.

Read this earlier article: Extracting Photos Back from Pages.

Simple tricks with photos: linked contents

Here is a list of links to articles about working with photos in Pages. All the tricks are easy to master with just the basic knowledge of how Pages work. The rest, as Albert Einstein said, is imagination.

Drag and Drop Direct from Mail
Preview Drawer trick: a quick way to select and import photos into Pages
Picasso's room: Simple drawings with photos, edited shapes and curved lines
Use Preview to update repeated formats

The Hughes Family templates: how to make collages and mosaics with photos
Happy New Year 2009! Drawing letters and images in Pages
Christmas graphics and clipart: a few easy tricks
How to change background in a photo
Remembrance theme: using background images
Obama, Blues Brothers and Picasso - yes, we can
How to separate people in the photo from the background
Remembrance poppies: make your own clipart
When picture wrapping pushes caption out of the text box
How to download photos
Blue conversions: a solution
Rose Cover: simple tricks with photos
Simple tricks with photos: fading from side to side
Fading out background image
Extracting photos back from Pages documents
No fuss with resizing pictures: use image fill

The list is updated as new posts are published.
Please come back to check out new tips and tricks.

How to Download Photos: Just Drag and Drop

I am sure most Mac users already know this trick, but if you are just starting to build your stock you may find this tip useful. To download a photo from the internet to your computer

Click on the image, hold and drag to your Desktop.

It's dead easy, so easy that I always giggle to myself when I come across complicated multistep advice on downloading photos from the internet, sometimes even software for sale to do this.

When you've dragged a picture to your Desktop, you get a file, in most cases in .jpg format. They come in various sizes and resolutions. Many internet images have a 72 DPI count, quite low, to allow fast loading of internet pages.

For good quality print projects these can only be used in very small sizes. If you need a good quality picture which you plan to use in a large size you should have at least 300 DPI count in real size. Many web-sites, including wikipedia/wikimedia have clickable pictures which open up in higher resolution, good for quality printing.

Remember to check copyright status of images and crediting requirements. Wikipedia and many public/government web-sites have current affairs photos free for use (in public domain.) There is a number of web-sites, including bigfoto.com, offering amateur photos for free downloads and use. However, while digital photography made taking snaps very easy, a good picture requires a lot of creative work, planning, thinking, preparation, luck - and talent. A good photographer always puts part of their soul into the picture.

If a photo has a name to it, I make it a rule to mention it in photo credits.

Oh, and apple photos on this blog are all mine, clickable and free to reuse. Please credit to Alexander Anichkin (Александр Аничкин) and link to this blog.