All Things Visual: The University of Chicago Visual Resources Center

Are you looking for images of artwork in a certain style or time period, but keep retrieving the same artists over and over? Want to exclude some of the more well-known artists in order to delve more deeply into a topic? Excluding certain words and phrases when searching in databases is often essential. No matter the scenario, the following strategies in LUNA and ARTstor can help you find what you’re looking for.

Excluding Terms in LUNA Searches

In LUNA, Boolean operators don’t work the way you might expect. The “NOT” operator is absent from the advanced search, and it doesn’t work quite right in a keyword search, either. But you can still find what you’re looking for via the following steps:

• Use a dash (-) to exclude a term from an existing search result. If you want to exclude a phrase, you must put a dash in front of every word.
• Do not use quotation marks.
• Example search: house -Frank -Lloyd -Wright (to find houses designed by architects other than Frank Lloyd Wright).
• As always, these terms entered in the keyword search box will only search the collection you have currently selected. To select a new collection, go to “Collections” in the menu bar and select from the list at left.

Excluding Terms in ARTstor Searches

• ARTstor allows you to exclude words and phrases using the Boolean operator NOT. This function works best when used in the Advanced Search.
• To exclude certain words from an advanced search, select “NOT” from the drop-down menu at left. If you are excluding a phrase, be sure to use quotation marks.
• Example search: house NOT “frank lloyd wright” (in creator field)

For more LUNA tutorials, click here. For more ARTstor tutorials, click here. Questions? Feel free to contact us!

Do you have an image that is out-of-focus? The Sharpen tool in Photoshop can help!

Open the image in Photoshop. Zoom in (Select View from the menu and go to Actual Pixels for best results).

The image, at full view, looks especially blurry. It’s difficult to read the legend.

To sharpen, go to Filter > Sharpen, and select Sharpen.

As you can see, the edges are crisper and the legend is easier to read after sharpening. You can sharpen as many times as is necessary, but make sure that the image doesn’t begin to look pixelated. This is a sign of over-sharpening.

You’ve downloaded a zipped folder of images from LUNA or Webshare – what now?

PC Computers

If you’ve ever had trouble unzipping a compressed folder of images on your computer, please see the following links for instructions on different PC platforms.

Windows XP

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Mac Computers

If you’re using a Mac running OS 10.5 or later, the pre-installed tool called Archive Utility will unzip folders and files by default. After downloading a zipped file or folder, you should see a dialog box that asks if you’d like to open with Archive Utility. Select OK.

The unzipped folder should then be available in your Downloads folder, or wherever you specify downloads to save.

If you are not prompted to open the folder with Archive Utility, try downloading and then double-clicking on the folder or file to unzip.

Please contact the VRC with any questions.

On a PC, it’s easy to load a folder of images directly into PowerPoint. With your presentation open, click on Insert in the menu bar, then click on Picture, then New Photo Album… This option lets you select an entire folder of images to add to your presentation. To learn more, download the VRC’s Powerpoint Manual for PC (pdf).

Macs do not have a built-in photo album option. You can, however, install a simple program to import a folder of images. For a free version of this program, please contact the VRC. Let us know what version of PowerPoint you are using (i.e. PowerPoint 2007, 2008, 2011) and what operating system you have (i.e., Mac OS 10.5).

Tired of lugging your laptop from class to class? Try teaching and presenting with your iPad 2 instead! The iPad 2 can connect to a projector through a VGA adapter, just like your laptop. You can open PowerPoint and Keynote presentations in the Keynote app for iPad. Here’s what you’ll need:

• iPad 2
• Keynote app for iPad ($9.99)
• Apple VGA Adapter for iPad ($29.99)
• PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, emailed to yourself, loaded to Chalk or synced to your iPad using iTunes and Keynote

Once you’ve navigated to your presentation online (or in Keynote), click to open. If loading from the web, click again on “Open in Keynote.” Keep in mind that some formatting may be lost in translation from PowerPoint to Keynote, or from your laptop to your iPad. See this guide from Apple Support on best practices for creating a presentation on a Mac for use on an iPad. Some quick tips:

• The simpler your presentation, the more likely it will open properly on iPad.
• Swipe or tap iPad’s screen to switch slides.
• Presenter notes will show up on iPad, but you must select that option from the menu at upper right.
• Use simple fonts; unrecognizable fonts will automatically be replaced with Helvetica.
• Resize images before inserting them in your presentation; this allows for quicker download.
• Do not plan to transmit audio; currently projection from iPad 2 only works for video.
• The first generation iPad does not support projection or mirroring.

You may also use iPad 2 to present media groups or slide shows in LUNA. LUNA mirrors from iPad 2 seamlessly! Contact the VRC if you’d like a demonstration.

Unfortunately, iPad is not yet fully compatible with ARTstor but you can access some ARTstor functionality on iPad with their mobile app.

PLEASE NOTE: Your iPad displays all passwords character-by-character as you enter them. Right now there is no way to change this option. Wait until you have logged in to Chalk, email, LUNA, or other websites before connecting iPad 2 to the projector.

If you have any questions about teaching with iPad 2, or if you’d like to borrow an iPad 2 and adapter to try out the possibilities, please contact the VRC.

Do you use Gmail? Need some help keeping it organized? Check out Google’s guide to becoming a “Gmail Ninja,” whether you’re a White Belt (novice user) or Gmail Master. You’ll find out how to use labels, filters, tasks, and other features in order to organize your messages and find them easily.

Have you upgraded to PowerPoint 2011 on your Mac, or are you thinking about upgrading? Microsoft Office for Mac has released some helpful tutorials, including general PowerPoint basics and more specific guides (like how to design your presentations using themes). A very useful PowerPoint 2008 to PowerPoint 2011 map also shows new locations of commands in the 2011 version.

If you have any questions about PowerPoint or would like to request a training appointment, please contact the VRC.

Where: CSL — 2nd Floor Cobb — Room C 210

When: Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Time: 1:30 to 2:30

Steven Clancy, Senior Lecturer in Slavic Languages and Literatures and Academic Director of the Center for the Study of Languages, will explore how the iPad can be used in the classroom. If you teach using a laptop computer and you are interested in using an iPad instead, you are encouraged to attend.

Unable to attend? Steven Clancy’s PowerPoint is available for download: Teaching with the iPad.

Via ġeðēode.

Are you looking for images to include in a class presentation or paper? The VRC is here to help!

ARTstor is a subscription library of nearly one million digital images from all disciplines. To access this database, click here. Next, click the orange Go button in the upper right corner.

You will need to login to access all of ARTstor’s features. If you have never registered with ARTstor before, click Register. You will need to provide an email address and a password. If you choose to use your UChicago email address, please do NOT provide your Cnet password (for security reasons). Select a password that you will remember.

ARTstor’s keyword search is available from the homepage. The default is to search all ARTstor collections at once.

You may want to conduct an advanced search. Under the keyword search box, click Advanced Search. You may search here by title and/or creator. Adjust Boolean operators at the left to narrow (“and”) or broaden (“or”) your search. You may also specify the geography, classification, and collection of sought images. You may specify date, but please keep in mind that art historical dates are not always included or accurate.

If you have found a relevant group of images but would like to further narrow your search, enter additional terms in the search box from the results page. Then be sure to select “Within this search result.”

You can also browse for images in ARTstor. One way to do this is by collection. From the homepage, under Browse click on Collection. Scrolling through the collections, you will get an idea of the kinds of images available in ARTstor. Click on the green folder with a plus sign next to each collection to further browse by classification. Keep clicking through to open a group of images in ARTstor.

You can also browse by Geography, Classification, or Featured Image Groups.

To search within a specific collection in ARTstor, you must browse to that collection, open the images, and then enter additional terms in the search box from the results page. For example, you might navigate to the Islamic Art and Architecture Collection by browsing, and then enter “technique” in the search box and specify “Within this category” to see images from the collection which illustrate technique.

Now that you’ve found some relevant images, you may want to return to them later. Use the Share > Generate image URL function to email yourself a link to individual images, or create an image group to access at a later time.

If you have any questions or would like to explore ARTstor further, helpful YouTube tutorials are provided. ARTstor’s Digital Library Help is always a good place to start when having technical difficulties.

To learn more about searching for images in ARTstor, please feel free to contact the VRC to schedule an appointment.

Do you use Powerpoint 2010 on a PC? If so, there’s a simple trick for turning your mouse cursor into a laser pointer. Following these instructions, from the Slide Show view you can hold down CTRL, click and hold the left mouse button, and use the pointer to illustrate your discussion. You can even change the color of the laser!

A similar function is available in Keynote for iPad (not in Keynote for Mac computers). To activate the pointer, touch and hold anywhere on your iPad screen after launching your presentation. A red and white pointer will appear and move along with your fingertips.

More information on teaching with the iPad is coming soon!