In a channel you can group together files which will be automatically arranged in a timeline so you can find things easily and share them with others.
You can put in any of the things you store in your computer, documents, photos, music. For instance you can build a scrapbook and share it with family and friends. If you go to an event like a wedding then set up a channel and when the guests go home they can put in their digital photographs and videos and see everyone else’s. Everyone can add to it if you give them access. Not just photos and videos but you can scan in things like the order of service or invitations and add notes about who’s who and who did what.
i-Sho automatically tags files with time and date and allows you to add more details so that you can easily find files in your own store or search everyone else’s channels on the hub.
When you open i-Sho for the first time the central area of the screen will be blank until you make some channels.
To make a channel click on 'channel' in the top toolbar and select 'create new'. Give the channel a name, 'FAMILY' for instance, and a description, something like 'the Hall family from London', so that if you intend to publish it others will be able to find it.
Now, if you click OK the channel will be created and the screen will change colour and be divided into 5 time periods. These can be days, weeks, months or years depending on what is selected with the buttons in the toolbar area
Later on if you want to put more files into the channel click on 'File' in the top level menu and select 'import'. Or click on the channel name and add more links.
You can now go on to create more channels, perhaps for Friends, a Club or a Work Project. They will take up horizontal strips across the screen. You can maximise them to full screen or minimse them to tabs along the bottom by using the buttons on the channel namebar.
Selecting a Channel. Once you have more than one channel in order to perform certain actions you may need to select which Channel you intend to use. To select a Channel just Left Click on the channel namebar. The Channel will change to a pinkish/tan colour.
Importing Folders to a Channel Select which Channel to use. Select ‘File’ from the Top Level Menu. Choose ‘Import’ and then ‘Import Folders’ Browse for the Folder and select ‘Open’. i-Sho will now import all the files within the folder and all the files within any of the sub folders. NOTE: Choose your folders carefully! If you choose a folder with many items and many sub folders it could take a long time to import everything.
Only you can see the files in your PC channels and only you can manipulate the content in them. If you want to share them with others or simply back them up you can publish the channel to the central 'Hub' server where you have been allocated some Free Storage space. Then all the files in that channel are ‘stored’ on another computer. That means that you can invite other people to share them (if you give them permission) any time they want to even if your computer is switched off! It also means that no matter what happens to your computer at home those files have been backed up and are now safe.
To publish you first have to highlight the channel by Left Clicking the namebar. Next you click on 'Channel' in the top level menu and select 'publish to Hub'. A dialogue window will open telling you how much storage space you have available and how much will be used by the channel you are going to upload. [if you need more storage space you can find details about how to get it by clicking on 'My account' and selecting 'Hub storage info']
Once you OK and confirm that you want to publish the channel the files will begin to upload to the server. Uploading takes loger than downloading and even the fastest broadband connections do not upload quickly so each 2Mb photo may take two or three miniutes to transfer. For this reason you might want to delay uploading until you have finished anything else you want to do in i-Sho. It also means that it is best to save photos at the minimum resolution you need [see 'x-x-x-x-x-x for more info].
When the upload is complete you will be presented with a panel asking whether you want to share access to the channel with others or just keep it to yourself. If you opt to share the channel you are shown a dialogue box which enables you to select the people you want to share with and to set the level of access they will have i.e to view it or to be able to erase, edit and/or add things to it. Just check the appropriate boxes.
You can put notes in the channel by Clicking on 'notes' in the top level menu and selecting 'add'. You can give the note a title and put in up to 200 lines of text.
The purpose of tagging files is to enable you to find and sort them or, if they are in published channels, others can search for them too. If you right click on a file you can choose to name or tag it. First name it then select 'Tag'. There are two types of tagging. You can simply add free text into the keywords box and each of the words will be searchable or you can build a tag list in the Who, What, Where sections. The filename is automatically added to the keywords.
The names and tags and keywords linked to files can be searched to help you find files on your own computer or on published channels at the 'Hub'. You can also search by date or the owner of the channel if the file is on the 'Hub'
Click the 'Search' button at the right hand end of the 'Top level menu'. A window will open where you can either type into the keywords section or search by tags from your tag library.
Select a file from the results list and i-Sho will open the whole channel and display it. If the file is in a channel you do not have specific permission to view you can email the owner to ask for permission.
To import photos from a camera plug the camera in, now you can either use the camear software to decide wher to store the images. Or you can use the mictrosoft camera wizard and decide what to do with the images. Or simply drag the images you want directly from the camera into the i-Sho channel of your choice.
