Making Asset Collections

Mixing Assets from Different Publications
 

As well as directly comparing two publications or species side by side with two browsers (see How to Compare Assets), BBi allows you to mix the assets of several publications or species in a single browser page.

Click the Toggle Link to Browser button in the navigators toolbar. This prevents the browser automatically updating with the assets of the selected publication or species.

Click on the Thumbnail View button in the browser toolbar so we can view multiple assets.

Click on the Clear button in the browser toolbar to remove any current assets.

Select the first publication of interest in the navigator. Click on one of the assets you are interested in and drag it over to the browser and release it. The assets thumbnail will appear in the browser.

Now select a second publication of interest in the navigator and drag one of its assets over to the browser. Continue with this for all the species and assets that you wish to view together.

The example above shows a composite of photographic assets from two volumes of BB.

Select Save Snapshot As from the File menu to save a copy of the current browser display for future reference - it can be reloaded at any time by selecting Open Snapshot (see Taking Snapshots of the Browser for details).

Presenting your Asset Collection as a Slide Show
 

BBi allows you to present a collection of assets as a slide show. This can be the assets of a selected publication or species or one of your own composites of assets from several publications - see Mixing Assets from Different Publications.

Either select a publication in the navigator or load a previously saved snapshot of a composite of assets (see Taking Snapshots of the Browser for details).

Click on the Thumbnail View button and ensure the assets are in the correct order that you want them to be displayed in. You can drag and drop the asset thumbnails around the browser and remove unwanted assets to reposition them. Set the Zoom Slider to maximum if you want to show the assets without a title. Alternatively set it to any other position if you want to see the assets with their title.

If you don't want the asset caption bar displayed then click the Toggle Captions button.

Select fullscreen mode and double-click on the first asset thumbnail to view it. Now simply use the CTRL + Left/Right (Mac: Command + Left/Right) arrow keys to move through your collection of assets as a slide show.

You can exit out of full screen mode at anytime by pressing ESC or Ctrl+O (Mac: Command+O) or by right-clicking in the white border of the browser area and selecting Exit Fullscreen from the menu.

Adding your own Notes to Publications

You can add your own notes to publication or species collections (e.g. notes of past sightings, or your own additional observations and identification tips) as follows:

Click the My Notes button, or select Features, My Notes, or press Ctrl+T (Mac: Command+T).

A Notes window opens - type whatever text you want into the box. If you want to "lock" your Notes (to prevent accidental changes), right-click (Mac: Command-click) on the Notes asset and select Edit Disable from the context menu that pops up. To "unlock" previously locked Notes, right-click (Mac: Command-click) and select Edit Enable from the context menu.

If you prefer you can also add your own short notes to entries in a Navigator - see Editing a Navigator - this does not entail creating new Notes assets.