jAlbum/Explore

Revision as of 25 March 2020 23:49 by RobM (Comments | Contribs)

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• List view: Displays multiple fields of data as set in Preferences>List view.

• File name: Displays the actual file names of the items in the explore pane. Clicking on the text just below a selected item will put the text for that item in to edit mode, with the filename and extension selected ready for renaming. Note this mode renames the actual items in your project directories.
• Title: Changes the text displayed below items to titles. A title can be used to change the displayed name of an item in your completed album. For example a file name can not contain certain illegal characters, but they can be used within a title. If no title has been added then the base filename (no extension) is used by default. Note the text color changes to blue for items that have titles applied.
• Comments: Changes the text displayed below items to comments, if no comments has been applied then the file name is displayed as a navigation aid. Unlike titles, comments will not show in an album if there is no entry, that is there is no default value for comments. A comments can include HTML tags to format the text in the rendered album.
  
  Comments show how they look as rendered HTML until you click in a comment field to edit it when it changes to plain text/html code..
  

  if you have previously entered comments but they are not shown go to Settings/Advanced/Metadata and ensure 'jAlbum (Text file)' is checked then press F5 to refresh the display.

  
  

  
• Keywords: Changes the text displayed below items to keywords. If no keyword has been applied then the file name is displayed as a navigation aid. Note the text color changes to green for items that have keywords applied. Multiple keywords are entered by separating them with a comma. If, and how, keywords are displayed is skin dependent, not all skins support them.
  
  Once a keyword has been applied it will show up, as a tag with a green background, at the bottom left of the explore pane. Drag and drop one or many keyword "tags" onto album objects to add. Drag and drop one or more keyword "tags" onto the filter bar (CTRL+F1) to filter on those keywords. If you edit or delete keywords they will be changed/deleted for the objects the changes are applied to but the list of keywords displayed will not be updated until the project is reloaded.

Spell checking

Spell checker is enabled or disabled in Preferences>General>Highlight misspelled word.

When entering text in the above fields, or elsewhere in a skin's setting, if supported by the skin, spelling errors are highlighted by an underscored red wavy line. To look for a suggested alternative spelling select the word and control/right clicking to bring up a contextual menu, select 'Spelling' and select a word from the list. If the word is highlighted but correctly spelt then you can add the word to your own custom word dictionary, control/right click and select 'Add to dictionary'.

The dictionary used for spell checking is based on the language selected under Preferences>General>Language but can be changed by entering an editable field and control/right clicking and then selecting 'Languages' and choosing an alternative to the selected language.

If you have multiple spelling errors or multiple occurrences of a misspelt word you can enter batch correction by pressing F7 (again, whilst in text entry mode).

The incorrect word is shown in red and if there are any suggested replacements they will be listed in the 'Suggestions' field, the first word in the list is shown just below the misspelt/unknown word, if you click on another word in the suggestions list it will replace the suggested word. If the word is not in the list you can enter it just below the incorrectly spelt word and then click 'Add to dictionary'.

You have the options of ignore this word or all occurrences of the word or change this word or all occurrences of the word. There is also the option to edit the dictionary to correct any error within it.

Folder properties pane

This pane shows folder details and, if supported by the selected skin, lets you select a 'theme' image for each folder.

The 'Thumbnail' is the currently selected one for the folder's thumbnail, it can be changed by dragging another thumbnail onto it, that includes dropping a sub-folder itself onto the selectors to the right to use that subfolders thumbnail image. Note that this thumbnail image does not reflect any filters applied, such as a crop

Clicking on the small green icon just above the pane will toggle the visibility of the pane, either collapsed or set to the default width. The two, small triangle icons, just below the green expand/collapse icon, set the width of the pane to one of three sizes. You can drag the pane to increase or decrease its width. Clicking the 'right' pointing triangle will collapse the pane, clicking the left pointing triangle will expand it to whatever width the pane has been set by previously dragging the pane or to the default width if it has not previously been manually resized. Clicking the left triangle again will maximise the pane and increase the size of the folder images - allowing you to focus on the cropping of the thumbnail/theme image(s), hiding the project thumbnails. Clicking the right facing triangle again will reset the pane to the previous state.

The name of the folder is shown to the right of the two resizing triangles, this is not an editable field.

You can enter/edit the folder title and description. Separate folder comments, entered in edit mode and descriptions entered in the folder properties pane, can be effected if supported by the selected skin.

If theme images are not supported the 'Theme image' is disabled, for skins supporting theme image it will default to that used for the folder thumbnail. Some skins will also support separate folder thumbnail and theme images, to change the theme image just drag and drop another image from the current folder. If you want a different thumbnail/theme image than currently available then you can drag it from your OS file system to the thumbnail/theme image placeholder and it will be added as a link, if that is the selected preference action, or copy it to the project and excluded. If the theme image is larger than needed you can adjust the 'crop focus' by clicking on the place holder area and dragging up/down. You can remove the theme image or revert back to the default theme image by right clicking on the theme image and using ‘remove' or 'reset’ from the contextual menu. If supported by the skin there will also be the choice of setting the theme image's cropping, you can select from custom, square, banner and no cropping.

You can see a preview of the cropped region using a couple of sample shapes but it doesn't let you set the crop shape, that is usually controlled by the skin. Cropping of theme images is an albumwide setting, not per folder.

Contextual menus

There are two contextual menus within the explore area, the first is Control/Right clicking in the space between thumbnails and the other Control/Right clicking on a thumbnail or hovering over a thumbnail and clicking on 'More'.

Between thumbnails

This gives keyboard access to open and close the filter and address bars, change the size of thumbnail images from small to large. You can change the label type, toggling between showing file names, titles, comments or keywords. Excluded items can be hidden or shown, item ordering can be changed - see 'Ordering files in each folder' below, folders and web pages added and the window refreshed (F5). The slide show can be started and the currently selected item can be edited. There is also the Organise setting.

• Paste Pastes any supported object that is on the clipboard, for example an image from your OS or another jAlbum project or files and folders 'cut' from within the project - to make moving items easy. When copying folders, the full folder contents, not just supported jAlbum files will be copied. When an object, within a folder, is pasted that has the same name as an existing object it will be pasted with the name modified, adding ' - copy' and if further objects are pasted then a ‘(n)’ where n is a number will be added. When objects are copied from elsewhere, that have the same filename as an existing object in the current folder,
  
  you will be prompted to decide whether you should 'keep both, don't replace, stop or replace'. If 'keep both' is selected then the new item will be pasted with ' -n' appended to the filename.

• Select all Select all items in the currently displayed folder.
• Review Enters review mode allowing you to examine larger versions of your images and change the star rating (keys 0 to 5) and labels (keys 6 to 9 and F); mark an item as the folder image (key T) or remove the image from your project. The H key toggles the visibility of the star rating and flags. Use the ESC key to exit review mode. See Review Mode for more details.

• Address bar Toggles the visibility of the address bar.

• Filter bar Toggles the visibility of the filter bar.

• Large thumbnails Toggles between large and standard sized thumbnails.

• Label type Selects the type of information to be displayed for each item. You can show information for filename, title, comments or keywords.

• Hide excluded Toggles the visibility of items marked as excluded.

• Organise Lets you arrange items in the current folder. You can choose from:

Wrap in folder - to gather all items and place them in a folder.

Flatten - takes the contents of subfolders and places them at the current level.

Group alphabetically - places items in subfolders, each subfolder being named A to Z.

Group by date - places items in subfolders, each subfolder being named by the selected date format.

Group by place - places items in subfolders, each subfolder being named by the selected location criteria.

Group by keyword - places items in subfolders, each subfolder being named after the first keyword found for each item.

• Order by Lets you arrange items in the current folder. You can choose from:

Name

Last modified date

Camera date

Added date

Rating

Title

Comment

Type

Custom

According to jAlbum settings

Reverse

Shuffle

• Order folders by Lets you arrange items in the current folder when the “Order by” is not set to "Custom" and the "Directories first" checkbox is checked. Otherwise use the structure function or drag and drop to re-arrange folders!

• New page Lets you add further content to your projects. Web location is always available, other items are skin dependant, such as about and contact web pages.

• New folder Lets you arrange add an empty folder.

• Update Updates the contents of the currently displayed folder.

• Edit Enter edit mode, the item selected as the folder thumbnail will be selected.

On thumbnails

• Open Opens the selected item or if more than one is selected then the last to be selected. Hold down Alt/Opt to open the item in your selected external application.
• Edit Opens the item for editing, if the item is a page template (.htt file) then it opens the code in jAlbum's TextPad.
• Cut Marks the selected item(s) for moving to a new location via 'cut and paste'. Navigate to where you want to move the item(s) to and then right-click and select 'Paste'. If you do not perform a paste operation the file(s) will remain where in place.
• Copy Copies the selected item(s).
• Show in file system: Highlights the selected item in a window on your computer.
• Invert selection: Deselects all selected items and selects all those that were unselected.
• Review: Opens the items within the currently viewed folder in the slide show viewer, items in subfolders are not shown. If a set of images are selected then only those images will be shown.
• Set area tags: Display and edit face regions. Press the button labeled ‘Detect faces’, to try to automatically detect faces. If any faces are missed you can click and drag around each face to create a tag area. Tag areas can be named and given a description. The ‘Type’ is set to ‘Face’, changing it will result in a warning, as it might cause problems with other recognition software, you can however tag other areas or objects. To delete a tag use CMD/CNTRL+ backspace or control-click on it and select 'Delete tag;

• Adjust camera date…: Opens a new window with controls to set the camera date, or 'date taken'. The original date is shown, so you can double check before clicking OK. When multiple images are selected it allows you to adjust their date/times by the same amount or set them to the same date and time. For example, if you have changed time zones but forgot to reset the camera date then you can add/subtract the number of hours it is out by.
• Set crop focus: For some skins that use cropped thumbnails and/or theme images, such as Tiger & Turtle, this allows you to adjust the area of an image that will be used for the thumbnail and/or theme image. See this blog for more information. There is a Folder properties panel which works in conjunction with this crop focus setting. Position adjustments in one will be reflected in the other.

• Comment/Title/Keyword Select from Clear, copy from or paste to the text for the selected item(s) current attribute - comment, title or keyword.
• List metadata: Opens a window for each image selected that displays all of the metadata for each image. As well as the standard camera data, such as ISO and F-number there is also embedded jpeg, xmp and iptc data.
• Set external editor (Preview): Attempts to open the selected file in your chosen external editor. To choose a different application choose 'More' then hold down ALT/Opt then select 'Set external editor'. A new File chooser will appear that will let you choose a different application.

• Use as folder thumbnail: Use the selected image as the thumbnail for the current folder.
• Organise: The Organise setting, it can assist you in organizing your files into folders in various powerful ways.

• Image tools: This menu allows you to easily apply images tools added in Edit view mode to multiple images. You can select copy, paste or remove from the submenu. Copy will copy all of the image tool settings applied to the selected image, such as crop, rotation, grayscale effect etc.

• Effects: Displays the currently applied global image effects (See Settings/Effects) and allows exclusion of those global effects for the selected image(s). To clear effects applied to individual images in edit mode you need to select the individual image and re-enter edit mode.

• Exclude: Excludes the selected items from the generated album.
• Hide: This can only be applied to folders, it includes the folder in the album but does not create any links to it. Visitors must therefore know of its existence to manually navigate to it.
• Include original: This lets you include selected originals within your album even if you do not have 'link to originals', directly or via scaled images, selected in Settings/Pages. Note that the originals are added but that they are not linked to directly from thumbnails, they are linked via the slide page. Don't forget to ensure copy originals is checked on Settings/Pages or that the original image is accessible from the album's location.
• Use original: Let's you use an original file as "closeup image" instead of a scaled/processed image. This is ideal if using animated GIF images within slide pages as GIF images are normally converted to PNG or JPEG format by jAlbum.
• Rating:
  
  Rate the selected image(s) from zero, unrated, to five stars.

• Flag:
  
  Set the flag status of the selected image(s). Flag has colours/values of None, Red/Select, Yellow/Second, Blue/Review and Green/Approved.

• Print...: Prints a’contact print sheet’ of the selected images. The images are printed on a grid, the size of the grid is selected in a drop down menu. There are also options to include file names, image dimensions and comments for each image.
• Save copy as: Save a copy of the selected item outside of the current project. There is no duplicate file option but you can use this to save the selected item under another name, within the current folder or add it to a different folder.
• Convert link to copy: This will change a link to a file into a copy of that file, the original file must be accessible at the time of conversion. It will also recursively process files in any selected folders.
• Delete: If added as a link only the link is deleted, otherwise the actual file will be deleted. A warning dialog will appear before deleting actual files as they are completely removed, not sent to the trash!
• Rename/'Rename items: Changes the file name of the selected item. If more than one item is selected then you can select from one of four ways of renaming items, see Batch Rename for details.
• Do not re-encode: For videos only; do not re-encode this video, use the original file instead.

Ordering files in each folder

jAlbum sets the file ordering for individual folders to "custom" if you do any of these things: Reorder images with drag and drop (like before) Add images using the add button Add images using drag and drop Create new folders and new pages

Selecting files

To make navigating through your project files easier you can adjust the size of the thumbnails. Clicking on the left icon will set the thumbnails to small (60%) and the right icon to normal (100%). When the thumbnails are reduced below the small size any displayed text will be hidden. See the two explore views above for how the thumbnails change.

You can select one or more images or folders. This can be helpful if you want an action to apply to more than one image or folder, for example exclude more than one image or folder. You can select and deselect several images in different ways.

If you want to select many images in a row you can hold shift while clicking on the images. Start by marking the first image without holding shift and then select the last image while holding shift. All images in between will be selected. Green squares illustrates that the images is selected.

If you want to deselect several images in a row that is also possible when using the keyboard keys. This works the same as selecting images in a row but reversed. You can only deselect the image starting from the end. Hold shift and click on the last image you want selected, all images after that image will be deselected. Dashed green rectangles illustrates that the images has been deselected.

To select multiple images that are not in a row you can instead use cmd (on mac) or ctrl (on Windows). Just hold the key while clicking on the images you want to select or deselect.

You can deselect random images in the same way. Hold cmd (on mac) or ctrl (on Windows) and click on the images you want to deselect.

You can also select images by holding the mouse and drag a square over the images you want to select. See screenshot to the right.

You can actually deselect images in the same way. Hold the mouse and hold Shift or cmd/ctrl (both works the same) and drag a square over the images you want to deselect.

Album objects may be copied between, and within, projects using the copy/paste menu. Project files and folders can also be dragged from jAlbum to any other application.

Album objects can be cut and pasted using CMD/Cntrl + X and CMD/Cntrl + V. The object(s) will be pasted close to the mouse pointer location. This makes it easier to move objects from deeply nested subfolders to any other folder, when cut the object will be greyed out - see 'Clock.jpg' right. When the image is pasted the original will be removed. You can use CMD/Cntrl + Z to undo a cut and paste operation. If you cut an object but do not paste it before closing the project the object will remain in its original location.