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Looking through your collection: Browse Mode

Timeline

Slideshows

Exporting

Sorting

Groups

When you click the Browse button on the toolbar, ViewMinder enters Browse mode. This shows your whole collection in the order that the pictures were created.

If you can’t see pictures that you have already imported, it is probably because you have not yet checked and accepted them. See Check mode.

In Browse mode you can quickly see all the pictures from a certain period. Click the months and there they are. You can also put pictures into groups.

Double-click any picture to enlarge it and see information about what it shows.

Select the pictures you like and create an instant slideshow.

Timeline

The Browsing window is divided into several panes. At the top is a list of the months and years that your collection spans. You can see how many pictures are in each month by how full its box is.

You can select months one at a time by clicking them once, or a series of months by dragging the mouse along them (moving the mouse while holding the mouse button down).

Pictures of the selected month or months appear in the tray below. If its description data is complete, you will see a small icon in its corner. (See Data editor.)

Double-click any picture to open it in a new window.

If you select several pictures by clicking each of them, you can display them in a slideshow or export them.

Narrowing down browsing results

If you are looking for a certain picture, the timeline may show more than you need.

The Tray item in the Menu give you a way of narrowing down the number of pictures. Either you can select unsuitable pictures and then choose Hide Selected, or you can select the suitable ones and then Hide Not Selected. In either way, you gradually reduce the number of pictures in the tray until you end up with just what you want.

If you change your mind, click Tray in the Menu and then choose Show All. All your pictures will reappear.

Tray commands can also be accessed by placing the cursor over the picture tray and clicking the alternate mouse button

Showing slideshows

To create a slideshow, select the pictures that you want to see and click the button on the toolbar.

You can adjust speed and other aspects via the Slideshow tab of Settings (Menu -> Edit -> Settings or Ctrl+G).

Exporting pictures

Some times you'll want to make copies of some of the pictures in your collection, to share with others.

First search for the right pictures. Then select their pictures and click the Export button on the toolbar. The Export wizard will help you choose the right size for the copies.

If the pictures that you are exporting are marked as copyright or as otherwise restricted for use, ViewMinder will warn you of this before proceeding.

Exporting data

Users of Expert ViewMinder can also decide whether picture data - their descriptions - should be included with each picture. Genus ViewMinder does not export picture data.

If you add descriptions to your pictures, and the person you are sharing them with also uses ViewMinder, he can import the descriptions at the same as he imports the pictures.

When it exports description, ViewMinder writes them in XML, so even people that don't use ViewMinder can still read the description with a word processor or a web browser.

Export as overspill

One of the choices of export type is Overspill volume. This is used to move pictures from your computer's fixed drive to other storage. At the same time, ViewMinder makes a small copy of the pictures so that you can still see previews of them if you need to, for example as search results.

When you export pictures as overspill, ViewMinder asks you for the name of the overspill volume that you are moving them to. If a higher-resolution copy is needed in future, it will prompt you to insert the right volume.

These overspill volumes are master copies and should be carefully looked after. The copy left in ViewMinder will be inferior in resolution.

The main reason for exporting as overspill is if you are running out of space on your fixed drive. If your pictures are large in pixel and file size, you will save space on the fixed drive by keeping only a low-resolution copy there.

But if your pictures are low in resolution - such as produced by some imaging phones - you will save little or no space on your fixed drive by exporting them as overspill.

Choosing pictures for overspill

You can save the most space by moving your largest pictures into overspill. To see the largest pictures, select the full timeline and the group name All images. The tray will now show your whole collection. From the Menu, select Size - Sort by - Size descending. The pictures at the top of the tray will be the largest.

This will probably produce a fairly random selection of pictures. Instead you might decide to move pictures grouped by some subject into overspill. In this case you would select them by using a search.

Export for backup

The overspill option is not a good way to make backups of your valuable pictures. The point of a backup is to produce a second master copy in case the first fails. After exporting as overspill, there is still only one master copy, the overspill diskette or CD.

If you want to back up your collection, choose Basic as the export type.

Sorting pictures by completion

Pictures that you have just checked and accepted won't have very full descriptions yet - just a few details that were added when you imported them.

To be able to search for pictures accurately, you'll need to add more information - what, where, who - using the Data editor. Then when you're satisfied with the description you can mark it as complete.

To the left of the timeline is a selector for sorting pictures according to whether their descriptions have been completed.

If you want to see only the pictures that have complete descriptions, select Data checked and complete. If you want to show only the pictures that still need their descriptions to be completed, select Data not yet completed.

Grouping pictures

One simple way of sorting your pictures is to put them into groups.

A picture can be in any number of different groups, or in none. This is a great advantage over the old method of sorting pictures by moving their files into different folders.

To create a new group, click the button on the toolbar and type the group's name. When you click OK the new group name will appear in the column at the left of the Browse window.

To place pictures in that group, first select their pictures. Then click the checkbox next to the group's name.

You do not have to do this to pictures one at a time. You can select all the pictures of the group before clicking the checkbox.

Showing group pictures

To show the pictures in a group, click the name of the group.

The group selector works together with the time line. If you select May 2003 and then the group Friends and relatives, it will show the group pictures from that month.

If you want to show all Friends and relatives pictures, first select the whole timeline.

Editing groups

Existing groups can be deleted or edited in Settings. To change ViewMinder's settings, choose Edit from the menu and then Settings. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-G

Deleting a group does not delete the pictures in that group. It just changes the database to show that the group no longer exists.

Group deletion cannot be undone. If you later create a new group with the same name as a deleted group, it will initially be empty.

When to use groups

ViewMinder provides many other ways of sorting your pictures - the country they are from, the people they show, even the lighting conditions - but you cannot use these methods until you have written descriptions for your pictures (see Data editor).

In a large picture collection, pictures can be sorted automatically by saving search rules (see Galleries) but groups are still useful for personal choices - good friends, great parties, dear pets, nice views - anything that contains your preferences and opinions.

Groups can also be used in the rules that create galleries - for example My friends in Canada (Group: My friends & Creation country: Canada).

Group definitions are not always transferable - your friends might not be mine, our ideas of fun probably differ. So group information is not included with the picture description when ViewMinder exports a picture.

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