Some hints for reoccurring questions....

To get a feel for how Bibble works, watch the tutorial videos at
http://bibblelabs.com/products/bibble5/learn/

The FAQ is quite useful: viewforum.php?f=93

Do not play with the library before you have found your own image defaults.
(Otherwise you might have to redo images later....)
Start in file system mode initially.

When setting up your raw file defaults, switch to a wide working space.
Your wide gamut raw files will not like being confined in a small working space like sRGB or Adobe RGB.
See also:
http://www.afximages.com/articles.php?a ... lorProfile
If you are concerned that using a wide space will not match to what the typical web output will be just switch on soft proofing to sRGB.

Setting up your defaults:
Each raw converter is different. You need to play a bit to get to the settings you like.
Things that usually need adjustments are:

• Look Profile (Portrait reduced is the most neutral one)
• Autolevels: Switch it off, it is too easy to get blown highlights or other
  interesting effects with them as the happen rather late in the pipeline.
• Working Space: Use ProPhoto RGB to accommodate your camera's gamut
• A bit of Vibrance or a small S curve is often appreciated.

Once you have found your personal default settings, right click on the
thumbnail of the image where those settings are applied and then use
"Settings->Save as RAW default setting..."
Or if you have several raw file producing cameras that differ widely, save settings explicitly for those camera types.

Note, these settings are applied only to images that are not in the DB yet or for which no Bibble XMP exists yet. To switch other images to to your new defaults use CTRL-R.

Preview Display:
Bibble 5.0 did not perform any sharpening to counter the blurring of the downsized preview, Bibble 5.0.2 now does sharpen previews to counter the blurring of the downsizing.
Still, to truly judge sharpness, view the image at 100%

Batch queues:
Make sure your JPG queues are set to switch to sRGB if they are meant for online viewing.
If you set up queues that downsize images 50% or more, set up some output sharpening in the queues to counter the blurring effect of downsizing. Also for downsizing of web images, keep the quality at 85% or higher. Below that it might be a bit ugly.

Print Queues:
Set the appropriate printer/ink/paper profile.
For PDF queues use sRGB.
The preview does not perform soft proofing, it is only useful for checking the layout, not the colors.

Library:
In contrast to other programs, Bibble can search and work with all open catalogs.
Therefore you do not need to stuff all your images into one catalog.
Import stuff in logical chunks (Year, project)
As catalog generation is easy, you might want to use temporary catalogs
for projects and other catalogs for archives.
I strongly suggest not copying/moving images into the catalog, but keeping them in a well structured directory tree on disk and only reference them from the catalogs.
There is a little icon in the top right of the catalog page that looks like stacked folders.
It lets you toggle recursive view of the current catalog directory.
Catalog refresh is currently not that brilliant.
You can do a re-import for new files and you can reload the metadata from the context menu.
Preview generation of larger image sets (especially with JPGs and TIFFs) can be a bit crashy. Switch off the preview generation in preferences to get around this and then generate previews explicitly on the folders you work on via ALT-P.
Also when using catalogs be sure to have the option to generate Bibble XMPs for catalogs turned on in the preferences. A good insurance for hosed catalogs....

Editing multiple images:
You no longer can edit image parameters for multiple images at once like in Bibbe4 for architectural reasons. Use "Selective Copy" and Paste instead (SHIFT-CTRL-C).
Rating, tagging and color coding as well as applying keywords via the keyword and keyword sets tools works on all selected images (unless you are in Multiview mode).
ALT-CTRL-C copies all meta data including rating and tagging, but not image adjustments.

Keyboard:
If you do not have a US keyboard, some of the default shortcuts like for the magnifier) are not very useful. Remap to your needs in preferences.
Remapping Previous/Next image to the cursor keys helps getting around some focus issues.

Check out Bernd's keyboard mapping hints in the blog: http://flightofthebibbles.blogspot.com/ ... ayout.html
Highly recommended.

Language:
The Bibble code is identical, no matter where it was bought or in which language.
The language can be switched in preferences and requires a restart to get activated.

Installing plugins
Since version 5.0.1 user plugin locations are supported so that they do not need to be installed in the system locations anymore (though those still work and are preferred for system wide installation).

In your Bibble user directory which is usually one of the following:
Windows: [user home dir]\AppData\Local\Bibble Labs
Windows XP: [user home dir]\Local Settings\Application Data\Bibble Labs
Linux: ~/.bibble5
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Bibble 5

Plugins (bzplug files) are installed via the "File->Install Plugin" menu starting with Bibble 5.1

Dealing with crashes:
Use the bug reporting instructions posted here: viewtopic.php?f=93&t=15238

If Bibble keeps crashing at start, it tries to complete an action that has lead to a crash and crashes again while doing so.

Typically this can be cleaned up by deleting the cache. The files named cache* in you bibble user directory)
But if that happened while in library mode or import, it might be the DB.
Deleting the DB can clear that.

If you can isolate images that lead to a crash, please upload them to "support" with information on why this leads to a crash:
http://ssl.bibblelabs.com/tickets/new

To ensure that your meta information is not lost should you loose a DB, use the option Preferences->General "Allow Bibble .xmp generation for photos in Catalogs"


Please do not post comments in this thread but only other tips for working with Bibble.
For discussing individual points of this topic, please set up a new thread.

cheers
afx

Edited for Bibble 5.1 June 8th. 2010.

THE HANDY MOUSE:

When viewing part of an image, with any tool selected, press CTRL and drag (left mouse button held) to "scroll" the view.

Press CTRL while using the mouse wheel to zoom.

After having used the "Straightening" cursor; click the "Crop" tool and then click the image to autocrop/fit and leave-out the unwanted edges.

With the magnifier visible: right-click at that part of the picture where you want the magnifier to stick, then hold and drag to the adjustment tool(s) area to modify settings and see them applied in the magnifier window. Works with pan cursor OR (with other cursors selected) when holding down the CTRL-key.

With the pan cursor selected: double click the image to show/hide the thumbnail panel.

Adjustment tools:

Use the mouse wheel above the slider to adjust in small steps.
Click left or right of the slider to move in larger steps.
Double click the slider or caption to reset to default.
Drag the slider to modify as needed or enter a value in the value box.

If you like to add other mouse functions (which you think are useful) to this list: suggest you send a PM so that this thread does not get cluttered as requested by TS? I'll edit my topic entry and add your suggestions upon my next visit to the forum.

afx,

Hope you don't mind, here's a thread to collect questions/comments on this thread! Everyone please use the thread below and let afx decide what gets posted in this thread so it doesn't get diluted with lots of discussions around things. Anything good that comes out of the questions/comments he can put here.

viewtopic.php?f=73&t=15512&start=0

Complete uninstall:
Do an ordinary uninstall, then delete this:

Linux
~/.bibble5 ~/Pictures/bibble5 "~/.config/Bibble Labs"
Mac
~/Library/Application Support/Bibble 5
~/Library/Preferences/com.bibblelabs.BibblePro5.plist
~/Pictures/bibble5
Windows
[user home dir]"\AppData\Local\Bibble Labs"
registry stuff at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\BibbleLabs.com\BibblePro5

Regards,
Andy Salay

PS: If this post is not on the right place, please let me know and I can delete it and post where appropriate.