long navigation tree

[Darkhorse]

Hi, I'm a showjumping photographer and for each event I can end up with hundreds of riders and their photos are sorted into folders. This creates an extremely long list in the navigation tree. My problem is that PM keeps extending the view for all of these folders at random. I go back through and press the minus sign beside each main folder to condense the list but they always open up again. It does this on folders that I have never even used PM to work with (I'm a brand new user). Can you let me know how to stop this from happening?

O/S is XP pro

Thanks

[Kirk Baker]

Hi, I'm a showjumping photographer and for each event I can end up with hundreds of riders and their photos are sorted into folders. This creates an extremely long list in the navigation tree. My problem is that PM keeps extending the view for all of these folders at random. I go back through and press the minus sign beside each main folder to condense the list but they always open up again. It does this on folders that I have never even used PM to work with (I'm a brand new user). Can you let me know how to stop this from happening?

O/S is XP pro

The Navigator is exposing the path that you have opened as a Contact Sheet.  Many people want this so that they can tell where in the filesystem a particular contact sheet folder is located.  The Navigator shouldn't be showing things expanded that never have been opened as a Contact Sheet.  If you can illustrate a particular example (that shouldn't be happening) that we can try to reproduce we'll try to fix it.

I could add a preference for the Navigator that allows you to turn off the automatic expansion and display of folders currently being viewed as Contact Sheets.

-Kirk

[Darkhorse]

Hi, I'll try to be specific about what happens.

When I start PM and the contact sheet dialogue comes up I always just cancel that and go to the nav tree on the left because I usually use several folders in a session.

So I have folders A B C D (not their real names) on the drive and they have riders 1 to 250 in numbered folders inside them for each rider's photos.

For these last few sessions I have been working on pics in  folders C or D, but folders A and B also fully open as well sometimes. Folder A was made long before I bought PM and I can't ever remember using PM looking at it at all. Folder B was made before as well but I did do some IPTC work with PM on it but I haven't used it for over a week, it keeps opening up all the way as well. Yesterday I just wanted to work in folder D but C kept opening up as well so I end up with a nav tree with 500 or more items on the list.

I seem to have found a work around. If I close every folder and then close PM and restart, then the unused folders don't seem to keep popping open. I'll try working with this some more and see if it keeps working.

I know what you mean about having it open so I can tell where the files are and I like that feature because it's familiar it's just when it keeps opening other folders that my work gets confusing. Everyone of those folders has a rider 1 for example and if I don't notice that the folder has expanded then suddenly I'm working with files from the wrong event and it gets frustrating.

Thanks

[Kirk Baker]

Hi, I'll try to be specific about what happens.

When I start PM and the contact sheet dialogue comes up I always just cancel that and go to the nav tree on the left because I usually use several folders in a session.

You can turn off that dialog and have PM open up with no folder picker dialog.  Just open up Preferences and on the General tab, you can choose what you want PM to do on startup.

So I have folders A B C D (not their real names) on the drive and they have riders 1 to 250 in numbered folders inside them for each rider's photos.

For these last few sessions I have been working on pics in  folders C or D, but folders A and B also fully open as well sometimes. Folder A was made long before I bought PM and I can't ever remember using PM looking at it at all. Folder B was made before as well but I did do some IPTC work with PM on it but I haven't used it for over a week, it keeps opening up all the way as well. Yesterday I just wanted to work in folder D but C kept opening up as well so I end up with a nav tree with 500 or more items on the list.

I seem to have found a work around. If I close every folder and then close PM and restart, then the unused folders don't seem to keep popping open. I'll try working with this some more and see if it keeps working.

I know what you mean about having it open so I can tell where the files are and I like that feature because it's familiar it's just when it keeps opening other folders that my work gets confusing. Everyone of those folders has a rider 1 for example and if I don't notice that the folder has expanded then suddenly I'm working with files from the wrong event and it gets frustrating.

I have seen this as well.  And yes, closing things down and restarting seems to fix it.  I'll let the responsible engineer know about this issue.

-Kirk

[Darkhorse]

Alright, I think it would be nice if they didn't keep popping open but if this work around does the job then it's not a big deal, I'll just close everything before I leave PM.

Great program by the way.

[Kirk Baker]

Alright, I think it would be nice if they didn't keep popping open but if this work around does the job then it's not a big deal, I'll just close everything before I leave PM.

Great program by the way.

OK, I contacted the engineer that works on the Navigator and Favorites and she says that if you collapse/expand the folders the way you like them and then do a refresh on the Navigator (right-click and choose Refresh from the menu) then the state of the Navigator will be saved.  You won't have to quit and reopen Photo Mechanic.

HTH,

-Kirk