gBrowser Help: Quick Start Guide

Starting Off

When you launch gBrowser, a window should appear. The Sidebar (on the left) should have your "Pictures" folder as its base folder, or the root level of your hard drive if you have no "Pictures" folder. It is from this list that you choose folders and files to display in the Thumbnail Pane. By default, the Sidebar only shows folders, but you can change this setting using the Sort and Filter drop-down menu underneath the Sidebar.

Selecting Files or Folders in the Sidebar

Select a folder in the sidebar. The thumbnail pane's contents change to match the new selection.

If you select a file rather than a folder, the Thumbnail Pane will attempt to display that file if possible. It can display images, text, RTF, and HTML files, and Quicktime movies.

Changing the Sidebar Base Folder

You may have your images organized somewhere other than your Pictures folder. To change the base folder of the sidebar, choose "Base Folder..." from the Sidebar menu. That will bring up your Collection Preferences window, where you can set a new base folder. You can also use the "Change base up 1 level" and "Change base to selected" options in the Sidebar menu, or change the base to a subfolder you have selected in the sidebar using the contextual menu.

Viewing Thumbnails

So you've set up the Sidebar. Now select a folder that has some image files in it. gBrowser will display those files in the Thumbnail Pane. At first you may only see their icons, until gBrowser creates thumbnails for them. Thumbnails are created using QuickLook, so gBrowser will create a thumbnail for any type of file that QuickLook supports.

Thumbnail Sizes

You can use the slider in the toolbar to change thumbnail sizes. Thumbnails can be anywhere from 64x64 pixels to 1024x1024. If you choose to hide the toolbar, you can also change sizes in the Thumbnails menu or in your Collection Preferences.

Other Options

Go through the Thumbnails menu and see what options you have available to you. You can change some appearance settings, or display more or less information about your images.

The toolbar also contains a number of interesting features you may like. Most importantly, you can add folders to it, just by dragging them onto it. Clicking on these folders will quickly and easily change the base folder of the Sidebar.

Collections

If you have multiple groups of photos that each might require different settings (for example, you have separate groups of personal photos and work photos, or separate groups of photos for each work client), gBrowser allows you to save your settings (the appearance settings, Sidebar base folder, sort and filter options, Drop Locations, and more) as a Collection. In the File menu, choose "Save as New Collection..." and save the Collection wherever is most convenient.

This way, you can launch gBrowser by double-clicking a particular Collection in the Finder, or select the Collection from gBrowser's Open Recent Collection menu, and all of the settings for that particular group of images will be set and ready to go.

If you don't save your settings as a Collection, they will be automatically saved as the default settings used when you don't open a particular Collection. This means if you have no need of Collections, you are free to use gBrowser without ever thinking about them.

Default Collection

If you use multiple Collections, you may have one particular Collection that you use most. In gBrowser's Application Preferences you can choose which Collection is your main Collection. Any time gBrowser launches or opens a new window, it will use your main Collection by default.