Photo Mechanic 4.5 Public Beta for Mac OS X and Windows

[NikosR]

Hi,

PM 4.5 Beta on Win XP SP2, Intel Core Duo Laptop.

I can't seem to get PM to open a file and its subfolders (new functionality in 4.5). In navigator I right click -> Photo Mechanic -> Open folder and subfolders (either new or current contact sheet).  It doesn't work. Just the upper level folder contents are displayed.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

[NikosR]

Hi,

PM 4.5 Beta on Win XP SP2, Intel Core Duo Laptop.

I can't seem to get PM to open a file and its subfolders (new functionality in 4.5). In navigator I right click -> Photo Mechanic -> Open folder and subfolders (either new or current contact sheet).  It doesn't work. Just the upper level folder contents are displayed.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

Correction. I now played around a bit longer and found that I can indeed open a folder with its subfolders BUT ONLY IF none of the subfolders are already open in another contact sheet. Is this normal?

[theim]

I have a question on v4.5 regarding opening multiple folders in one contact sheet.  Can you select individual folders in Navigator, then have those open up into one contact sheet?  In other words, in the image below, could you click on Folder A and then Ctrl-click on sub-folder A2 and have those two open in one step?



I have not yet upgraded to v4.5.  In v4.4.3.3 I can open these two folders into one contact sheet by loading each folder separately, but I was hoping 4.5 would allow me to select them both, then load in one step.  Is this possible?

Thanks!

[FairfieldPhoto]

"Play Associated Sound File" button on contact sheet is not as conspicuous as it used to be.

On the Windows version, the "Play Associated Sound File" button used to be red, now is gray/white and is very similar to the look of the tag button.  This causes the sound button to blend into the color scheme when using gray backgrounds and such.  

I use the play sound feature extensively when shooting action events so the ingest person can code the images correctly.  I would like to make it as easy as possible for him/her to find those images with an associated sound file.  Could you modify this back to a red icon?

As an longer term feature request, could you add either a "Select Images with Sound File" function or a new selection criteria in the "Find" dialog for finding images with an associated sound file?

Thanks

-Mike
Fairfield Photography

[dbrouse]

could you add either a "Select Images with Sound File" function

You can already sort by {sound}. Then apply a color class or star rating to those files and they are easy to id.  Your suggestion would be easier, but in the interim, does my suggestion work for you?

Delane

[FairfieldPhoto]

Let me give that a try for my tactical needs, but I would still like to see the icon color change for a long-term solution.

Thanks for your contribution!  I forgot about the {sound} variable

-Mike

[Kirk Baker]

Hi,

PM 4.5 Beta on Win XP SP2, Intel Core Duo Laptop.

I can't seem to get PM to open a file and its subfolders (new functionality in 4.5). In navigator I right click -> Photo Mechanic -> Open folder and subfolders (either new or current contact sheet).  It doesn't work. Just the upper level folder contents are displayed.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

Correction. I now played around a bit longer and found that I can indeed open a folder with its subfolders BUT ONLY IF none of the subfolders are already open in another contact sheet. Is this normal?

Yes.  We can't allow PM to browse the same folder twice for various reasons (multithreaded issues) so if one of the folders in your folder/subfolders is already open then we cancel the entire operation.

-Kirk

[NikosR]

Hi,

PM 4.5 Beta on Win XP SP2, Intel Core Duo Laptop.

I can't seem to get PM to open a file and its subfolders (new functionality in 4.5). In navigator I right click -> Photo Mechanic -> Open folder and subfolders (either new or current contact sheet).  It doesn't work. Just the upper level folder contents are displayed.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

Correction. I now played around a bit longer and found that I can indeed open a folder with its subfolders BUT ONLY IF none of the subfolders are already open in another contact sheet. Is this normal?

Yes.  We can't allow PM to browse the same folder twice for various reasons (multithreaded issues) so if one of the folders in your folder/subfolders is already open then we cancel the entire operation.

-Kirk

Point taken. Let me just comment that you 're doing it (cancelling the operation) a bit ungracefully. The user is allowed to enter the command, and then PM just does nothing (or half of what it was asked) without giving out any messages.

Still, a nice update.

[jimb]

The feature you're asking about was planned for the initial release of 4.5.  But we just ran out of time.  I think the 4.5 update is a significant update even without an Ingest from selection feature.  I don't think it is worth holding up the release date for this feature.  I plan to get that feature into 4.5 in an early point release.

I hope everyone understands that if your requested feature was not included in the beta that it doesn't mean we won't add your feature.  We just can't keep on working on 4.5.0 and never release it.  We have a very public development process and I think most of our customers really appreciate it being this way.

-Kirk

Kirk, thanks for the update on this feature. I agree with all of your points, and look forward to the addition later.

Do you have any thoughts on my other observations in the earlier message?

[Kirk Baker]

The feature you're asking about was planned for the initial release of 4.5.  But we just ran out of time.  I think the 4.5 update is a significant update even without an Ingest from selection feature.  I don't think it is worth holding up the release date for this feature.  I plan to get that feature into 4.5 in an early point release.

I hope everyone understands that if your requested feature was not included in the beta that it doesn't mean we won't add your feature.  We just can't keep on working on 4.5.0 and never release it.  We have a very public development process and I think most of our customers really appreciate it being this way.

Kirk, thanks for the update on this feature. I agree with all of your points, and look forward to the addition later.

Do you have any thoughts on my other observations in the earlier message?

Bugs?:
1. In the contact sheet, the full path/filename is not displayed; it appears only the leftmost 67 characters are shown, the rest is truncated.
2. In the preview window filmstrip, for a selected photo with no color class assigned it shows the selected background color rather than the "None" color. In my case, this is the same color as #8-Trash, leading to obvious confusion.

Not exactly bugs, but...
3. One of the things I liked about PM is that it didn't junk up my photo directories with various .dat files and the like. This has changed with this version since I am getting ".pmarrangement.dat" files showing up, even though I haven't actually "made an arrangement". It looks like the file is created anytime the "Make Arrangement" menu selection is clicked, even if the order isn't rearranged. It's also created when you actually rearrange thumbnails, which is expected. Can the creation of this file be limited to when an actual arrangement is made? What is the purpose of the menu item? It appears you can rearrange at any time by simply dragging a thumbnail to its new location without clicking the menu item.
4. The new arrangement of the IPTC layout moved some frequently used fields down the page, forcing a click/scroll to access the fields. The fields are "Photographer" through "Copyright URL". I notice some new XMP-only fields have been added further up the list. Can they be swapped with the ones I mentioned? This would prevent unncecessary scrolling (the mouse wheel doesn't work in this dialog), which affects productivity. Or maybe this--the problem doesn't appear on the stationary pad since two columns are used. Can this be adapted to the IPTC Info window?

1) There is apparently some limitation in the MFC CStatusBar class as to how many characters can be used in status text.  The limit is a paltry 128 characters.  We're working on adding our own implementation that will have no limits other than available space.

2) Fixed.  Now uses same color class background color as the Contact Sheet does.

3) Working on making the data files hidden.  They have to be stored with the directories since everything else is a fragile method.

4) The plan is to make this customizable in a point release to 4.5.

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Taisei,

Copied files become invisible in Finder.

I copied a couple of images from folder A to folder B. They were successfully copied and you can browse them with Photo Mechanic.
But when you open the folder B, no file is visble.  I checked the folder with a File System Browser that shows invisible files and found the images.

I renamed the copied images (invisible in the Finder) with PM, it became visible.

It happens only on my Mac (10.3.9), doesn't happen to my colleague's Mac (10.4).
Do you have any idea?

I had one of the support guys take a look at your issue.  Here is his response:

This is a known Panther Finder bug with all X.3 operating systems. I can reproduce the problem all day long if I copy photos in PM to a folder on the Desktop. If you re-launch the Finder, all of the photos show up in the Finder again. I hope this helps.

Apparently this bug in the Finder is not present on 10.4 systems.  That explains why your colleague's Mac does not exhibit the problem.

-Kirk

[daveh]

Also found that on a Mac, keyboard shortcut to close the open window does not work.

Also there is only the green button available at top left.  No amber or red.



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[Kirk Baker]

Also found that on a Mac, keyboard shortcut to close the open window does not work.

Also there is only the green button available at top left.  No amber or red.

It's a modal dialog.  Modal dialogs do not, in general, have close boxes nor minimize buttons.  If you could minimize the IPTC dialogs into the Dock then you would find it really hard to use the rest of Photo Mechanic: every time you clicked on some other UI element, the computer would 'beep' at you.

Hitting the 'Escape' key will cancel the dialog.

-Kirk

[jimb]

A few more observations for Ver 4.5 running on Win XP SP2 MCE, Athlon 64 X2 4600 2gb RAM:

1. In the contact sheet when you dbl-click a filename to rename it, the delete key is not functional. The only way to remove characters is to use the backspace key. Other keys (home, end, l-arrow, r-arrow) work as expected in Windows.
2. Keyboard navigation in the preview window filmstrip has some issues (these comments assume that keyboard navigation here should mimic the navigation in a contact sheet):
   a. Right-left movement using the arrow keys occurs on key-up, not key-down. You cannot rapidly move through multiple images by holding down the key to repeat. Arrow keys must be pressed and released to move to the next/previous image, one at a time.
   b. There is no way to jump to the leftmost (first) image with Home, or to the rightmost (last) image with End. Depending on where the current position is, these keys shift the thumbs right or left by one image; eventually after repeated keypresses, nothing happens.
   c. Page up and Page down behave like the home and end keys--they move the thumbs, and eventually do nothing.
In general, keyboard navigation in this area doesn't conform to Windows standards, and also seems erratic depending on where you are positioned in the strip. If these aren't bugs, what is the designed behavior and intended usage?
3. Strange behavior occurs when restarting PM after you quit with multiple contact sheets open. Example:
Open contact sheets from folders A, B, and C. Do stuff in C, then close it. Now B is selected, A is also open. Quit and restart PM. Folder C is opened as the contact sheet!
Realizing you can't consider features at this point, in a future update it would be useful to have an option to reopen all the contact sheets that were open when PM was shut down. I know this can be done with favorite groups, but that then entails defining and deleting favorites that might only be used once. Most of the time, when I restart PM, I want all the contact sheets that were open when I last quit.

Thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

A few more observations for Ver 4.5 running on Win XP SP2 MCE, Athlon 64 X2 4600 2gb RAM:

1. In the contact sheet when you dbl-click a filename to rename it, the delete key is not functional. The only way to remove characters is to use the backspace key. Other keys (home, end, l-arrow, r-arrow) work as expected in Windows.

Fixed.

2. Keyboard navigation in the preview window filmstrip has some issues (these comments assume that keyboard navigation here should mimic the navigation in a contact sheet):
   a. Right-left movement using the arrow keys occurs on key-up, not key-down. You cannot rapidly move through multiple images by holding down the key to repeat. Arrow keys must be pressed and released to move to the next/previous image, one at a time.
   b. There is no way to jump to the leftmost (first) image with Home, or to the rightmost (last) image with End. Depending on where the current position is, these keys shift the thumbs right or left by one image; eventually after repeated keypresses, nothing happens.
   c. Page up and Page down behave like the home and end keys--they move the thumbs, and eventually do nothing.

All fixed.

3. Strange behavior occurs when restarting PM after you quit with multiple contact sheets open. Example:
Open contact sheets from folders A, B, and C. Do stuff in C, then close it. Now B is selected, A is also open. Quit and restart PM. Folder C is opened as the contact sheet!
Realizing you can't consider features at this point, in a future update it would be useful to have an option to reopen all the contact sheets that were open when PM was shut down. I know this can be done with favorite groups, but that then entails defining and deleting favorites that might only be used once. Most of the time, when I restart PM, I want all the contact sheets that were open when I last quit.

You have PM set to open the last contact sheet that was opened.  In your example that is 'C'.  The rest that you have described would be a feature request.  If it were trivial, I would implement it now as thanks for letting me know about the above bugs.

Thanks for the heads up on the keyboard issues!

-Kirk