ViewMinder help: Fields and other settings

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Program customization: Settings

Pictures can be used in countless ways. ViewMinder is easy to customise, so that your collection is managed in exactly the way that suits you.

Fields of data that you don't need can be hidden, saving you space on screen and making the program simpler to use.

When you install ViewMinder, the fields are activated by the Set-up wizard, depending on how you answer its questions.

To change program settings	Keyboard shortcut
Menu \| Edit \| Settings	Ctrl-G

basic & digital	[General content: Creation Country, Creation Date] [Groups] [Elements – all types, all fields]
basic & analogue	basic & digital plus [Technical data: Original size]
basic & mixed	basic & digital plus [Technical data: Original size, Camera]
experienced & digital	[Technical data: Image ID, Size (W x H)] [General content: Creation Country, Creation Date] [Groups] [Elements – all types, all fields]
experienced + analogue	experience & digital plus [Technical data: Original size]
experienced + mixed	experience & digital plus [Technical data: Original size, Camera]
skilled + digital	[Technical data: ID, camera] [General content: Creation Country, Creation Date] [Groups] [Elements – all types, all fields]
skilled + analogue	skilled + digital plus [Technical data: Original size, original filename]
skilled + mixed	skilled + digital plus [Technical data: Original size, original filename, Camera]

Field settings

In the Fields section of Settings, you can fine-tune the fields in use.

The list of fields is in the form of a tree, with the main categories of information displayed.

You can enable or disable all the fields in each category by clicking in the checkbox next to its name.

Or you can expand the category to show each of the fields by clicking in the + of the node. You can then turn the fields on or off individually.

If you disable a field, you are not removing any information that already exists in ViewMinder’s database. You are simply hiding that field so that ViewMinder does not show it or ask you to fill it in. If you later enable the field again, all the information that you previously wrote in that field will appear again.

Here is a list of all the fields and what they are for.

Technical data	How the picture was created
	Fixed = recorded during import and cannot be manually edited.
Image ID	Fixed. This is the identifying number that ViewMinder gives to the picture when it imports it. You can search for pictures by their ID numbers if you know them.
Size (W x H)	Fixed. The width by the height in pixels. Searches for pixel dimensions above a certain amount will find pictures suitable for quality printing.
Format	Fixed. ViewMinder can import images in the formats JPG, TIFF, PNG, BMP and WMF. Whether if makes conversions while importing is controlled in Settings. JPG files are more compact but slightly less accurate than PNG, which is a lossless format (see Notes, file formats)
Source	How the digital image in ViewMinder was created. The choices are: <<Not set>> Digital camera Film scanner Reflection scanner (=flat-bed scanner) Video still This information can be a useful guide to the quality of the picture
Camera	The make of camera used to create the original picture.
Scanner	The make of the reflection (flat bed) or film scanner used to create the digital image from a film or paper one.
Program	The name of any computer program (apart from ViewMinder) used to create or edit the digital image.
Original	The original form of the picture if not digital. The choices are: <<Not set>> Positive film Negative film Paper Other
Original size	The film size if the original form was on film. The choices are: <<Not set>> 35mm 120/220 APS Other This information can be a useful guide to the quality of the picture.
Original filename	Fixed. The name of the file that contained the image before it was imported. If you export the picture later, it can be given the same name as before. ViewMinder reads the filename automatically if the picture originates from a file. If you scan an image directly into ViewMinder, you can write in an Original filename, to indicate where you have archived the paper or film original. See Digital image management for film photographers in Chapter 10.
Color depth	Fixed. The number of distinct colors that the image can contain. The depth of most true color images is 24 bits (2 to the power 24, or about some 16.7 million colors) which is about as much as the eye can see. Company logos often contain far fewer colours and a gray scale image has a depth of just 8 bits
Color space	Fixed. How each colour is expressed. The color space used by computer monitors and scanners, is RGB (each pixel is composed of a certain quantity of red, green and blue) The printing business uses CMYK, cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) for four-color printing. There are other systems, some proprietary, some public.

General content	Features that refer to the whole picture
Light	The lighting conditions under which the picture was created. The choices are: <<Not set>> Day Night Dawn Twilight Sunrise Sunset Artificial Twilight means the lighting conditions soon after sunset while dawn means before sunrise. <<Not set>> should be used for photographs where the light source is not known.
Season	The apparent time of year when the picture was created. The real season could be calculated from the place and date, but sometimes appearance is important, too. The choices are: <<Not set>> Winter Spring Summer Autumn <<Not set>> should be used for pictures where the season is not obvious, such as those taken indoors.
Color	The choices are: <<Not set>> Color Monochrome This field is useful if you sometimes need to select only the black-and-white photographs in your collection
Texture	The choices are: <<Not set>> Natural Drawn Natural means that the picture contains areas of continuously varying colour and intensity. Drawn means that there are lines and blocks of solid colour, such as on maps, company logos or blueprints. The field is important for automatic image compression; JPG is ideal for natural pictures but unsuited to drawn ones.
Latitude	Position of camera, measured in degrees and decimal degrees from –90 to +90. Positive means north, negative south.
Longitude	Position of camera, measured in degrees and decimal degrees from –90 to +90. Positive means east, negative west. The latitude and longitude of a photograph provides a measurement of location that is not dependent on any language. It also allows a search for pictures from the nearest position. Unless a camera is GPS-enabled, cataloguing latitude and longitude entails a great deal of work
Altitude	Height in metres above (positive) or below (negative) mean sea level
Direction	The deviation from true north, measured from +180 degrees to –180 degrees. Positive is clockwise, negative is anticlockwise. Valuable for survey photographs.
Incline	The deviation from horizontal, measured from +90 degrees to –90 degrees. Positive is upwards, negative is downwards. Valuable for astronomical photographs.
Creation Country	The country in which the picture was created. If the list does not contain the name you need, because the country no longer exists, choose the name of the country that now contains the territory. In combination with the Creation date, this provides the same information. If the picture is a photograph of, say, a painting, the creation country is where the photograph was taken, not the country that the painting shows.
Creation Date	The date when the picture was taken. If you are cataloguing old pictures and you do not know the month or day, you just write in the year. If you use a digital camera, ViewMinder will read the date automatically. If you created the digital image by scanning film or paper, ViewMinder may read the scanning date and you will need to correct this.
Creation Time	The time when the picture was taken. If you use a digital camera, ViewMinder will read the time automatically. If you created the digital image by scanning film or paper, ViewMinder may read the scanning time and you will need to correct this.

Groups	Families of pictures, usually reflecting the personal opinions or relationships of the owner of the picture collection).

Elements	A picture description can contain any number of elements of any of the following types, in any number of languages.
Person	Language	The language that the description of this person is written in. Often the name of the person will be the same in different languages, but not if they use different scripts
	Title	For kings and queens, lords and ladies, directors and secretaries, even Mr and Ms.
	Name	The name - forename, surname, full name, pet name or nickname - of the person, if known. If there are several named people, create separate elements for them. This field exists for persons only. The names of other elements, animate or inanimate, are written in the Seen field.
	Seen	Information about the person that relates to the content of the picture, such as what she is doing, what he is wearing or where they are standing. If the person or people are unnamed – Three children building a sand castle – the information belongs in the Seen field.
	Unseen	More information about the person, referring to things or events that are not shown in the picture. Boarding a train to Paris belongs here, because the picture is obviously of somewhere else. The Unseen field allows you to add detail without generating more false positives in search results, such a search for the city of Paris.
Location	Language	The language that the description of this location is written in. Often place names will be the same in different languages, but not if they use different scripts
	Seen	Information about the place that relates to the content of the picture, such as Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) base camp
	Unseen	More information about the place, referring to things or events that are not shown, such as about an hour’s flight from the Nepalese capital of Katmandu. The Unseen field allows extra detail without generating more false positives in searches, such as for pictures of Katmandu.
Event	Language	The language that the description of this event is written in.
	Seen	Information about the event that relates to the content of the picture, such as Manchester United playing at Old Trafford
	Unseen	More information concerning the event, referring to things not shown, such as the first match after Beckham’s transfer to Real Madrid. The Unseen field allows you to add detail without generating more false positives in searches, such as for pictures of Real Madrid.
Other	Other is used for any element that is not a person, a location or an event. It can be tangible, like an dog, a car or a mountain, or intangible, like a hole or an equation.
	Language	The language that the description of this animal, vegetable, mineral or abstract thing is written in.
	Seen	Information about the thing that relates to the content of the picture, such as its name the electric light bulb
	Unseen	More information about the thing, referring to matters not shown, such as invented by Humphrey Davy in 1800. The unseen field allows you to add detail without generating more false positives in searches, such as for pictures of Humphrey Davy.
Comment	Language	The language that the description of this comment is written in.
	Comment text	Any remarks about the picture data itself - source, accuracy, the need for checking, etc.

Authors

The Author tab of Settings is where a user of Expert ViewMinder can type personal contact information, including address, URL and preferred language of communication.

This information can be added to the data of pictures being exported, to tell others who the picture author is.

Fields are gray and cannot be accessed if they are disabled. They can be enabled under the Fields section of Settings.

Genus ViewMinder does not have the ability to export picture data with picture files.

Groups

The Groups tab of Settings is where users can create picture groups, delete them or change their names.

Deleting a picture group does not delete the pictures in that group. It simply changes the database so that pictures are no longer grouped in that way.

Deletion of a group cannot be undone. Even if you create a group of the same name as a deleted group, it will initially empty.

To change the name of a picture group, highlight it, click Edit and type the new group name.

Picture groups can also be created in the Data editor or in Browse mode but they can be deleted or edited only via Settings.

Slideshows

The Slideshows tab of Settings provides simple controls over slideshows.

If Loop after last image is checked, the slideshow will continues indefinitely until manually stopped. Otherwise the slideshow will freeze with the last image. In either case the slideshow will not end until the Stop button X is clicked or the Esc key is pressed.

Languages

The Languages tab of Settings is for setting ViewMinder's interface language and the languages you want to use for describing pictures.

The interface language is the language of ViewMinder's own screens and instructions.

The default language is the main language that you will use for picture data. Some parts of the data are numerical or logical, but elements require natural language - that is, words.

You can choose one or more extra languages for picture descriptions if, for example, some of your pictures will be used in other countries. Choosing additional languages does not compel you to use them for every picture, but it gives you the option of doing so.

ViewMinder for Windows 2000 and Windows XP supports Unicode, making it easier to switch between languages with different alphabets.

File formats

The File formats tab of Settings determines how ViewMinder handles images imported as files or from a scanner.

You can save disc space by converting BMP and WMF files to JPG, especially if you use the Configure button to choose a low image quality. However, if the original files are not natural photographs but drawings or logos, with lines and solid blocks of color, PNG is a more suitable format.

Professionals have traditionally favoured TIFF. However, PNG is equally lossless, more compact and better suited for electronic transmission.

When choosing the format for images obtained from a scanner, JPG will save disc space but PNG may produce better quality.

Advanced

Overspill import option
Enabling this checkbox gives you an extra option during importing.

ViewMinder normally makes a full copy of each image but, if you import as overspill, it will create only a low-resolution copy.

This is intended for people who have already built a picture collection sorted onto CDs or other removable media.

It is normally disabled to prevent accidental loss of pictures

Windows selection style
Normally when you click a thumbnail in ViewMinder, it add that picture to the list of selected pictures. To select pictures one at a time you hold down the Ctrl key while clicking them.

This logic suits the operations that ViewMinder commonly does but is not how most Windows programs operate.

You can reverse this logic by enabling Windows selection style.

Program updates
ViewMinder is updated regularly, to make it a better program. To help you stay up to date, your program will check regularly from the Internet to see if a newer version is available. If it is, a message in your browser will tell you how to get it.

By default, these checks are made every 15 days, but users of Expert ViewMinder and Business ViewMinder can make the interval longer. (Genus ViewMinder users cannot change this feature.)

The only information sent to ViewMinder's website is the name of your edition (Genus, Expert or Business) and your version number. Nothing is transmitted about your identity, location, pictures or anything else.



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