PM6 Search my Mac

[Kirk Baker]

Same for me, i need this function nearly daily.
Kirk, is it possible for me as a pm6-buyer to ß-test the + version?
Best regards,
Volker

In just a few weeks all PM6 users can beta test the Photo Mechanic Plus version.

-Kirk

[Henry Gilbey]

Kirk, do you mind if I ask a few questions/discuss my issues here?! Thanks in advance............

PM has been utterly indispensable for me ever since I first started using it for my work, thanks to all concerned as ever

I keep things as simple as I can here, but for finding, sorting and sending images to my clients, the "Search" facility in PM5 is something I have come to rely on completely - which of course only works so well for me because I am meticulous in keywording my images so that I can find the ones I need at a later date.

Okay, so I'd love to upgrade to PM6, but due to the lack of a search facility I can't - and when I "Search" in PM5, I am tending to point the search at my entire image library. PM5 though is so fast at doing the searches though that this has never been a problem. Run it, a new contact sheet opens up, copy and paste the images I want to upload to Dropbox into a different folder, and so on. Works great.

One thing I don't want or need is for a piece of software to catalogue my image library, albeit I am open to the idea if it can improve my workflow. I never used the library side of Lightroom because I never needed it for example. PM5 has been giving me all I need on the "find the images I need to send off" facility.

So you're asking people like me to wait for the PM+ version - which is fine - but we are getting no indication of the price to upgrade to this from PM5. Why not out of interest? 

If the price jump to PM+ is significant then I would not bother upgrading to it............

Will PM5 continue to be upgraded to allow for Mac software upgrades etc.? I have no choice but to stick with PM5 for the time being.

Thank you

[jarle]

What I don't get: For all practical purposes, PM6's find function (CMD+F) apparently does the same thing as the old PM5 toolbar search, with some added bells and whistles (never mind the underlying code - I understand it's a different solution).

Why not bring the old search field back, as a simple way to run file name searches directly from the toolbar? Seems like a no brainer.

Jarle

[Kevin M. Cox]

For all practical purposes, PM6's find function (CMD+F) apparently does the same thing as the old PM5 toolbar search, with some added bells and whistles (never mind the underlying code - I understand it's a different solution).

CMD+F only searches the open contact sheet. The old PM5 toolbar search utilized Spotlight to search the entire disk.

Why not bring the old search field back, as a simple way to run file name searches directly from the toolbar? Seems like a no brainer.

I could see having the CMD+F search available from the toolbar being useful, but the amount of confusion it would cause probably make it not worth implementing.

[vthian]

PM pls consider of bringing the search box back, I've purchased the PM 6 but offend I have to use PM 5 for search...which is speechless.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

How I use Find for Keywords

1. In Photo Mechanic 6 navigator, go to a suitable top-level folder. (example “2018”, or “Working”, or even “Pictures” depending on how many you have*)
2. Right-click and select “Open Folder and Subfolders in New Contact Sheet”
   (At this point I might right-click on the Contact Sheet tab and add this combined folder Contact Sheet to my Favorites to get to it quickly later on)
3. Cmd-F opens up the Find window.
4. I uncheck “Filenames” and add a check to “IPTC data”
   For myself, I uncheck every IPTC field except for Keywords. (Actually I did this last time, and I added it to my Snapshot presets with the “lightning bolt” Snapshot button to save this configuration ^.)
5. Then I do a search for the keyword I want.
6. Pressing F2 (on macOS**) filters the Contact Sheet to only show the selected results.

Getting it set up the way I liked involved some trial and error, but once I had the favorites/snapshots set up, it is pretty quick and I definitely prefer the fine-tuned results over what I was getting in Spotlight.  Using that to try to find keywords in xmp sidecar files was a non-starter for me.

Notes:

* My machine can handle Folder/Subfolder Contact Sheets totals with ~10k images pretty briskly.
^ Note that if you type in a search term and then save the snapshot, it will save the search term as well. This is a way to have saved searches
** Depending on your keyboard preferences you might need to use the Fn key to actually get access to the function key functionality. The option is also in the ‘View” menu: View-> Selected

Mick

[GetUp]

Can someone help me with my use case scenario with PM6?
On PM5 I was using search in open sheet to select ONLY jpgs from RAW+JPG, it was fast, just type "jpg"
How I can do it in PM6 fast?
Thanks

[GLS]

Hello,
To continue to work the way I currently do to find what I am looking for I need to open a folder and subfolders containing over 76k pictures (I also copy & paste IPTC info from old pictures); it is just unreasonable in PM 6.
The search in PM 5 is lightning fast and maybe there are a few misses, but overall it works great.
The disappearance of saved searches is also a pity.

Any news about pricing/details of PM 6 plus?
I am holding off for that if it brings back PM 5 functionality.

While I want to upgrade and I think that the PM team is doing a great job for all photographers and deserves my money, doing so will break my well oiled and currently very efficient workflow...

[Henry Gilbey]

Yep, PM6 is unusable for me unless the remarkably efficient and easy to use "simply search my entire photo library" for specific keywords or headlines etc. is brought back. Have tried various workarounds - and thanks for the suggestions - but they don't work for me at all.

Have asked already but no reply - will PM5 continue to be supported and/or what will the price be for an upgrade fo PM6+?

[Kirk Baker]

Henry,

Yep, PM6 is unusable for me unless the remarkably efficient and easy to use "simply search my entire photo library" for specific keywords or headlines etc. is brought back. Have tried various workarounds - and thanks for the suggestions - but they don't work for me at all.

Have asked already but no reply - will PM5 continue to be supported and/or what will the price be for an upgrade fo PM6+?

Pricing has not been finalized.  There will be an upgrade path from PM5 to Photo Mechanic Plus.  PM5 is nearing the end of its useful life on the macOS platform because it is a 32-bit application and the next macOS release is reported to remove support entirely for 32-bit applications.  PM5 will likely work well on Windows for the foreseeable future.  We will still support PM5 users, just like we do pre-PM5 users.

-Kirk

[ellisphotos]

I have to second this discussion. I used the search box dozens of times a day and now find PM6 nearly useless without it and I don't find the alternative of cmd+F to be the equal. When I use cmd+F, PM6 becomes unresponsive or takes ten minutes to do what the previous search box did in seconds. Don't fix what isn't broken and don't change something until you have the fix. You have been marketing PM as a DAMS system for many years and it's "still coming". Until then I just wasted my money on the upgrade as I have to use PM5 for my workflow.

[Mike Werner]

How I use Find for Keywords

1. In Photo Mechanic 6 navigator, go to a suitable top-level folder. (example “2018”, or “Working”, or even “Pictures” depending on how many you have*)
2. Right-click and select “Open Folder and Subfolders in New Contact Sheet”
   (At this point I might right-click on the Contact Sheet tab and add this combined folder Contact Sheet to my Favorites to get to it quickly later on)
3. Cmd-F opens up the Find window.
4. I uncheck “Filenames” and add a check to “IPTC data”
   For myself, I uncheck every IPTC field except for Keywords. (Actually I did this last time, and I added it to my Snapshot presets with the “lightning bolt” Snapshot button to save this configuration ^.)
5. Then I do a search for the keyword I want.
6. Pressing F2 (on macOS**) filters the Contact Sheet to only show the selected results.

Getting it set up the way I liked involved some trial and error, but once I had the favorites/snapshots set up, it is pretty quick and I definitely prefer the fine-tuned results over what I was getting in Spotlight.  Using that to try to find keywords in xmp sidecar files was a non-starter for me.

Notes:

* My machine can handle Folder/Subfolder Contact Sheets totals with ~10k images pretty briskly.
^ Note that if you type in a search term and then save the snapshot, it will save the search term as well. This is a way to have saved searches
** Depending on your keyboard preferences you might need to use the Fn key to actually get access to the function key functionality. The option is also in the ‘View” menu: View-> Selected

Mick

This is probably an adequate solution if you have a few 100s of photos. I've got 90K+. That takes a hell of a lot of time to open, and even longer to find. It's totally not usable.

Although I bought this PM6, it's not usable (plus all the bugs, which I'm sure will get sorted out eventually). The previous search was a real selling point since you embed the keyword data into the files, making it a great workflow tool.

Now, you're just one of the many.

[Matthew]

Have you tried PM6+? I can search a library of 280,000 files in seconds and the results are far more accurate than anything that was returned with a Spotlight search.

I used to use Spotlight a lot but it's only now I'm realising how much it missed out. I'm finding images I forgot I even had!

[Steveke]

I'm just adding my voice to say that the loss of spotlight search capacity is a serious blow. I am an art historian and museum curator with a huge personal imagebase, and the ability to search across the data with spotlight integrated in earlier versions of PM was essential to my work. I paid for PM6 but will not be using it. I've reverted to PM5. If there are suggestions about how this might be done in PM6 without multiple steps please send a tutorial.

[Sascha]

Spotlight search integration was removed in PM6.  It never worked very well and interfered with the development of the full Catalog features coming in Photo Mechanic Plus.

-Kirk

So I just payed for a new version that is rather useless for me, beacuse you stripped it from functionalities that you hope to sell me again in an upcoming "Plus" Version?