Pics Organizer Help

Table of contents

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Welcome to Pics Organizer user manual version 1.5 - August, 2008

 Pics Organizer is one of the most complete and yet very simple to use software that you will need to organize your digital pictures into albums( folders). Pics Organizer will create meaningful names and folders structure for your pictures preparing that way your collection for storing on favorite media.
No matter how many pictures you have and when was taken, Pics Organizer will sort your pictures by date and present them to you into a chrono(logical) virtual film. From here, you may visually select start and end date defining that way a desired time interval, having a starting point for your new album. More than that, you may select to build a positive or negative film. Building a positive film means that all pictures are included in album. On the other hand, starting from a negative film, means that all pictures are excluded from final album. Therefore, by left double clicking on a picture, you may toggle that picture from positive to negative, including or excluding that particular picture from your final album.
Split by days function will allow you to automatically organize all photos or individual albums on per day folder structure, starting from the root or under each album folder.
Pics Organizer gives you another powerful tool: Advanced Filter Tool(AFT). By using AFT you may filter pictures that will be included into the final film. Filters will be dynamically build by using data extracted from all pictures located on source directory. Please read Advanced Filter Tool chapter for more details.
While editing an album you may define the name for each picture, a generic name for all pictures - that name could be used to create a distinct directory for each album and a distinct name by indexing it for each picture. Here you have an option to include on each picture name: camera/model, date and time when picture was taken.
If you are or are not aware that you have one ore more copies of a picture, and don't want those duplicates to be included into the final film, you may use another useful tool that Pics Organizer have to find those duplicates. From here you have the option to delete by hand or automatically the duplicates found by this tool.
So, the basics steps in order to create albums are:

• Select source and target directory;
• Build virtual film from source directory. Starting from virtual film you may define albums, using Pics Organizer's tools. With each album created, virtual film will get smaller, pictures found on created albums will not be included on virtual film.
• Define albums until virtual film is empty, or virtual film contain only pictures that you don't want to be included on any album;
• Process albums: let Pics Organizer do all the job based on each album's settings defined by you: to create subdirectories, rename pictures and copy pictures from unorganized source directory to organized target directory.
  Giving all this and many other features that you may find useful, Pics Organizer become an indispensable and needed tool for all those that own a digital camera, and already have a lots of pictures lost into an immense tree of directories and subdirectories on hard disk or cd's. Now it's time to put order on it and to enjoy again all those pictures that you hold dear.

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• by clicking on Pics Organizer logo - presented at Main Window section;
• by menu command: main menu->albums->set_new_album->start_from_positive - to start creation of a new album from a positive film;
• by menu command: main menu->albums->set_new_album->start_from_negative - to start creation of a new album from a negative film;
• with an album selected from Albums List from Main Window: main menu->albums->edit_selected - this command is equivalent with a double click on an album name from Albums List;

Edit Album sections are:

Edit Album Menu: Please read Menus Explained for more details.

Albums general info bar: Will display general information about number of albums, how many pictures are included on albums, how many pictures are not yet included on albums and total number of pictures found on source folder.

Pic's path info Will display the path of picture selected from virtual film.

Album Options: On this section user may define:

• Album's directory name - where pictures from this album will be copied. Root( "\") means that pictures will be copied on target folder root if " Create sub dir based on pictures name " is disabled. If is enabled( like on this picture) pictures from this album will be copied under a new folder automatically created on the root of target folder. The new folder name will be exactly the album name.
   If Album's directory name is changed by you from root to a desired name, a new folder will be created under root target folder and this new folder will become the root of your defined album. All this, will give you more flexibility, for a better tree structure definition.
• Album name: Here you may define name of the album. If "Create sub dir based on pictures name" is enabled, a folder with that name will be created, and all pictures from this album will be copied under it.
  " Keep original picture name " check box, let you to choose if pictures will keep original name or if pictures name will be changed to an indexed name created after album name. Picture's edited names will not be affected by this option.
  " Split by days " check box, enable or disable the automated process of creating folders for each day encountered on photo collection. If this option is enabled an per day folder structure will be created for all picture( if all pictures are selected into one album) or for each individual album. Using "Create sub dir based on pictures name" and this option, gives you more flexibility to create folders structure.
• Add to picture name Here you have three option, to add or not extended information to pictures names concerning date, time and camera/model.

Bulk Rescale images: On this section user may define:

• Shrink percent - how much to reduce images starting from original size.
• Resampling Method - Method of interpolation used during rescaling process.
  Methods available:
  - Nearest Neighbor
  - Bilinear
  - B-spline
  - Bicubic
  - Bicubic 2
  - Lanczos
  - Box
  - Hermite
  - Hamming
  - Sinc
  - Blackman
  - Bessel
  - Gaussian
  - Quadratic
  - Mitchell
  - Catmull-Rom
  Select one that best suit your need.

Picture Info: On this area will be displayed information saved by your camera when a picture was shot. These will happened when a picture is selected from virtual film located on the right panel. Number of information displayed depends on camera model.

Exit area: On this area, user have two options: to exit and save album's settings or to exit without saving album's settings, by selecting one of two buttons provided.

Film Area: Here, all pictures from source folder and sub folders, will be displayed into a Chrono(Logical) way, like a virtual photo film, giving you, the user, an intuitive interface to perform all necessary actions to select pictures, building in that way -albums. Every time an album is defined, or when an album is edited, only photos from this album will be displayed. On the other hand, when a new album is defined, all pictures already placed on albums, will not be included on virtual photo film.
Here we could found the following sections:
- Album info bar  - display information about album's name and how many pictures are in this album. Be aware that is a difference between number of pictures placed on album and number of pictures displayed( this information could be found on the Displayed info bar, placed on the bottom of Virtual Film area). The difference come from the fact that a negative picture is not included on album but is displayed;
- Set Start Date area:  - Have two buttons: Set start date button that will set the start date of the selection. This is done by selecting the picture that you consider as first picture from a photo session or event. Clear button will clear start date adding that way to Virtual Film, pictures that was shot before start date.
Between those two buttons is displayed size on disk of the actual defined album.
Bellow those two buttons is displayed actual start date and time.
- Virtual Film area: Have the following functions:

• Select a picture, useful to define start and end date. This is done by selecting a picture with a single left click and then push Set Start date or Set End date buttons;
• Edit picture name, select picture and the single left click on picture name- this will give you the chance to edit picture's name.
• Toggle between positive to negative, by double left clicks on a picture you may toggle it between positive to negative. This means that picture will be or not be included on final album.
• View Large photo, by right double clicks a picture, will open a new window that will display a large version of selected picture.

- Set End Date area:  - same as Set Start Date area, but for end date and time. This will close event or photo session time line, defining that way a selection.

- Display Info Bar  - gives information about how Virtual Film is displayed: Sort order, sort by date or name, and how many pictures are displayed. Display options may be accessed by edit_album_menu->file->view_options command from Edit Album Menu. Please read Menus Explained for more details.

- Albums Size  - gives information about total size on disk of all albums defined up to that moment, plus album in progress. This is useful if you want to define albums in a way that to fit on a cd or on limited disk space.

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This window is accessed from Edit Album main menu by edit_album_menu->file->advanced_filter_tool command.
AFT is a powerful tool. Giving you 12 filters related to picture taking condition and image data structure plus one filter block comprised of another two filters related to camera and model. Detailed explanations about how to use those filters could be found on Useful Tools:Advanced Filter Tool.

Now, about user interface:

• Filter check box. Used to enable or disable individual filter block.
• Activity indicator - Could have three states:
  -  - green state - meaning that filter is active;
  -  - red state - meaning that filter have necessary data gathered from pictures information, but is not yet activated . To activate it, just select a min or max for filter range, or a particular state from single selection type filters.
  -  - black state - meaning that filter is disabled by user action or because your digital camera did not save the information needed for that filter to work.
• Filter's Reset Button -  Use this button if you want to reset individual filter settings.
• Filter's Selection list -  Use this selection list to set filter's working parameters( range).

• Range selection - filter block. With this kind of filter, could be set a range of specific data. Only pictures that fall into that range will be displayed.

• Single selection - filter block. With this kind of filter, only one value could be set. Only pictures that satisfy that value will be displayed. If 'All' is selected, than all pictures will be display, regarding to respective filter data.
• Reset button. If you fill lost on filters settings, use this button to reset all filters
• Overall enable/disable filters. Use this check box to enable or disable all filters. Only Camera/Model filter block will remain active.
• Enable/disable live update. Use this check box to enable or disable live update. Meaning that with every change of a filter's settings, will be followed immediately by a new data gathering from the new filtered pictures. On that way you will have all filters values updated by each filter selection you made. By experimenting with this setting, you will discover more flexibility with filters settings.
• Cancel button. Use this button to close Advanced Filter Tool window.
• Hint: Place AFT window and Edit Album window in that way to have an easier access to Virtual Film while working with filters settings. Therefore, you may see what pictures results from various filters settings you have made, by browsing Virtual Film without necessary closing Advanced Filter Tool window. More, you don't even need to close AFT window. You may continue to work on Edit Album, even to close this window( by saving or discard), as result AFT window will be closed automatically.
  For positioning windows like this, first place Edit Album window to the right of your desktop and after this, open AFT window from Edit Album Menu and drag this window to your desired position.
  

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•  - Following commands could be accessed from this menu:
  
  - Save Session - to save work in progress. Is important not to alter in any way Source folder after a session is saved, because a check is performed while a session is loaded and if Source folder differs in any way from the last saved session, load will failed.
  - Load Session - to load a previously saved session. Source folder must not be modified between a save and load command.
  - Exit - close Pics Organizer application. Any unsaved work will be lost.
• - Following commands could be accessed from this menu:
  
  - Select Source - Let you select source folder. On this folder must be placed all pictures that follow to be organized. Here you may copy all pictures that you have on cd or other media. For easier access this menu item is also equivalent with  button from Main Window.
  - Select Target - Let you select target folder. This folder must be previously created and is preferable to be empty. This menu item is also equivalent with  button from Main Window.
• - From here you could access  command. This will open Find Duplicates Tool window.
•   From Albums Menu user can create new albums, by selecting Set New Album submenu, or edit an already created album, by selecting Edit Selected command( an album must be selected from Albums List - see Main Window).
  -  
  Let you choose between building a new album starting from a positive Virtual Film( include all) or starting from a negative Virtual Film( exclude all).
•  - This menu will give you access to  sub-menu.
  From here you may open Time Format, Process Option and Skin Option dialog window.
  From Time Format, you may select how date and time will be displayed. Up to 10 styles for date format and two for time format are available. Please read Options - Time Format for more details.
  From Process Option window, you may select what action to take Pics Organizer, regarding image files, when albums are processed.(Copy or Move). Please read Options - Process for more details.
  Skin Option window will allowed you to enable or disable skin.
•  Menu. Credits and this Help Manual.
  

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•  - Gives you access to following commands:
  
  - View Options - Will open View Options dialog window. Here you may set how pictures from Virtual Film will be sorted and presented. You may select to sort by date or by name, sorted ascendant or descendent. Please read Options - View Options-Edit Album.
  - Manual time range - Will open Manual Time Range Settings dialog window. Let you to manual select start and end date for time line range. Please read Options: View Options-Edit Album.
  - Advanced Filter Tool - Will open AFT dialog window. Please read User Interface: Advanced Filter Tool for more details, and Useful Tools: Advanced Filter Tool(AFT) for how to use AFT.
•  Menu. Access to About command. This will display Credits.

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To select a desired time format please select from Main Window menu the following command:
main_menu->options->time_format command. A dialog window, like the one from left, will appear. From here you have the option to select from 10 format style for date, and two for time.

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This option let you choose what action to take Pics Organizer when albums are processed, regarding picture files. As you can see there are two options available. To Copy or to Move files while processing albums. Selecting one or another is a matter of personal taste or free disk space available for processing albums. Please be aware that while Copy preserve original files on disk, Move doesn't. So it's up to you to make a backup copy of your original image files. Note that Pics Organizer uses the same level of safety as Windows OS does. So, there is no higher risk of loosing data as when a copy or move operation is done under Windows environment. But for the sake of prevention we recommend to make a backup copy. This option may be accessed from Main Window menu by the following command:
main_menu->options->Process command. A dialog window, like the one above, will appear. From here you have the option to check or uncheck the box. Uncheck( default) means Copy action is selected, while check means Move action is selected.

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Accessed from Edit Album menu by following command:
edit_album_menu->File->View_Options.
Set View Options dialog window lets you to alter the way Virtual Film is build. From here you may order pictures ascendant or descendent by date or picture's name. By default, those options are set for a Chrono(Logical) presentation: sorted ascendant by date.

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Accessed from Edit Album menu by following command:
edit_album_menu->File->manual_time_range.
Manual Time Range Settings dialog window lets you to manual define start date and time and end date and time for album's time interval.

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In this section will be explained how to use AFT. User interface is explained on User Interface - Advanced Filter Tool. Please read this section first.
Now, after you understand how to use AFT interface, you will discover how to use AFT in order to display only pictures shot on specific conditions. First time you open AFT, only Camera/Model filter block is enabled. To enable all others filter blocks you have to mark Enable Advanced Filtering check box, found on the bottom left side of AFT window. Once activated, AFT will scan all pictures for information, feeding that way all filters with values from witch you may select in order to filter pictures.
AFT have two types of filters:
- Range filter block - these type of filter let you to select a range of values to filter, from max to min value. Pictures with values found in max - min interval, will be displayed. AFT have 9 range filter block. If min = max, range filter block become single filter block, by selecting only one value. Now we come to the second type of filter block that AFT have.
- Single filter block - this type let you to select only one value at a time. Only pictures that satisfy that value will be displayed. AFT have 4 native single filter blocks.
Using combinations of filters you may display on virtual film only pictures shot in a combination of particular conditions( or range of conditions) or only in a specific condition by combining filters or selecting only one filter. This will give you a great flexibility for viewing and creating albums, making your work much easier.
More than that, if Live Update check box is enabled, all filter's values will be updated from pictures that satisfy last selected and activated filter. A filter is selected and become active () if you select and set a value for it. Until you not select a filter's value, that filter is inactive () meaning that is not applied.
Black () means that your camera did not save the information needed for that filter to work.
If Live Update is not enabled, filters will keep initial gathered values.
Each time a filter is activated, pictures will be filtered and virtual film will be displayed accordingly. You don't have to close AFT window in order to continue to edit your albums. Just place AFT window and Edit Album window like we show on User Interface - Advanced Filter Tool.
Each filter has a small reset button (). Use it if you want to reset that particular filter.
 - Use this button to reset all filters.
AFT is a powerful tool, giving you unlimited possibilities to filter and select pictures shot in particular conditions.

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This tool interface is explained on User Interface - Find Duplicates Tool. Please read this section for more details about user interface.
This tool is useful in case you have one or more copies of the same picture under source folder. This may happened because of various causes, like saving more than once your memory card, or others possible reasons. These unwanted duplicates may be found by this tool and remove all of them or only those you select.
When FDT is first open you must press Analyze button. This is necessary only once per session, due to needs of search engine build in Pics Organizer. This engine works by visually analyze picture, making that way a very reliable searching for duplicates.
After all pictures were analyzed you have to press Compare button in order to let FDT to found all duplicates.
FDT tool lets you to preview duplicates found, letting you to select those you want to delete manually by pressing Remove selected button. If you decided to delete all duplicates, just check " Exclude all duplicates from pictures list " and press OK button. All duplicates will be removed from Virtual Film and only one picture from duplicates groups will be kept.
Note: Pictures will not be deleted from source folder, for safe reason. In fact Pics Organizer was made with that idea in mind: to never alter source folder.

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After working folders are set, from Main Window, you may now proceed to next step - to create albums. Of course, before doing this, is a good idea to see if you have any duplicates on your source directories. You may search for duplicates by using Find Duplicates Tool(FDT) as is described on Useful Tools - Find Duplicates Tool(FDT). For user interface you may read User Interface - Find Duplicates Tool(FDT) for more details.
After this optional operation we can start to build our new first album by clicking on Pics Organizer logo, found right above Set Directories section on Main Window, or by selecting main_menu->albums->Set new album submenu. From this submenu we have two choices: 1. To start from a positive film or 2. Start from negative film, depending on how we want to select pictures: positive - select all and exclude a few or negative - exclude all and select a few. Let's suppose we start from a positive film. Note that by clicking on Pics Organizer logo will start a positive film building.
Once we make our selection, a new window will be displayed and building operation will start. Time for this operation to complete depends on how many pictures are selected, your processor speed, how much physical memory do you have available and if your camera saves a particular information needed for this operation to work faster. Most new cameras save this information, else, it must be reconstructed, so time to finish this operation will take longer.
After film was build, you may use Advanced Filter Tool to filter your film. Once we are satisfied with filter's settings we may start to define our first new album.
First we have to select first picture in chronological order. By default pictures are displayed in chronological order, from the old one to the new one.
In order to select a picture as a head or tail of our album, all to do is to select a picture with mouse cursor and with picture selected press Set Start Date or Set End Date button to set head or tail respectively. All pictures between those two will be included in album. If you want to exclude one or more pictures from this album, all we have to do is to double click on those pictures that we don't want to be included. This will toggle picture's state, from positive to negative or from negative to positive depending of the initial state of picture. Negative pictures will not be included in album.
After head and tail of the album is selected, only pictures between those two will be displayed, only pictures that comprise our new album.
As you notice in picture above, we selected three pictures for our album and one picture is negative. So, our new final album named "Flowers", will contain only two pictures, first and third. Before saving this album, you may set album's options, name, directory path or to edit pictures name. This may be done anytime, by returning to any album created, from Main Window as is described in User Interface - Main Window.
This step may be repeated until all pictures from virtual film are placed in albums. Once an album is created and saved, pictures from those albums will not be included in new album Virtual Film. In that way, the work needed to organize pictures will be much easier. For more details on how to use Edit Album interface please read User Interface - Edit Album.
Albums already created could be managed from Main Window.
After all albums are defined, we may proceed to Step 3.

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Prices, terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice.
Please check Pics Organizer web site for the latest product offerings and prices.

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Pics Organizer Web-Site: http://www.pics-organizer.com

Technical Support: support@pics-organizer.com

Sales department: sales@rsoftr.com

Company Web-Site: http://www.rsoftr.com/index2.php

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You may distribute the free evaluation version of this Software on the condition that you do this by making identical copies of the downloaded file(s). 
Public download means any file that can be downloaded by browsing to http://www.rsoftr.com and navigating through the links visible on the page, without the use of any password or identification that you may type in or that may be automatically supplied by your browser if you have typed it in before.

You must not ask payment for the act of distributing the free evaluation version of the Software or for the free evaluation version itself. 
You must make it clear to the recipient that you are sending a free version and that the recipient will have to accept a license agreement in order to evaluate it,
and make payment in order to fully use the Software. You must not distribute the free evaluation version by making it part of a larger package, unless that package
is a collection of evaluation software and other software that does not require payment.

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