THE PHOTO IMAGE MANAGEMENT

-- A Powerful, Easy-to-Use Tool for Managing Your Pictures --

Folder Tree

The Folder Tree is displayed on the left side of every screen, witch plays the major role to manage / organize your stored photo images. The photo images are categorized with the folders, you do so by simply creating a folder or using an existing folder, place the photo images in that folder. The following figure 06a shows there are tree pictures were placed in the "Sample Photos" folder.

figure 06a

You should not be confused the folders and pictures in the folder with directories and files in the directory. There is no an actual directory created with the folder, and there is no the actual file copied to the folder when placing a picture to the folder. There is only one copy of file stored for each photo image. But one photo image can appear at the multiple folders. For example, if there is a picture taken on the trip to the Disney World for my son and my wife, so this picture should appear at 'Travel' and 'Family' folders. In the 'Family' folder it can belong to 'John', 'Lisa', and 'All of US'. This is what the program provides the way to categorize the pictures.

Work on the folders

The program provides every thing to let you work on the folders, such as add new folder, rename folder, delete folder, and cut, copy, and paste folder.

a. Add new folder

When you want to categorize your stored photo image under a new category, you need to add a new folder for that category and place the photo images to that category. To add a new folder, highlight an existing parent folder where you want the new folder to be, then click on the "Folder", then the "Add New Folder" from drop-down menu, or right click on an existing parent folder (using the mouse's right button to click), then click on the "Add New Folder" item from the pop-up menu. Type in the name for the folder, then press the Enter key. If the new folder you added is the first subfolder of the parent folder, the program will automatically add an "UNORGANIZED" subfolder for that parent folder. If there are pictures in the parent folder, now they are all in the "UNORGANIZED" folder. For the further categorization, you should place the pictures from the "UNORGANIZED" folder to their appreciated folders. The following figure 06b shows when you add a new folder to the "Sample Photos" folded.

figure 06b

b. Rename folder

You always can change the category / folder name by renaming the folder. To rename the folder, highlight an existing folder that you want to rename, then click on the "Folder", then the "Rename Folder" from drop-down menu, or right click on the folder (using the mouse's right button to click), then click on the "Rename Folder" item from the pop-up menu. Type in the new name for the folder, then press the Enter key.

c. Delete folder

You delete the folder when it is no longer needed. When you delete a folder, all subfolders of that folder will be deleted, if there are existing subfolders. If there are pictures in that folder, the pictures will not actually be deleted. A picture was in that deleted folder, maybe it is also in the brother folder of the deleted folder, otherwise, it will be placed to the "UNORGANIZED" folder of the same level of the deleted folder. If the parent folder of the folder only has two subfolders, the folder will be deleted and the "UNORGANIZED" folder, when the folder is deleted, the "UNORGANIZED" will be automatically deleted too. To delete the folder, highlight an existing folder that you want to delete, then click on the "Folder", then the "Delete Folder" from drop-down menu, or right click on the folder (using the mouse's right button to click), then click on the "Delete Folder" item from the pop-up menu. The program always prompts you to confirm the deletion before to delete it.

d. Paste folder using Cut folder or Copy folder

For an existing folder and all its subfolders, you don't want to recreate them with the same structure, or you just want to move the folder and its subfolders to another folder, you can use the Copy / Cut, then Paste the folder. By doing so, highlight the folder (except the root folder "Photos" and the "UNORGANIZED" folders) you want to copy or cut, click on the "Folder", then the "Folder Copy" or the "Folder Cut" from drop-down menu, or right click on the folder (using the mouse's right button to click), then click on the "Folder Copy" or the "Folder Cut" item from the pop-up menu. When you perform the folder cut, the folder will be grayed. Locate the destination folder by highlighting it. Click on the "Folder", then the "Paste Folder" from drop-down menu, or right click on the folder, then click on the "Paste Folder" item from the pop-up menu. If the folder is cut but is not yet pasted, you can undo the cut by clicking on the "Folder", then the "Undo Cut Folder" from drop-down menu, or right click on the folder, then click on the "Undo Cut Folder" item from the pop-up menu. The following figure 06c shows the example of cutting and pasting the folder.

figure 06c

Place the photo images to the folder

If the program running is at the screen of "Data View" or "Thumbnail View", you can categorize the stored photo images by placing them to the folder. You use the Cut or Copy to cut or copy the pictures from any folder (except the root folder "Photos") then to paste them to the any folder (except the root folder) where you want to. You only can cut the photo images from the "UNORGANIZED" folder then paste them to other folder, because a picture is in a folder rather than the "UNORGANIZED" folder, it is organized. Before performing the Cut or Copy then the Paste functions, you need to know how to select the pictures by marking the pictures from a source folder and how to use the Query to eliminate the unwanted pictures.

a. Select pictures / records using Query dialog

The program provides the query dialog to let you input restrictions to select pictures / records. To perform the query on the records, click on the "Query" button that is located at right-middle of the screen, or select "Record", then "Query Database" from the drop-down menu, or click on the query button of the toolbar. It will display the query dialog form on the screen as following figure 06d.

figure 06d

Type in the data on the field(s) you want to set the restriction, then click on the "OK" button. The only records that satisfying the restriction will be show up. Of course, you can cancel to close the query dialog if you don't want to query. The "Clear" button is to clear all the restriction data on the fields. If you click on the "Clear" button, then click on the "OK" button, that will reset the data to display all the records of the folder. After you performed the query, then you want to bring all the records of the folder back, you can click on the "Reset" button that is located at right-middle of the screen.

b. Use mark to select rows / records at the "Data View"

When a row / record is marked, it is blued with the blue background color (it maybe show a different color that depends on your windows settings). There are many functions provided by the program require you to mark the select records before you can perform with it, such as cut, copy, and paste records, delete records, get pictures, e-mail pictures, and make web pages. To mark a single row / record, move the mouse cursor to the row / record you want to mark, then move the mouse cursor to the most left column of the row and click on that column. The whole row will be blued after the mouse clicked. There are two way to mark multiple rows / records. To mark multiple rows / records one by one, you holed the control key down and click on the most left column of the selected row. Or you can mark a block of rows / records. You first mark a single row as start row, then holed the shift key down and mark the second row as the end row, the whole block of rows / records between the start row and the end row will be blued. If you want to mark all the rows / records of the current folder, you select the "Record", then click on the "Select All" from the drop-down menu. Holed down the control key and click on the left most column of marked row, you will unmark the row / record you don't want to select. Click on anywhere of the table, except the most left columns of rows, will unmark all marked rows. The following two figures figure 06e and figure 06f show how the marked rows / records look like.

figure 06e

figure 06f

c. Use mark to select pictures / records at the "Thumbnail View"

When a picture / record is marked at the "Thumbnail View", it is blued with the blue frame of the thumbnail. There are many functions provided by the program require you to mark the select pictures before you can perform with it, such as cut, copy, and paste records, delete records, get pictures, e-mail pictures, and make web pages. To mark a picture / record, holed the control key down and click on the thumbnail you want to mark. The blue frame will appear after the mouse clicked. You can't directly mark a block of pictures by holding the shift key down as at "Data View" do, you only can mark the picture one by one. If you really want to mark a block of pictures at the "Thumbnail View", you can do it indirectly. At the "Thumbnail View", you mark the first picture as start picture by holding the control key down and click on the thumbnail, then you find the second picture mark it as the last picture. Switch to the "Data View" screen from the "Thumbnail View". At the "Data View", find the first marked picture which showing in the blue, holed the shift key down remark the first picture / record by click on the most left column of the row. The all rows between the first picture / record and the last picture / record are blued. Last, switch back to the "Thumbnail View". If you want to mark all the pictures / records of the current folder, you select the "Record", then click on the "Select All" from the drop-down menu. Holed down the control key and click on marked thumbnail, you will unmark the picture / record you don't want to select. Click on any thumbnail without holding the control key down will unmark all marked pictures. The following figure 06g shows how the marked pictures / records look like.

figure 06g

d. Use the record Cut or Copy then the Paste

To organize / categorize the stored photo images to the appreciated folders, you perform the record Cut or Copy then the Paste provided by the program. You first select the source folder by highlighting it. Then you may perform a query on that folder to eliminate the unwanted records / pictures. Mark the pictures / records you want to select. To cut or copy the selected pictures / records, select the "Record" then click on the "Record Cut" or the "Record Copy" form the drop-down menu, or right click (use the mouse's right button to click) on the table if at the "Data View" screen or on the thumbnails if at the "Thumbnail View" screen, then click on the "Record Cut" or the "Record Copy" item of the pop-up menu. Locate the destination folder where you want to place the select pictures to, if the folder you want to place the pictures to does not exist, you use the "Add New Folder" to create one. Highlight the destination folder as the current folder. Select the "Record" or the "Folder" then click on the "Record Paste (to folder)" form the drop-down menu, or right click on the table if at the "Data View" screen or on the thumbnails if at the "Thumbnail View" screen, then click on the "Record Paste (to folder)" item from the pop-up menu. Then the selected pictures / records will be in the destination folder. If you perform the record cut on the selected records, those records will be grayed. You can undo the record cut by selecting the "Record" then click on the "Undo Record Cut" form the drop-down menu, or right click on the table if at the "Data View" screen or on the thumbnails if at the "Thumbnail View" screen, then click on the "Undo Record Cut" item from the pop-up menu. The following figure 06h and figure 06i show both of that cut the records from the "UNORGANIZED" folder then paste them to the "Travel" folder at "Data View" and "Thumbnail View".

figure 06h

figure 06i