Working with the sidebar

Introduction

As one reviewer put it , “edit the query is great, but who remembers all those field names?”. This is the reason I implemented a collapsible sidebar to give users an easy access to field names. Best of all, the contents of the sidebar can be re-arranged freely and you can add you own quick tip, if you like (learn more customizing the sidebar definition file here).

Activating the sidebar

You may activate the sidebar by using the menu option “View” / “Toggle sidebar” (the shortcut key is [F11]) or by using the toolbar. This action is a toggle switch, so executing that option again hides the sidebar again. Below is a screen shot with the sidebar visible at left side of the screen.

Activating the sidebar.

Using the sidebar

Just select a field with the mouse or the cusor keys. If you double-click on a field or press [ENTER], the field name will be inserted in the query edit area. You can even insert a while group (e.g. all IPTC Author fields) if you double-click in the group name.

Customizing the sidebar contents

The contents of the sidebar are filled from a text file with the name Sidetree.ini in the application folder of ImageQuery. This file contains one tree view entry per line. The hierarchy of the entries is built by indentation with a single space per level. Be careful not to use more than one space character per level or the file will not be used by ImageQuery and the sidebar will be disabled (you will get a message at start-up if this is the case). If you want to display a short tool tip or help text, you can add an equal sign after the entry name, followed by the text to be displayed (max. 80 chars).

Here is a short sample for the sidetree.ini file:

EXIF Fields

 Group 1

  Sub-Item of group 1=This is the help text

  ANother sub-item=Wow, another help text

 Group 2=Help texts for groups are OK

  Group 2 sub-item

IPTC Fields

 An entry=You don’t need to create groups, this will do fine.

A sample sidetree.ini file

User-specific sidebar contents

If you want to have user-specific sidebar content, just put a sidetree.ini file in the application data file for ImageQuery (which is located under you user profile folder). This will automatically override the default file from the ImageQuery folder. If you are not sure how to do this, ask you system administrator for help.