How to use the category feature

[pic_viewer]

Hello,

I have about 4,000 personal digicam pics that are only sorted by date in several subfolders so far. I want to use the category feature of XnView to finally have comfortable and quick access to any pics that I usually never found...

I found zero information about this feature in the online help or the forum FAQ. I worked with this feature and think that I understand how to use it - but it is so cumbersome that I can't believe I am doing it right. Ok, here is what I do:

Enter a dir with the browser, select first picture, then click in the category area at the bottom at the right category so it gets checked.

Problem one: how to change to the next pic? Too much mouse movement (too far away), and the keyboard (pic up down or similar) only navigate in the category area, but don't change to the next mini-pic for selection.

Problem two: when I change to another pic a confirmation dialog asks me if I want to save the changes (the category definition). Doing that after every single picture is

Problem three: I want to speed up my work by multiple selection of mini-pics in the browser that will get the same category. But as soon as I select more than one the category function vanishes.

Hey, I have 4,000 pics to work through! This way I will not finish before 2025

So what am I doing wrong?

[xnview]

Problem one: how to change to the next pic? Too much mouse movement (too far away), and the keyboard (pic up down or similar) only navigate in the category area, but don't change to the next mini-pic for selection.

You want a shortkey to navigate between pictures?

Problem two: when I change to another pic a confirmation dialog asks me if I want to save the changes (the category definition). Doing that after every single picture is

Yes, i must not write the change without a confirmation. Do you want something like 'do not ask again'?

Problem three: I want to speed up my work by multiple selection of mini-pics in the browser that will get the same category. But as soon as I select more than one the category function vanishes.

Sorry but i don't understand...

[Guest]

... I dont' know if I got this right, but assignment of multiple pictures to a category via drag and drop is possible on my system (Win2000 with XnView 1.91.6). Also I'm not asked if the changes should be saved which makes sense as the category information seems to be kept only internally in the data base and is not written to the picture, e.g. in the IPTC-Data. Or do I miss something here? I would find simple assignment of IPTC categories to pictures via drag'n'drop very useful!

Best wishes
Frank

[pic_viewer]

Thank you both for your replies. The drag and drop notice made me try the feature again. My problem was that I thought the left pane category list is only to be used as filter mask. I did all the definitions with the Category tab in the below preview area.

Now using the right mouse button (add / remove from category) and dragging multiple pics to the left category tree entries works perfectly, and also does not cause the 'you want to save your changes' window. Maybe that is a small 'bug' with the lower category tab, because as mentioned those settings are not saved to the pic.

What a wonderful program!

[pic_viewer]

Ok, I found one more question/problem:

How can I move an existing category entry (let's say 'Pets') to another folder on the category tree (from 'photos' to 'Family')? I don't find this option, and I think deleting/new at the desired place later will cause losing all the assignments made until then.

When the category pane is visible, the View menu includes the entry 'Assign categories'. What is this one for? It never seems to do something...

[xnview]

How can I move an existing category entry (let's say 'Pets') to another folder on the category tree (from 'photos' to 'Family')? I don't find this option, and I think deleting/new at the desired place later will cause losing all the assignments made until then.

I must add that feature!

When the category pane is visible, the View menu includes the entry 'Assign categories'. What is this one for? It never seems to do something...

It's to assign categories to the selected files

[pic_viewer]

I must add that feature!

Please do so!

It's to assign categories to the selected files

Funny...that dialog never came up when I worked on this...but now it does! It also seems to answer my next question, at least partly (about delete, see below).

If I change the name of the pics outside of XnView, or the name of the pic's directory (even within XnView), the category database is not informed about the changes. An automatic synchronization should be implemented at least for changing names from within XnView! Means either for changing file names or dir names via the directory tree on the left (folder view).

My question would have been how to edit the category information in case of changes, but this is possible with the Assign Category dialog, which allows a 'delete' of no longer valid information as well.

Please note that an intuitive approach (IMHO) for both the preview pic database and the category database would have been to simply select all the 'replacement pics' (as the original pics are no longer visible) and to delete them. Right now XnView complains that it can't delete the file (which I don't want anyway) because it does not find it. Instead it should just remove the no longer valid information from both databases.

Thank you for listening. I am still a newbie with this program but I like it very much!

[pic_viewer]

Hello,

I have done more work with the Category function and think this feature needs two more additions to be really usable. My suggestion is:

- When clicking 'Assign Categories' in the menu, a dialog window pops up that has an 'Apply' button. But it does not work like that. It closes the window immediately like an OK button would do. Please make the dialog stay visible (means add an OK button and correct the behaviour). Assigning categories to lots of files otherwise gets tideous quickly.

- Also I would appreciate very much if there exists a simple hotkey to open the 'Assign Category' dialog, like either a single letter or a F-key (no complicated combinations, please). Having to go through the menu all time to bring back this dialog is really annoying.

Any comments from others about this?

[pic_viewer]

Any comments from others about this?

Well guys, if I am using this feature completely wrong or am writing nonsense - please tell me. Otherwise I am really astonished about the lack of interest in improving this function...

[JohnFredC]

This is a complicated subject, Pierre is just one guy, and the forum at large tends to mull over major innovations in XnView for a while until he has a (relatively) clear message of consensus before he figures out how he himself wants to implement something into his software.

My impression is that the IPTC/categories/persistence/compatibility topic will evolve as the major players (Adobe, for instance) watch to see how their initial forays into the area are accepted by their customers.

For what it's worth, I think you have good suggestions. You might search the forum for similar topics to see what others have said about related issues.

"It's a process."

[oops66]

This is a complicated subject, Pierre is just one guy, and the forum at large tends to mull over major innovations in XnView for a while until he has a (relatively) clear message of consensus before he figures out how he himself wants to implement something into his software.
My impression is that the IPTC/categories/persistence/compatibility topic will evolve as the major players (Adobe, for instance) watch to see how their initial forays into the area are accepted by their customers.
For what it's worth, I think you have good suggestions. You might search the forum for similar topics to see what others have said about related issues.
"It's a process."

Right JohnFredC,
"XnView's priorities are managed exactly as in a Democratic process."
Therefore: with a "guru" (Here it's Pierre) ! LOL
It's that why... : http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=13452

...
Also I would appreciate very much if there exists a simple hotkey to open the 'Assign Category' dialog, like either a single letter or a F-key (no complicated combinations, please). Having to go through the menu all time to bring back this dialog is really annoying...

About this, a way is to see here : http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=11713

[pic_viewer]

How can I move an existing category entry (let's say 'Pets') to another folder on the category tree (from 'photos' to 'Family')? I don't find this option, and I think deleting/new at the desired place later will cause losing all the assignments made until then.

I must add that feature!

I noticed that in 1.92 beta rename and move of files within XnView updates the category database. Is there any chance that the above (moving categories to a different place of the 'tree') will make it into 1.92 as well?

[xnview]

How can I move an existing category entry (let's say 'Pets') to another folder on the category tree (from 'photos' to 'Family')? I don't find this option, and I think deleting/new at the desired place later will cause losing all the assignments made until then.

I must add that feature!

I noticed that in 1.92 beta rename and move of files within XnView updates the category database. Is there any chance that the above (moving categories to a different place of the 'tree') will make it into 1.92 as well?

No sorry not in 1.92, it's the beta stage, so no new feature

[pic_viewer]

No sorry not in 1.92, it's the beta stage, so no new feature

Ok, waiting for 1.93 then...