By Graham K. Rogers

I have been using Aperture for a number of years and there are certain actions in that application, controlled by keystrokes which are almost second nature. One such is the Rotate command. This is available via a menu, of course, but pressing the [ and ] keys will quickly rotate an image - even a thumbnail - left or right: job done.

Photos still has a way to go if Apple's suggestion that future improvements will go a long way to satisfy even Aperture users. I am not convinced, but do see some creeping changes that, once learnt, make the processes involved in editing images slightly more tolerable.

One such is that Rotate command: Photos has two ways to do this. A thumbnail image may be rotated to the left (counterclockwise/anti-clockwise) by pressing the Command + R keys. The key-command for rotation in the opposite direction (clockwise) is Command + Option + R.

This works also when the user clicks on the thumbnail and a larger image is displayed. The same commands are displayed as items in the Image menu. When the photo is in the Edit panel, as well as availability of the same key commands, some users will prefer to use the Edit icons, to the right of the panel.

Rotate is the second one from the top. An arrow with the icon indicates a counter-clockwise movement. This may be changed to a clockwise arrow when the Option key is pressed, saving a 3-click, 270 degree rotation, when only 90 degrees to the right is really needed.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.