Hello Kirk and everyone.
I too am trying out the demo due to reading many positive reviews and blogs. Also, I'm in the Navy and many Navy photogs swear by this software. In fact, what led me to seek out a piece of software like this is that I'm looking for a new solution for my office -- the U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs Office.
So far, I like everything I see, except for this issue.
I recognize this thread is a little old, but I do have a perspective that I think directly fits with this post.
When I think of the need to add a sequencial number to a filename, the need obviously exists to avoid having multiple files with the same name.
Since it seems that many people are renaming their images with some variation of the date, then the need to add a sequence of numbers to filenames only exists if all the images come from the same date.
Case in point, if I'm ingesting two images taken on different dates, then renaming one to JANUARY-01-2008-0001.jpg and the other JANUARY-05-2008-0002.jpg is wholly unnecessary. The date would suffice.
However, four images from two different dates would need a sequencial number. What photo mechanic offers is JANUARY-01-2008-0001.jpg, JANUARY-01-2008-0002.jpg, JANUARY-05-2008-0003.jpg, and JANUARY-05-2008-0004.jpg.
But that could lead to confusion. If my January-05 photos were in their own folder, then someone might think I'm missing JANUARY-05-2008-0001.jpg and JANUARY-05-2008-0002.jpg.
So if I happen to have two days worth of photos on my card, then I can't benefit at all from the sequencing feature offered by Photo Mechanic. In fact, I can't meet Navy regulations on renaming imagery without doing some manual work. We're supposed to use the date and then a sequential number, starting with 001.
Don't get me wrong -- I do love what I have seen so far from Photo Mechanic. I just wanted to convey how important this feature can be.
Thank you for providing this great software.
Matthew
Phil,
I'm using the demo version of PM and so far it does everything I want it to, including sorting photos by date into different folder. I have set up PM to create folders based on YYYY/MM/DD and it does that exactly the way I want it to.
However, I can't seem to get the following to work:
If I am ingesting photos with multiple creation dates, I want {seqn} to reset back to 0001 each time the image date changes. So far, I have found that {seqn} increments over the entire range of photos being imported, with the result that for dates after the creation date of the first photo, the lowest number seqn in the filename is more than 0001.
There is currently no way to do that.
I have over a year of digital photos to import. Can you suggest a workaround until such time as this feature is implemented.
In a way, I'm surprised that this feature doesn't exist. Before doing the demo download, I read a whole bunch of reviews of PM, and they were universally positive. Many were very enthusiastic. I wonder why no one raised this issue in any of the reviews. Like the previous poster, I would also like to see this feature implemented. Please pass this along to the product manager.
You need to understand that a feature like this would have problems. If you have a folder full of images whose dates are all different, then the sequence number would be resetting all of the time, which is not likely what you want.
Most people who use PM use the Ingest feature to pull their images off of their card shortly after shooting. They don't point PM at a set of folders on their hard drive and Ingest them again. A non-resetting sequence number works fine for this.
There is no need to Ingest your images again if the images are already on your system. PM will browse them directly without needing to copy them somewhere else.
Maybe if you explain what it is that you are ultimately trying to accomplish, I may be of assistance.
-Kirk