Preclick Photo Organizer 2.5 Help

Welcome to Preclick Photo Organizer, the premiere application for viewing, organizing, printing and sharing your digital photos.

The Preclick Silver Photo Organizer is yours for free forever. Included with this version are home printing and CD burning - two Preclick Gold features which you can enjoy for free for 20 days. You can purchase the Gold features anytime or continue using Preclick Silver for free forever. After 20 days, if you choose not to purchase the upgrade to Preclick Gold, your software will automatically revert to Preclick Silver. If you choose to upgrade, you will receive access to Preclick's photo acquisition feature which will enable you to seamlessly download photos from your camera, CD, or memory card reader to your computer and stamp them with an event and place. To learn more about Preclick's photo acquisition feature and see the cameras that are supported click here.

In addition to this help file, you can access additional Preclick resources online including FAQs, Tips, Tutorials and Release Notes at www.preclick.com/support.

Coming soon to Preclick:
Professional printing by top-rated photo-finisher, PhotoWorks.
Uploading photos to Preclick PhotoWiki, an instant, searchable photo site.

Quick Help Links:

The Filmstrip

The Search Bar

The Viewer

Albums

Photo Acquisition

Upgrade

Keyboard Shortcuts


* indicates a premium feature that is part of the Preclick Gold Photo Organizer product. After your trial period expires, this feature will only be available if you purchase the product.
Note: Preclick's photo acquisition feature is not part of the Preclick Gold trial. If you choose to purchase Preclick Gold, you will be emailed a link to the photo acquisition feature. To learn more about Preclick's photo acquisition feature click here.

 The Filmstrip

All the photos that you have in your My Pictures folder appear in the filmstrip along the bottom. If you keep your photos in a different folder, see the Search Bar section below on how to add a new photo folder.

Over the center of the filmstrip is the lens. The thumbnail under the lens is the current photo, and is projected onto the screen as a large slide.

If you have added photos since you last ran Preclick Photo Organizer, the lens will be positioned over the first new photo.

Photos are labeled and grouped according to the current sort order. For example, when sorting by Date, each photo is labeled with the date, and the photos from a particular month are grouped together. Each group is separated by a thick dividing line.

The lens contains buttons to move around the strip. You can click the ">" or "<" buttons to scroll the filmstrip forward or back by one photo. You can use the jump arrows at left and right edges of lens bottom to jump back and forth between groups. For example, when sorting by Date, you can jump to photos in the previous and next months.

The Push Bar, which runs beneath the Filmstrip and through the bottom of the Lens, shows you where you are in your collection. It is also a navigation tool that lets you jump instantly to a particular photo or group of photos. Just hover your mouse over the Push Bar and run it up and down its length -- a tiny floating caption will tell you what photo or group you are above. Click to jump to it.

The Push Bar's behavior depends on how you have chosen to sort your filmstrip (the sort command is the last drop-down menu below the PhotoBackTM, on the right side of the application).

You can select photos to print, organize, or share by clicking the icons under the thumbnail, to the right of the label.

Clicking a thumbnail scrolls to that photo.

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 The Search Bar

You can control what is displayed in the filmstrip using the search bar above the strip.

The first control is the photo folder chooser.  Choose which folder of photos you wish to view. To add a new folder, click the "Add folder to listà" command that appears in the drop down menu. If you have added new photos since you started the program, choose the "Search for photos again" command.  To remove a folder from the list, click the ôRemove folder from listàö command that appears in the drop down menu.  Then select the folder you wish to remove from list displayed.

The second control is the text search box. To find just those photos whose PhotoBackTM contains certain words, click on this box, type the words you want to search for and then hit Enter. In the drop down list are the last few items you searched for. Choose Everything - or type here (or delete the text) to stop searching by text.

The third control is the rating search box. Choose an entry from the dropdown list to just see those photos with matching ratings. Choose Any rating to stop searching by rating.

The fourth control is the sort chooser. The photos can be sorted and grouped by month, rating, folder and name. They can also be sorted by roll, a group of photos that were downloaded together.

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 The Viewer

The viewer area contains various tabs:

The tabs appear along the top of the application. Click on a tab to switch to it.

View SmartPhotoTM tab

This tab shows the photo that is under the lens.

Under the bottom right corner of the photo are three destination buttons; print, share, and organize.

You can print a photo on your home printer or have them printed professionally by one of our top-rated photo-finishing partners by clicking on the printer icon under the right side of the photo. The photo will be added to the Print tab. After you have chosen your photos to print, go to the Printing tab to review and print them on your home printer or upload them for printing.

You can share a photo by clicking the share icon under the right side of the photo. The photo will be added to the Share tab where you can then upload to a Preclick PhotoWiki online Gallery online or email them. After you have chosen your photos to share, go to the Share tab to review and either upload them or email them. When you choose to email your photos, they will be reduced in size so your email is small enough to send reliably and quickly.

You can copy a photo to another location (*CD, floppy disk, hard drive, removable media device) by clicking the folder icon under the right side of the photo. The photo will be added to the Organize tab. You can then go to the Organize tab to review and copy the photos.

Under the bottom left corner of the photo is the *Make Desktop button. Clicking this button will display the selected photo on your computer's desktop wallpaper. Depending on the size and orientation of the photo, you may be asked if you want to fill your entire desktop with the photo or just frame the photo in the middle of the screen.

To delete a photo, click the Delete button. The photo will be moved to the Deleted Photos tab.

Image Editing
When editing your photos, Preclick archives the original file and makes all the changes on a new file enabling you to revert back to the original file at any time no matter how many edits you have made to the photo. Note: The original files are stored in the same folder on your hard drive as the edited ones and are designated with a file format of .orig.

You can rotate a photo by clicking one of the Rotate buttons.

Masking selects the area you wish to crop. Select the size and orientation of the mask using the buttons to the bottom left of the photo. Then drag the lines of the black box to select the area of the photo you wish to crop. You can rotate the mask by clicking the Rotate Mask button on the crop mode toolbar. You can move the entire box by clicking on the visible picture and dragging to your desired location.

Once you have selected the part of the photo you wish to crop using the mask function click the Crop Photo button on the cropping toolbar to discard the unwanted portion.
Note: The crop function is not available for use when in full screen mode.

The Red Eye feature allows you to remove the red eye commonly found in pictures. Click on the Red Eye button and then simply touch each red eye in the photograph with the pencil cursor and the red will be automatically replaced.

Click the PicFix button to fix a photo that is too dark or too light.

Clicking the Make Black and White button once will transform a color picture into black and white. You can increase the black and white contrast by continuing to click on the button.

The Make Sepia feature allows you to convert your photograph to an image with a reddish-brown tone. Continuing to click on the button will lighten the pictureÆs sepia tone.

The Undo button undoes the last edit made to that photo.

The Revert button undoes every change made to that photo and displays the original unedited photo.

Pushing the Play button starts and stops a slideshow.  This is a great way to sit back and view your collection.

The View Full Screen button is the rightmost button on the toolbar. Clicking it changes between normal and full screen modes. Double clicking the photo in the SmartPhoto tab does the same thing.

The PhotoBackTM
Next to the slide is a digital photo back. It shows the photo's name and folder as well as its size and dimensions.

To add info, just click in a field and start typing. Preclick will try to complete what you type. You can add multiple values by separating them with commas. You can also click the stamp button to the left of the field and choose from the list of values you have already entered.

If your camera records the date with your photo, this date will be used for the Date field. Otherwise the file date will be used. You can edit the date if it is wrong by clicking it. You can click the Date stamp button to choose which date will be used.

The PhotoBack will also show you the size and dimensions of a particular photo and the name of the folder it resides in.
Note: You can hover your mouse over the folder name to view the entire folder path.

All the information that you enter on the PhotoBack (caption, people, event, place, and date) is embedded in the photo (except for the album field). This means that you can move your photos, share them with friends and family, and never have to reenter the PhotoBack information. Note: For BMP files, the PhotoBack data is kept in a separate file (designated with a file format of .bmp.xmp) located in the same directory as the image.

Print tab

On the Print tab, all the photos you have selected to print on your home printer or to upload for professional printing appear as thumbnails.

Clicking the Add One button will add the photo under the lens to the tab. Clicking the Add Many button will give you the option to add the entire filmstrip, your recent photos (latest roll), the current photo under the lens or an album to the tab. To take a photo out of the tab, click it and then click the Clear One button. To remove all photos from the tab, click the Clear All button.

The Order Prints button enables you to order professional prints of your selected photos from one of our top-rated photo-finishing partners and uploads your photos to an online album. *The Print button will enable you to print your photos on your home printer. Click the button to launch the home printing preferences screen. First select the layout you wish to use. Then select the number of copies you want. Make sure your desired printer is chosen. Select the paper size you have loaded into the printer and then select your desired printing orientation. Double check the print preview before hitting the Print button.

Share tab

On the Share tab all the photos you have selected to share appear as thumbnails. Click Send Photos to email your photos or Upload Photos to upload them to a Preclick PhotoWiki, an online photo gallery. To learn more about Preclick PhotoWikis, click here. Coming soon!

Clicking the Add One button will add the photo under the lens to the tab. Clicking the Add Many button will give you the option to add the entire filmstrip, your recent photos (latest roll), the current photo under the lens or an album to the tab. To take a photo out of the tab, click it and then click the Clear One button. To remove all the photos from the tab, click the Clear All button.  

Clicking the Send Photos button will launch your computerÆs default email program.  This function only supports certain email programs including: Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Lotus Notes, AOL 7.0 or higher, Hotmail and Yahoo! mail. To use Hotmail as your default email program, you must have Internet Explorer 5.0 installed. To use Yahoo! mail as your default email program, click here for further information. For more information about Preclick's email function, view the Support FAQ.

Organize tab

On the Organize tab, all the photos you have selected to copy to another location or burn onto a CD appear as thumbnails.

Clicking the Add One button will add the photo under the lens to the tab. Clicking the Add Many button will give you the option to add the entire filmstrip, your recent photos (latest roll), the current photo under the lens or an album to the tab. To take a photo out of the tab, click it and then click the Clear One button. To remove all photos from the tab, click the Clear All button.

Click the Copy Photo button to copy your photos to another location. In the dialog window that appears, either select an existing location or create a new folder as the destination for your photos. You can choose to reduce the size of your photos by clicking the Downsize checkbox. Reducing the size of your photos is ideal if you wish to share the photo with friends via email or post the photos to a website for viewing purposes. You can choose to delete the original photos after they are copied by clicking the appropriate checkbox. You can also include a version of the Preclick software by selecting the last checkbox.

* Clicking the Create CD button will prompt a screen where you can select various options to complete the copying of your photos to CD. First, select the CD-R drive with your blank (make sure you put a CD in the drive). You can then enter a title for the CD. You can choose to reduce the size of your photos by clicking the Downsize checkbox. You can choose to delete the original photos after they are copied by clicking the appropriate checkbox. You can also include a version of the Preclick software by selecting the last checkbox. At the bottom of the screen you will see a meter displaying the amount of space needed on the blank CD for these photos as well as the amount of free space available on the CD. After you have made all your selections, click the Burn CD button. The actual time it takes to burn your CD depends on the speed of your CD burner.

* Clicking the Acquire Photos button will launch Preclick's photo acquisition wizard.

Deleted Photos tab

If you delete one or more photos, a Deleted Photos tab will appear. You can send all the deleted photos to the Recycle Bin using the Empty Trash button. You can put a photo back in the filmstrip using the Restore button.

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 Albums

You can create, modify or load an album in the Print tab, Share tab or Organize tab.

To create an album containing the photos on a tab, click the Album button and select "Save these photos as an album..." This will prompt the Save Album dialog where you can name and save your new album. If you have already created an album, you have the ability to select an album from the list. If you want to replace the contents of the existing album with the current photos on the tab, select the "Remove old photos from the album before adding" option. The final choice on the Save Album dialog enables you to view the album as a slideshow immediately after saving.

After you create an album, you will notice the album name will now be listed in the Album field of each photo's PhotoBack. Deleting this stamp will remove the photo from the album. Alternatively, typing in an album name in the PhotoBack will add the photo to that album.

Once you have created an album, you can load the contents to a tab by clicking the Album button and selecting "Load an album..." Loading an album will replace the current contents of the tab with the photos from the selected album. Clicking the Add Many button and selecting "Add contents of a saved album..." will add the photos from the selected album to the photos already on the tab.

To view only the photos from a saved album in the filmstrip, select the album name from the "Show" drop down menu below the PhotoBack on the right side of the screen. If you have more than three saved albums, you will notice an entry called "More Albums..." on the "Show" drop down list. Selecting "More Albums..." will display a list of all the albums you have created and allow you to select the album you wish to display in the filmstrip.

To remove all the photos from an album, select "Remove Album..." from the "Show" drop down menu below the PhotoBack on the right side of the screen. Select the album you wish to remove and click Remove. The album stamp will be removed from all the photos and the album name will be removed from the list.

Note: The Remove Album function will remove all photos from a particular album and delete the album name from the list. This does NOT delete the photos from your computer.
Note: The album field is not embedded in the photo.

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 * Photo Acquisition Wizard

When you purchase Preclick Gold, you will receive access to Preclick's photo acquisition feature which enables you to seamlessly download photos from your camera, CD, memory card reader or other device to your computer and stamp them with an Event, Place and even an Album in the process! To learn more about Preclick's photo acquisition feature and see the cameras and devices that are supported click here. If you already purchased Preclick Gold and need to download the Preclick photo acquisition feature, click here.

Using the feature
To download photos from your camera, CD, memory card reader or other device to your computer, attach the device to your computer (and turn the power on if needed) and then go to the Preclick Gold Organize tab and click on the Acquire Photos button. The software will then search for all supported devices connected to your computer. If there are multiple supported devices connected, you will be prompted to select the device to download from. If your device is plugged in but cannot be found by Preclick, click here for more information.

The software will scan the selected device and display thumbnails for all the photos found. The feature enables you to import multiple groups of photos separately and stamp each group with an Event, Place, Album and Date in the process. You will want to start by selecting the photos you want to download as part of your first (or only) group. By default, all photos are selected and have a yellow outline around each thumbnail. You can deselect photos individually by clicking on them or you can click the Deselect All button to deselect all photos. You can select a group of consecutive photos by clicking on the first thumbnail and then hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and then click the last thumbnail in the group. Once you have selected all the desired photos for the first (or only) group, click the Next button.

On the second acquire screen, you will first want to enter an Event name for your group. The Event name you enter will be used as the folder name for these photos, in renaming the photos and also added to each photoÆs Event field in the Preclick PhotoBackÖ. You can also enter a Place and Album label for the group. Select to use the camera's date for the photos, or if you haven't set the date on your camera, select one in the space provided.

The photos you selected on the first screen appear in the preview window. If you wish to add or delete photos, you can click the Back button at the bottom of the screen and make your changes.

You can then select the location for your new subfolder. The software defaults to the My Pictures directory but you can click the Browse button to select a different location.

If you want to delete the group of photos off of the device after they are downloaded, choose Yes, if not, leave the No choice selected. This option will not be available if you are acquiring photos from CD.

When you are finished entering all the information, click the Copy button and your photos will be downloaded to your computer and renamed in the process. When the download is completed, you can either click the Done button to end the acquire process and launch Preclick Gold (don't forget to detach your camera and turn off the power) or click the Get More Photos button to repeat the process with a new group of photos.

Note: This feature is only part of the full Preclick Gold program and is NOT part of the trial.

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 Upgrade to Preclick Gold Photo Organizer

When you install and launch Preclick Silver Photo Organizer, you will see a welcome screen which will show you the number of days you have left to use the premium features associated with the Preclick Gold Photo Organizer. When your trial period expires, the premium features (designated with a * in this help file) will be disabled and you will be allowed to use the free Preclick Silver Photo Organizer without interruption.

You can upgrade at any point in time by clicking on the Upgrade Now button on any of the welcome screens or by going to the Information screen (circled '?' at the top right of the application) and clicking the Upgrade button. If you do not already have an activation code, click the Get one now link and follow the instructions on the web page.

If you are having trouble activating Preclick through the software due to a firewall or connection issue, you can try web activation. Get to the Activation screen as outlined above. Enter your email address and activation code and then click the 'Try web activation' button. A new screen will pop up. Do not close this screen until you finish the activation process as outlined below. Make sure your activation code in listed above the Software key on the screen and then click the 'Click here' button. You will be sent to the web activation page on the Preclick website. If the page does not open automatically or if that computer is not connected to the Internet, go to http://www.preclick.com/upgrade/webkey.php . Enter any information which is missing from the form and then click submit. If your information is valid, a Web key will be displayed on the confirmation web page. Enter this Web key into the Preclick software and submit.

Whether you use the free Preclick Silver Photo Organizer or the premium Preclick Gold Photo Organizer, the software will automatically notify you when a new version of the software is available for download.

If you have purchased Preclick Gold or Preclick Lifetime but you have misplaced your activation code, click here.

Note: Existing Preclick Lifetime users do not need to purchase Preclick Gold. You will be upgraded automatically for free.

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 Keyboard Shortcuts

There are many keyboard shortcuts to make viewing and editing your photos quick and easy.

Left

Go to previous photo

Right

Go to next photo

Up

Go to previous photo group

Down

Go to next photo group

Page Down

Scroll forward by one strip's worth of photos

Page Up

Scroll backward by one strip's worth of photos

Home

Scroll to beginning of strip

End

Scroll to end of strip

Delete

Delete current photo

Enter

Accept an edit

Esc

Cancels an edit

Pause

Start/stop slideshow

Space

Scroll to next photo (or stop slideshow if running)

Shift+Space

Scroll to previous photo

0-4

Set rating to 0-4 stars

C

Add Caption stamp

E

Add Event stamp

L

Rotate photo to the left

P

Add Place stamp

R

Rotate photo to the right

S

Add Subject stamp

F1

Information box

F2

Rename photo

F5

Start/stop slideshow

F6

Toggle between tabs

F11

Switch between normal and full screen mode

Ctrl-E

Eliminate Red Eye

Ctrl-F

PicFix

Ctrl-M

Mask photo

Ctrl-O

Add photo to the Organize tab

Ctrl-P Print a photo

Ctrl-R

Revert to original photo

Ctrl-S

Share a photo

Ctrl-Z

Undo

Ctrl-Tab

Toggle between tabs

Note:  When you are editing information in the PhotoBack or typing into a Search control, some of these keys (e.g. Left) will not work as shortcut keys unless you hold down the Alt key with them.

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Credits:

Copyright 2002-2004 Preclick Corporation. All rights reserved.

This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.


The libtiff library is (c) Copyright 1988-1996 Sam Leffler and (c) Copyright 1991-1996 Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.


The Metakit database is copyright (c) 1996-2003 Jean-Claude Wippler.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


For the lightweight Windows Template Library, thanks to Nenad Stefanovic and the WTL community.

Thanks to Whole Tomato for their amazing Visual Assist tool, it made everyone more productive.

Hats off to the Tortoise CVS developers, you guys make version control fun.