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Finding pictures again: Search mode

Search types

Saving searches

Exporting pictures

Galleries vs. groups

Editing galleries

Search Mode is where you look for certain pictures or create permanent galleries.

When you click the search button on the toolbar, ViewMinder enters Search mode where you find pictures by looking for words that you have earlier used to describe them. (See Chapter 5, Data editor.)

The results of the search are shown in a Gallery of pictures. By saving the search rules, you can create a permanent gallery.

Search results can be shown in a Slideshow or exported - copied for use by others.

The window is divided into separate panes for thumbnails, previews, the picture's description and the description tree. These are initially blank because no search has yet been carried out.

To start a new search, click the search button on the toolbar. The tabs along the top of the search box shows the various different types of search you can use.

Simple search

ViewMinder will search the most common fields of each picture for any of the words that you type in the simple search box.

This is a good way of searching a small collection but may produce a lot of results in a large collection, including some false ones.

Search by ID

Every picture in your collection has a number. If you know a picture's number, this is the quickest way to find it.

If you leave the To field empty, the search will start from Image1 If you leave the From field empty, the search will end with the highest image number in the collection. To find just one image, type its number into both To and From.

Saved search

Any search you create can be saved under a name of your choice, by clicking the Save button on the right of the search box. This is how ViewMinder creates Galleries.

When you save a search, you are not saving the results of the search but the set of rules that led to those results. If you add more pictures to your collection, some of the new ones may also meet these search rules. Your gallery will have grown automatically.

Advanced search

The Advanced Search gives you access to the full power of ViewMinder. You can search for any of the categories of information in the picture description, combining as many different rules as you like. To create an extra rule, click the Add button at the bottom of the search box.

With the element types Location, Person, Event and Other, you can also search by [amount]. This allows you to look for pictures that contain, for example, three people.

Most of the search arguments are obvious - terms like "is", "is not", "contains", etc. The meaning of the symbols is at right.

Saving searches

This saves the set of rules you have written in the search box. Any kind of search - Simple, ID or Advanced - can be saved by clicking the Save button on the Search box.

This creates a gallery of pictures because, you run the search again, you will get the same results, plus any new pictures meeting those rules that you have added to your collection in the meantime.

You can reach your galleries via Saved Search in the Search box.

Narrowing down results

However carefully you define your search rules, there may be more results than you need, especially if you have a large picture collection. Perhaps you are seeking just one picture.

The Tray Tools button at the bottom of the tray give you a way of narrowing down the results. Either you can select unsuitable pictures and then Hide Selected, or you can select the best and then Hide Not Selected.

In both cases, you gradually reduce the number of pictures in the tray until you end up with the number you want.

If you change your mind, click the Tray Tools button and then choose Show All. The results of your original search will reappear.

It makes no difference if you hide some search results before saving a search. You are saving the search rules, so running them again later will produce all the results.

Showing slideshows

To create a slideshow, select the thumbnails 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

Sometimes you'll want to make copies of some of the pictures in your collection. First search for the right pictures. Then select their thumbnails and click the button on the toolbar.

The export wizard will help you choose the right size for the copies and change their format if necessary

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.

Export format

You can opt to leave the pictures in their present format, or convert them into another standard format. For an explanation of the differences between formats, see Digital Picture Terminology in Chapter 10.

If you choose JPEG or PNG, you can then click Options and influence the quality and size of the output file.

With JPEG, the lower the image quality, the smaller the image file. At low quality the file may be many times smaller. This can be useful if you intent to use the exported picture on the web, where quality differences don't show much and a small file size saves time.

With PNG, yoo can increase or reduce the amount of compression (in other words, the file size) without affecting quality, although the amount of compression achievable is far less than with JPEG.

You might choose TIFF if you are sending your pictures to graphic professionals who prefer working in this format. This option will, however, create very large files

Exporting descriptions

Users of Expert ViewMinder can decide whether picture data - their descriptions - should be included with each picture. (Genus ViewMinder cannot export picture data.)

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

When exporting descriptions, ViewMinder writes them in XML. Even non-users of ViewMinder can read the description with a word processor or a web browser.

If you choose With descriptions, you can then click the "Details" button to select which parts of the description are exported with the picture. By default the whole description is exported.

Packaging

Finally you can choose how the image files are packaged. If you select Separate files, each image and each description will be placed in its own file

If you select One archive, all image files and all descriptions will be zipped together in a single file. This is generally the most convenient, especially if you are sending the images to another ViewMinder user, whose program will be able to separate and import them automatically. Any other recipient will need an unzipping program, such as Winzip.

If you select Multiple archives, each image file will be zipped together with its description file

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, 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. The fastest way to find your largest pictures is in Browse mode.

Alternatively, you could use a search to find pictures grouped by some subject, so your Overspill will consist of themed CDs.

Export for backup

The overspill option is not a way of making backups of your most valuable pictures. The aim of a backup is to produce a second master copy in case one 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.

More about galleries

Galleries are pictures grouped together according to what they show or how they were taken. In older picture management programs, galleries were the same as folders and you physically sorted each new picture into a certain folder.

With ViewMinder you describe what pictures you want in each gallery and the sorting is done for you. When you add new pictures to your collection, they are automatically placed in the right galleries.

Because ViewMinder galleries are not physical, any picture can be in any number of galleries at the same time, or in none at all.

Galleries vs. groups

Groups are also pictures that which you have decided belong together. Because grouping can quickly be done in Browse mode, most people have already produced groups before they even discover that galleries exist.

Galleries become more useful as your collection grows. Then you can start combining pictures in ways that you never thought of before.

By searching the creation country for the United Kingdom, the location for London, the season for summer and a date before the end of December 2000, you can see all your summer photographs of London from the last century.

Saving this search creates a gallery much faster than you could build a new group.

But even in large collections, groups are valuable as a way of expressing personal information and choices. None of the groups at right could easily be created as galleries.

Making galleries fast

The easiest way is to perform a simple search. Type London in the Simple Search box, and click the Search button.

If you like the results, click on the toolbar to bring back the search box and now click the Save button. Call the gallery London.

You can now see all of your pictures of London in one gallery.

Making galleries better

As your picture collection grows, your London gallery (see above) may start to contain odd pictures: Lake Havasu City because London Bridge is there, Rupert Murdock because he owns the Times of London, and Jack London Park in California.

You can build a more precise gallery using an advanced search  to make sure that it contains pictures of the city of London in England only.

Editing galleries

In the Search box, select the gallery from the menu of Saved Searches. Click Search and the thumbnails of the gallery should appear.

Now open the Search box again, and it will show the rules that the gallery is based on. If you change these rules, click the Save button and save the search under the same name as before, you will have edited the gallery.

If you save the revised rules under a new name, you will have created a new gallery. When ViewMinder creates galleries it does not make separate copies of the pictures in them, so a hundred galleries take up no more space than one.

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