PM6 Search my Mac

[zhpenn]

Although no big performance difference from pm5 to pm6,  please at least keep the same function on PM5 please, taking away functions and hoping to sell again in a subscribing version is not very good.

[Kirk Baker]

Although no big performance difference from pm5 to pm6,  please at least keep the same function on PM5 please, taking away functions and hoping to sell again in a subscribing version is not very good.

We don't sell subscription-based software.

-Kirk

[zhpenn]

Oh that sounds good, but about Pm plus and pm6, is plus is the upgrade version of the pm6 or they have difference functions? thanks

[Kirk Baker]

Oh that sounds good, but about Pm plus and pm6, is plus is the upgrade version of the pm6 or they have difference functions? thanks

The Plus version includes the Cataloging features and has a different price point from PM6.  Anyone can upgrade to the Plus version (when it is released) for the difference in price between the two products.

-Kirk

[zhpenn]

thanks a lot, if I understand right, pm plus include all pm6 function also has extra catalog function.

[Hayo Baan]

thanks a lot, if I understand right, pm plus include all pm6 function also has extra catalog function.

That is correct

[SAMouzon]

Hi I'm really struggling to find the Search my Mac, spotlight search, I can't work out how to configure the PM6 toolbar so whereby I can see it, can somebody point me in the right direction please.

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.

The configurable toolbar in the Contact Sheet window was also removed in PM6.

-Kirk

I implore you to bring back Search my Mac! I’ve been a loyal and happy customer for a decade, and have blogged about you and written about you in one of my books. I anxiously anticipated Photo Mechanic 6, but when I purchased the upgrade a few weeks ago, one of the real killer capabilities it always had was taken away: Search my Mac. I called and complained bitterly, but didn’t get the name of who I spoke to, but it doesn’t really matter. When asked why a seriously good feature was taken away, they said “it’s not available for Windows, so we wanted them to be parallel. Seriously??? You really wanted to dumb it down to Windows standards? C’mon!

Our last conversation was on instructions for downgrading to 5, which I currently use. I didn’t get a refund because I was hoping you might do the right thing and add it back in, at which point I’d go back to 6 and likely keep promoting you for another decade! And I hope you still do.

Otherwise, I suspect I need to start looking around for another photo manager, which I really hate to do. But when I have to do things like move from iWeb to Sandvox years ago, I tend to be quite vocal about the search and why I’m moving… blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook to get input on the best options, and also to chronicle my process in case it helps someone else. That is in no means a threat… that’s just how I roll.

Also FWIW, if there’s any need for beta testing Search my Mac in 6 for some reason, I’ve been a beta tester for several apps over the years, most notably PowerCADD and WildTools, where I’ve been beta testing since the mid-1990s. So if I can help in that regard, I’d be delighted to do so.

Please reconsider and do the right thing on this! I and all your Mac customers will be really grateful. Thanks so much in advance!

[Henry Gilbey]

Hi I'm really struggling to find the Search my Mac, spotlight search, I can't work out how to configure the PM6 toolbar so whereby I can see it, can somebody point me in the right direction please.

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.

The configurable toolbar in the Contact Sheet window was also removed in PM6.

-Kirk

I implore you to bring back Search my Mac! I’ve been a loyal and happy customer for a decade, and have blogged about you and written about you in one of my books. I anxiously anticipated Photo Mechanic 6, but when I purchased the upgrade a few weeks ago, one of the real killer capabilities it always had was taken away: Search my Mac. I called and complained bitterly, but didn’t get the name of who I spoke to, but it doesn’t really matter. When asked why a seriously good feature was taken away, they said “it’s not available for Windows, so we wanted them to be parallel. Seriously??? You really wanted to dumb it down to Windows standards? C’mon!

Our last conversation was on instructions for downgrading to 5, which I currently use. I didn’t get a refund because I was hoping you might do the right thing and add it back in, at which point I’d go back to 6 and likely keep promoting you for another decade! And I hope you still do.

Otherwise, I suspect I need to start looking around for another photo manager, which I really hate to do. But when I have to do things like move from iWeb to Sandvox years ago, I tend to be quite vocal about the search and why I’m moving… blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook to get input on the best options, and also to chronicle my process in case it helps someone else. That is in no means a threat… that’s just how I roll.

Also FWIW, if there’s any need for beta testing Search my Mac in 6 for some reason, I’ve been a beta tester for several apps over the years, most notably PowerCADD and WildTools, where I’ve been beta testing since the mid-1990s. So if I can help in that regard, I’d be delighted to do so.

Please reconsider and do the right thing on this! I and all your Mac customers will be really grateful. Thanks so much in advance!

Can I second this? PM6 is completely useless to me without the simple search facilities that PM5 has, and which I have come to depend on for how I work.

I have used PM as an integral part of my photography workflow for years now and to be honest it makes me angry that something so simple and useful has been left off the "upgrade". I feel that I am being forced to go and find a similar type of software when all I really want to do is stick with PM for ever and ever...............

But I can't.

And I am not prepared to buy PM6 to then get access to the Plus Beta I think it is to then see if I can work with that piece of software and how I search my image library. I do know that I don't want to be forced to create catalogues and so on because I have an image filing system that works perfectly and 99% of my image library searches are done via keywords and headlines and so on.

Do people like me need to go and find an alternative to PM, or do we trust that the Plus version is going to solve the problems?

It's beyond me why the search options were not included with PM6 - the most perfect software I have ever worked with will now be redundant as and when the new OS on the Macs comes in I believe. 

[SAMouzon]

Hi I'm really struggling to find the Search my Mac, spotlight search, I can't work out how to configure the PM6 toolbar so whereby I can see it, can somebody point me in the right direction please.

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.

The configurable toolbar in the Contact Sheet window was also removed in PM6.

-Kirk

I implore you to bring back Search my Mac! I’ve been a loyal and happy customer for a decade, and have blogged about you and written about you in one of my books. I anxiously anticipated Photo Mechanic 6, but when I purchased the upgrade a few weeks ago, one of the real killer capabilities it always had was taken away: Search my Mac. I called and complained bitterly, but didn’t get the name of who I spoke to, but it doesn’t really matter. When asked why a seriously good feature was taken away, they said “it’s not available for Windows, so we wanted them to be parallel. Seriously??? You really wanted to dumb it down to Windows standards? C’mon!

Our last conversation was on instructions for downgrading to 5, which I currently use. I didn’t get a refund because I was hoping you might do the right thing and add it back in, at which point I’d go back to 6 and likely keep promoting you for another decade! And I hope you still do.

Otherwise, I suspect I need to start looking around for another photo manager, which I really hate to do. But when I have to do things like move from iWeb to Sandvox years ago, I tend to be quite vocal about the search and why I’m moving… blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook to get input on the best options, and also to chronicle my process in case it helps someone else. That is in no means a threat… that’s just how I roll.

Also FWIW, if there’s any need for beta testing Search my Mac in 6 for some reason, I’ve been a beta tester for several apps over the years, most notably PowerCADD and WildTools, where I’ve been beta testing since the mid-1990s. So if I can help in that regard, I’d be delighted to do so.

Please reconsider and do the right thing on this! I and all your Mac customers will be really grateful. Thanks so much in advance!

Kirk, just curious if you've given this any more thought? My offer to beta test still stands... this is a serious big deal, and I'd love to see you make it work!

[Kirk Baker]

Hi I'm really struggling to find the Search my Mac, spotlight search, I can't work out how to configure the PM6 toolbar so whereby I can see it, can somebody point me in the right direction please.

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.

The configurable toolbar in the Contact Sheet window was also removed in PM6.

-Kirk

I implore you to bring back Search my Mac! I’ve been a loyal and happy customer for a decade, and have blogged about you and written about you in one of my books. I anxiously anticipated Photo Mechanic 6, but when I purchased the upgrade a few weeks ago, one of the real killer capabilities it always had was taken away: Search my Mac. I called and complained bitterly, but didn’t get the name of who I spoke to, but it doesn’t really matter. When asked why a seriously good feature was taken away, they said “it’s not available for Windows, so we wanted them to be parallel. Seriously??? You really wanted to dumb it down to Windows standards? C’mon!

Our last conversation was on instructions for downgrading to 5, which I currently use. I didn’t get a refund because I was hoping you might do the right thing and add it back in, at which point I’d go back to 6 and likely keep promoting you for another decade! And I hope you still do.

Otherwise, I suspect I need to start looking around for another photo manager, which I really hate to do. But when I have to do things like move from iWeb to Sandvox years ago, I tend to be quite vocal about the search and why I’m moving… blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook to get input on the best options, and also to chronicle my process in case it helps someone else. That is in no means a threat… that’s just how I roll.

Also FWIW, if there’s any need for beta testing Search my Mac in 6 for some reason, I’ve been a beta tester for several apps over the years, most notably PowerCADD and WildTools, where I’ve been beta testing since the mid-1990s. So if I can help in that regard, I’d be delighted to do so.

Please reconsider and do the right thing on this! I and all your Mac customers will be really grateful. Thanks so much in advance!

Kirk, just curious if you've given this any more thought? My offer to beta test still stands... this is a serious big deal, and I'd love to see you make it work!

I actually have given it a lot of thought.  If it were trivial to get the old Spotlight search to play nice with the multitude of changes to PM's code base since it was removed then I'd have done it by now.  But it's not.  PM+ is the direction that we're moving and the capabilities that it has makes Spotlight searches pale in comparison and I need to spend time working on PM+ and not working on trying to resurrect an old system that only really worked well for JPEGs.

I appreciate your offer to test the restoration of the Spotlight integration.

-Kirk

[SAMouzon]

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!

Matthew, how do you do this? I've spent the last hour with Plus and its docs and don't see a way to do it yet. Thanks so much in advance!

[SAMouzon]

Hi I'm really struggling to find the Search my Mac, spotlight search, I can't work out how to configure the PM6 toolbar so whereby I can see it, can somebody point me in the right direction please.

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.

The configurable toolbar in the Contact Sheet window was also removed in PM6.

-Kirk

I implore you to bring back Search my Mac! I’ve been a loyal and happy customer for a decade, and have blogged about you and written about you in one of my books. I anxiously anticipated Photo Mechanic 6, but when I purchased the upgrade a few weeks ago, one of the real killer capabilities it always had was taken away: Search my Mac. I called and complained bitterly, but didn’t get the name of who I spoke to, but it doesn’t really matter. When asked why a seriously good feature was taken away, they said “it’s not available for Windows, so we wanted them to be parallel. Seriously??? You really wanted to dumb it down to Windows standards? C’mon!

Our last conversation was on instructions for downgrading to 5, which I currently use. I didn’t get a refund because I was hoping you might do the right thing and add it back in, at which point I’d go back to 6 and likely keep promoting you for another decade! And I hope you still do.

Otherwise, I suspect I need to start looking around for another photo manager, which I really hate to do. But when I have to do things like move from iWeb to Sandvox years ago, I tend to be quite vocal about the search and why I’m moving… blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook to get input on the best options, and also to chronicle my process in case it helps someone else. That is in no means a threat… that’s just how I roll.

Also FWIW, if there’s any need for beta testing Search my Mac in 6 for some reason, I’ve been a beta tester for several apps over the years, most notably PowerCADD and WildTools, where I’ve been beta testing since the mid-1990s. So if I can help in that regard, I’d be delighted to do so.

Please reconsider and do the right thing on this! I and all your Mac customers will be really grateful. Thanks so much in advance!

Kirk, just curious if you've given this any more thought? My offer to beta test still stands... this is a serious big deal, and I'd love to see you make it work!

I actually have given it a lot of thought.  If it were trivial to get the old Spotlight search to play nice with the multitude of changes to PM's code base since it was removed then I'd have done it by now.  But it's not.  PM+ is the direction that we're moving and the capabilities that it has makes Spotlight searches pale in comparison and I need to spend time working on PM+ and not working on trying to resurrect an old system that only really worked well for JPEGs.

I appreciate your offer to test the restoration of the Spotlight integration.

-Kirk

Kirk, I enquired about the missing Search My Mac box a few days ago and you said "It's right here where it always has been since the first beta." When I saw that message this morning, I excitedly reactivated 6, downloaded Plus, and took it for a spin, hoping you'd put back the Spotlight search capabilities. After an hour or so with Plus and the documentation, it seems that's not so. I really want to make the new catalog system work, because PM5 is one of three mission-critical apps for which I'm now passing on upgrading to Catalina. If all my assumptions so far are correct and I'm not just missing something obvious, I have a few questions:

1. In order to get the same functionality as 5 has with Search My Mac, I assume I have to catalog my entire image library, right? I have somewhere close to 300,000 images in the main library, FWIW.

2. If that assumption is correct, then when things change in the library (almost daily) do I have to recatalog the entire library, or does Plus reindex automatically in the background like Spotlight does?

3. The latest Plus docs go over some basics near the end, but is there a document somewhere that lays out the big picture of your design for Plus? As you know, the biggest set of questions when upgrading center around "how do I do what I did before."

I understand and appreciate the desire and need to keep Plus discussion on its own board in the Forum; if I can get past the early basics where threading to previous conversation makes sense, I'll move further conversation over there.

[Kirk Baker]

Kirk, I enquired about the missing Search My Mac box a few days ago and you said "It's right here where it always has been since the first beta." When I saw that message this morning, I excitedly reactivated 6, downloaded Plus, and took it for a spin, hoping you'd put back the Spotlight search capabilities. After an hour or so with Plus and the documentation, it seems that's not so.

Spotlight integration is not making a return to Photo Mechanic.

I really want to make the new catalog system work, because PM5 is one of three mission-critical apps for which I'm now passing on upgrading to Catalina. If all my assumptions so far are correct and I'm not just missing something obvious, I have a few questions:

1. In order to get the same functionality as 5 has with Search My Mac, I assume I have to catalog my entire image library, right? I have somewhere close to 300,000 images in the main library, FWIW.

Yes.  Though you'll get a lot more functionality and capability than the Spotlight integration ever provided.

300k images should be no problem for Photo Mechanic Plus.  Our test data set is one million images in a single catalog and the performance is great.

2. If that assumption is correct, then when things change in the library (almost daily) do I have to recatalog the entire library, or does Plus reindex automatically in the background like Spotlight does?

As long as the metadata changes are done within PM, you need do nothing to keep things up to date.  If you make changes outside of PM that the catalog is aware of then simply browsing the folder containing the changed images will keep things up to date.  If you add/remove files outside of PM then rescanning will be needed.

3. The latest Plus docs go over some basics near the end, but is there a document somewhere that lays out the big picture of your design for Plus?

No.

As you know, the biggest set of questions when upgrading center around "how do I do what I did before."

The Search field in the Organizer is very powerful and supports a rich query language that far exceeds what Spotlight can do.  But you may find that using the Browse tree or the Filter system to be a better way to find the images you're looking for.  The Filter system is quite powerful and is getting more powerful as we continue to develop the product.

I understand and appreciate the desire and need to keep Plus discussion on its own board in the Forum; if I can get past the early basics where threading to previous conversation makes sense, I'll move further conversation over there.

Yes, please do.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[sigfredo]

Hi,

It's fair to say Thank You for the search feature in new build version!

I don't know if it is working 100%, but for me, as a photojournalist, it's perfect for search, copy and paste metadata

Thanks again!

[Steven Georges]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  {yes, I sound like Gomer Pyle}
For putting Spotlight search back in PM 6.

I would have been happy to just keep using PM 5, but you never made that 64bit.
For the last few months, I have NOT been able to use my new 16-inch MacBook Pro that I spent $5,000 on because not being able to search my Mac for photos was not an option. I keep 30,000 plus captioned photos on my mac with new ones being added each day and it is critical to my work that I am able to search for and locate photos in a snap.  (The new laptop doesn't work with 32-bit programs, It came with Catalina)
I've been using Photo Mechanic full time for over 20 years, and one of the things I was always most impressed with Camera Bits was the way you listened to your customers. You can see it in your software.

If you ever have the itch to not show the Spotlight search by default again, that would be okay, just allow me to turn it back on in the preferences. I won't mind taking the extra step.
Again, thank you!!!