Kinder, Gentler Double-Clicking
In previous iPhoto versions, when you wanted to see a large view of a photo, chances are you double-clicked its thumbnail. That did indeed enlarge the photo, but it also switched you into iPhoto’s Edit view.
In iPhoto ’08, double-clicking works differently—and better. If you double-click an event, it opens, displaying thumbnails of its photos.
If you double-click a photo’s thumbnail, the photo zooms to fill the iPhoto window. You aren’t in edit view at this point; you’re simply looking at a large version of the photo. <em>That’s</em> more like it.
And it gets better. By using the Preferences command, you can customize how iPhoto treats a double-click. For example, here’s a great shortcut. Choose iPhoto > Preferences, click Events, then choose the Magnifies Photo option. Now you can skim across an event and then, when you see a photo that you want to view, double-click the event thumbnail to jump right to that photo.
Incidentally, if you <em>do</em> want iPhoto to switch to edit view when you double-click a photo, tweak the preferences. Choose iPhoto > Preferences, click General, and choose the Edit Photo option.