Ability to preserve contact sheet arrangement?

[Jerry and Lois Photo]

Hello!

Is it possible to preserve the arrangement of contact sheets?  I have a somewhat complex set of contact sheets that all need to be open simultaneously and sized for my workflow.  One is filtered only by file ratings, the center contact sheet is filtered according to color class, and the third window is unfiltered. 

I've attached a screenshot of what I'm currently working with.  I'm in a holiday crunch, and didn't have time to shrink the attached - so you may have to scroll to the far right to see the full image (which is important here).

In the ideal world, it'd be great to save this arrangement, and reload it the next time I launch PM (or have that as an option).

I'm finding that saving my working arrangements is something I wish I had more and more.

Many thanks,
Jerry

PS - I realize this may simply be a new feature request, but perhaps this ability already exists...

[Kirk Baker]

Jerry,

Is it possible to preserve the arrangement of contact sheets?  I have a somewhat complex set of contact sheets that all need to be open simultaneously and sized for my workflow.  One is filtered only by file ratings, the center contact sheet is filtered according to color class, and the third window is unfiltered. 

I've attached a screenshot of what I'm currently working with.  I'm in a holiday crunch, and didn't have time to shrink the attached - so you may have to scroll to the far right to see the full image (which is important here).

In the ideal world, it'd be great to save this arrangement, and reload it the next time I launch PM (or have that as an option).

I'm finding that saving my working arrangements is something I wish I had more and more.

If you open the Preferences dialog (Edit->Preferences...) and choose "Restore Contact Sheets from last session" in the "On startup:" section of the "General" page, PM should restore the layout of your workspace, including the settings of each contact sheet.

I was able to reproduce your layout, restart PM, and have it all restored.

HTH,

-Kirk

[Jerry and Lois Photo]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had looked through Preferences, but <obviously> didn't see that option.

And of course it works perfectly!  This is PhotoMechanic, after all!

As always, THANK YOU Kirk!

[Kirk Baker]

You're welcome, Jerry!

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Robert,

Hi Jerry, as a failsafe, you could also write a sequence number into an unused variable.  This would allow you to sort the images by this variable in the future if they don't display as per the original arrangement.

1) Open a Contact Sheet on the image set.
2) 'View' | 'Make Arrangement' and arrange the images as desired.
3) 'Edit' | 'Settings' | 'Set Sequence Variable' to the desired first number of the sequence (Example: "001").
4) CTRL-I (Open IPTC Metadata Manager) & clear all fields and checkboxes.
5) Enter variable {seqn} in an unused field & check the adjacent box (example: "Extended Description" field)
6) CTRL-A (Select All) & CTRL-SHIFT-I to apply the Template to the selected photos.

This will write ascending sequence numbers in the "Extended Description" field, which you can use to sort the images back the arrangement order.

I believe that Jerry was more concerned about the layout of his Contact Sheet panes than the order the images appear in each Contact Sheet.  Setting PM to "Restore Contact Sheets from last session" achieves this.

Your solution is great as a backup for an accidentally deleted arrangement data file.

-Kirk