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Splitting descriptions into parts: Elements |
The previous chapter described image data that refers to the whole picture, such as its size and date and where it was taken. These fields are in the Technical data and General content parts of the Data tree. ViewMinder also lets you describe parts of the picture individually. These are its Elements. A picture can have any number of elements (or none at all, if you choose so). There are four kinds of picture element - Person, Location, Event and Other. Others means any element that is not a person, location or event. Other may be is a physical thing, like a horse, a field or a planet. Or it may be less tangible, like a hole, a formula or an organization. A fifth kind of element, Comment, is for notes and reminders about the description itself. |
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The purpose of elements is to help you find pictures that contain what you need. There is no simple rule for how a picture should be broken into elements. It depends on what you (or any person using your pictures) will probably be looking for. If you're a gardener you might put a plant into one element. If you were a botanist you might choose roots, stalk, and flower as separate elements. There is no limit to the number of elements that a picture - and your ViewMinder picture database - can contain. There is also practically no limit on the length of each element. You could write "dog" or a complete canine biography. By describing the people you meet and places you go, you could make ViewMinder into a diary. Elements can be written in any language, or even in several. Element parts |
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All elements except comments have a Seen part and an Unseen part. Seen is for things that are visible in the picture. Unseen is for extra information, mentioning things that cannot be seen. If you find this unnecessary, you can turn off the Unseen field in Settings (Menu - Edit - Settings or Ctrl-G). For more information on using Seen and Unseen, see Chapter 10, What is the point of saying what I can't see? In Person elements there are fields for writing titles and names, too. |
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The Person element is for people, of course. If there are several people in the picture and you know who they are, it makes sense to put each into a separate element. It will then be easier to search for them, or for pictures that show several people. But if they are anonymous, like the crowd at a football match, you put them all in the same element. In this case "Spectators at a football match" belongs in the Seen field. Name is for names - full names, forenames, surnames, pet names or nicknames, but only names. Location |
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The Location element is for information about the place that the picture shows. Your description may already tell the Creation country, though this does not stop you using the country's name again in the Location field. See Chapter 10, Where do I make and find galleries? Event |
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The Event element is for describing what it happening. This type of element is useful for grouping historical, news or sports pictures. Examples of events are World War Two or the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships. Events are also useful in personal ways. They are a good way of creating galleries like Mary's 8th birthday party. Galleries are explained in Chapter 7. See also Chapter 10, When does an action become an Event? Other |
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The Other element is for any part of the picture description that isn't a person, a location or an event. It can be animal, vegetable or mineral, abstract or concrete. Animal-lovers may wonder why there isn't a separate element for animals, architects might like one for buildings, and so on. But animals, building, etc. can be created as groups, if you like. Comment |
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The Comment element is for making notes about the picture description. This is where you could write: "The third man on the right might be Orson Welles, but no one was sure." |
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If you first click a picture in the tray and then the Elements branch of the description tree, the description pane will tell you that it has no elements yet. To add an element, click the Add element button on the toolbar or in the Data pane. The New Element box will appear. At the top of it, on the left side, are the different types of elements available for you to choose. Select the one that you want. If some of the element types are missing, it is because they are not enabled in ViewMinder's settings. To enable them, select Edit and then Settings from the menu, or type Ctrl+G. Then click the Fields tab. At the top on the right is the language that you are using for descriptions. If there is a choice of possible languages (again controlled via ViewMinder's settings) select the one you want to use. Then fill in the information that describes that element. When you click OK the element is added to the picture. Adding elements to several pictures |
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If more than one picture in the tray is selected, the individual elements of each cannot be displayed. But this does not prevent you adding an element to many pictures at the same time. Suppose the same person is in several pictures. Select all the appropriate pictures, click the Add element button, and write his or her name and other information. When you click OK, the element will be added to all selected pictures. This works well if you are adding an element to many pictures in one language only. If you want to use several languages at the same time, it is easier using pre-set elements, described below. |
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Element sets are a good way to save time, to spell names correctly and to the standardize element use. If some element recurs frequently, it is worth writing it in advance, saving it in an element set and then applying it as you need it, instead of retyping it every time. You could have a set with the names of your friends. A set of company executives might be even more useful, because it will make sure you get titles right, too. Open the Element Set window by clicking the button on the taskbar. You can then create element by clicking the Add button at the bottom of the Element Set box. Choose the type of element and language, fill in the details and click OK. A named icon will appear in the Element set window. You can edit this template element by clicking the Edit button. Elements sets are can be saved and loaded later when needed. Multi-language templates |
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These are useful to users who are producing picture descriptions in more than one language. First, multiple languages have to be enabled, from ViewMinder's Settings. Select Edit and then Settings from the menu, or type Ctrl+G. Then click the Languages tab. Once you have created a element in the Element Set window in one language, you can add different languages to it. Select the element in the template box. Now click the Edit button at the bottom of the box, and the Edit element box will open. Click Add and now write the element's information in a second language. The element now has two languages. When you apply the element to an image, it is added in both languages. Dividing element sets |
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It is not possible to display two sets at the same time so it makes sense to put elements that generally appear together in the same set. Sometimes this means that there will be elements of different types in the same set. But if you keep elements of the same type together, it is easier to remember where they are. An element set of the names and titles of a company's senior executives, for example, would be useful to corporate photographers, especially if they are long and hard to spell. A misspelled name could spell a picture lost. Managing events with sets |
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An event element is a way of giving a general title to a series of photographs that are related, like National Hockey League games or World War Two or Year-end celebrations. By using a standard set of event elements instead of writing them individually each time, you can make sure that some pictures won't accidentally be named NHL series or World War II or New Year's Party, and therefore missed by a search that finds the rest. |
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There is no need to write all the picture data in the same session. But when you have completed the description, you mark the picture to show this. Click the picture or pictures that are ready, then the Tray Tools button at the bottom of the tray, and choose "Data checked and complete". If you change your mind, click the pictures in question, then the Tray Tools button at the bottom of the tray, and choose Data not yet completed. |
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Element
sets are ideal when you're using several languages.