PhotOrganize

Summary of the help

How to use

You can make the most important choices via the ribbon at the top of the screen. Hold the mouse over a button for a moment to read the function of the tooltip. As soon as one or more photos are on the screen, a menu can be opened in the photo screen via the right mouse button with almost all the choices that are also in the ribbon. In the right mouse button menu, the most frequently made choices are at the top, the other choices are roughly in the same order as in the tabs of the ribbon.

In the ribbon are 3 tabs with choices, Open/Show to open a folder with photos and show them, Adjust for some editing functions and Edit for the renaming functions.

If you press and release the Alt key you will see the tab menus and the general choices shortcuts, for example you can press the O for the Open/Show Tab. After this, the hotkey choices within this tab appear above all options.

Note: on some PC's the window needs to be enlarged a little bit to show the content of the ribbon.

There are 2 default options on a ribbon in a right mouse button menu. Right-click on the Ribbon or Quick Access Toolbar

1 To minimize or maximize the ribbon:

• Choose Minimize the Ribbon from the right mouse button menu. This menu choice depends on your Windows language, not the PhotOrganize language
The ribbon is minimized or maximized.

• Or: Double-click the name of an active tab.

2 Right mouse menu selection, Show Quick Access Toolbar above / below the ribbon: the Quick Access Toolbar (containing the Help and Photo Info buttons) moves up / below the toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar (top of the screen) contains a button to display this help information and The Photo Info button, which displays a window with details of a selected photo. Under the arrow key below it you find access to Options (these are not yet available in this program) and the option to exit the program. Next to this are the tabs of the ribbon and below them the choices of the selected tab.

The bar between the ribbon and the displayed photos shows boxes with ISO / focal length and shutter speed of the selected photo and shows whether a photo has GPS info or a thumbnail in the photo. You can also enlarge or reduce the thumbnail images with the Zoom drag bar and search / filter by (part of) the name. In the image, a photo has been selected with an ISO of 64, a focal length of 4.6, a shutter speed of 1/400. There is no GPS information available (a cross behind the map icon), but a it does contain a thumbnail (a V behind the thumbnail symbol). Both with the GPS icon and the V box behind it, descriptions of the exact location can be retrieved which help you to create the photo's subject, provided of course that GPS information is available. See the Edit tab.

 

Tab Open/Show

To open a photo selection

First, select a folder that contains the images to be processed. This can be done by clicking the button Open from the tab Open/Show. Select a folder with .jpg files (check the extensions of the photo’s stored, usually .jpg) or select otherwise the option Select folder with jpeg files. Select the path from the dialog box. The path can also be typed in directly in the corresponding box. For that you may need to change the extension type JPG or JPEG; the current default shows blue. 
Open the folder by pressing Show next series. The last selected folder and the choice JPG or JPEG will be stored in the registry and is prefilled at startup.

By default photo's 1-100 are displayed, this can be changed any time. Via the MAX button the maximum number of photos in the folder is pre-filled ; via the 5 button (maximum) 5 photos will be displayed.

Choosing a large number of pictures means building the previews takes longer, especially if the picture does not have a standard 'thumbnail' like some smartphone photos. If the thumbnail is missing, PhotOrganize creates a thumbnail. By clicking the Save missing thumbnails button (bottom right of the ribbon) -colored blue if the option is selected- these thumbnails are saved in a folder called Thumbnails under the folder with photos. Next time photos will be read/displayed much faster. Each thumbnail has the same name as the photo and is approximately 3% of the size of the original photo. If the word Busy, shown in red, changes back to Show photo and the progress bar is full, all photos are displayed. Click the view button (= button with the arrow Show next series) to display the selected number of photos from the selected folder. During the renaming of the photos, displayed photos are continuously added up until the maximum number selected (the photos that are renamed move to the Done folder, a sub-directory under the source photos folder), as long as there are photos to be renamed left in the folder. In the up to box, choose a number that is equal to or higher than the number of photos in the folder to display everything.

Once the word Busy, shown in red, changes into Show picture (the progress bar is filled), the requested selection is displayed. Click the display button (= arrow button behind that number with tooltip Show next series) to display the selected number of photos in the selected folder. During renaming of the photos, the number of displayed pictures are supplemented until the selected number (the photos renamed will be moved to the folder Done, a subdirectory below where the source photos are stored), as long as there are still photos left in that folder to be renamed. In the up to box (which is up to including) enter a number equal or greater than the number of images in the folder to display everything again.

Photo's will show with the date and time they were taken plus the current name (which may include date and time if already renamed). Note that portrait photo's may display landscape which may not be the actual orientation: double click on such a photo to see the actual orientation.

Now select one or more photos (with Ctrl and / or Shift simultaneously with one mouse click or space bar you select multiple photos). The button Select all (or Ctrl A) selects all the pictures in the window (even those not visible in the screen). The selected photos display in a red border.

Show photos

Use the buttons at the upper right in the tab Open/Show (or via right mouse button) to show photos. With the button View selection the selected photo’s are displayed. By default this is done in full screen with no buttons etc. on the screen. Press Esc to stop this view.

Via the option View selection as slide show, the next picture is automatically displayed. Immediately after making this choice the number of seconds waiting time between 2 photos can be specified. With this choice it remains possible to manually view the photos further or back with the cursor keys left / right. The program will then display the next after the chosen number of seconds. The slideshow ends when Esc is pressed.

With the option View photos from database an existing database file (.txt file) can be opened and pictures can be shown from this selection. If the images have been stored using a different drive / directory than they are now to be displayed from, the program asks their current location and uses that (this happens as often as there are different locations in the database). The program asks whether the selection from the database should be viewed on (date)order (this is equivalent to alphabetical display at yyyymmdd hhmmss). If not, then the input sequence as stored in the database will be used (which can vary). Note that you do not need to first display all photo’s to show all photo’s from a database. Hence this option works regardless of the current displayed photo selection.

Immediately after making this choice the first image of the selection in the database will be displayed. If viewing is stopped (using Esc) you will see the photos from the selection in the window. This way, photos from the database can be selected easily, or a portion of the selection can be selected and viewed (via Show selection). Click again on Show next series to see all the photos in the folder again (depending on the chosen number of photos).

Photo info

By choosing Photo info you get a screen with key EXIF information, the fields that are stored in a picture: size (pixels), brand and model of the camera, date and time the picture was taken, aperture, focal length, ISO speed, exposure time, exposure compensation, white balance mode, color representation and height + GPS coordinates (only possible with photos taken with a device with GPS). As long as you keep this window the screen content will show the information of the selected photo. ISO speed, focal length and exposure time are also displayed in a blue field at the top of the screen. Not all cameras store all the information, the information will remain empty or the error EXIF property can not be found appears.

The Photo Info button can always be selected from the quick menu at the top of the screen.

Show location on map

Choose Show on map. Only if GPS information is stored during making the picture (usually for pictures from a smartphone) PhotOrganize opens, depending on the user's choice, Google Maps, Bing Maps or OpenStreetMaps in your browser and displays the location where the photo was taken. If this information is not available then a message pops up.

 

Tab Adjust

Adapt time

This option comes in handy if e.g. the time zone of the camera has not been adapted to a new time zone after you started making pictures. The time will be adapted without the program touching any of the other bytes of the photo file.

Enter a number of minutes in the field below Add (+/-) minutes, for example 60 = set the time one hour later, -120 = set the time 2 hours earlier and click the button Adapt time (right below the button Add (+/-) minutes) or the right mouse option. The photo itself or the date last modified remains unchanged. Should you have chosen an incorrect number of minutes then repeat the choice with the opposite sign (ie -60 and +120 in the example). Reselect the arrow button Show next series from the Open/Show tab to redisplay the  photo's showing the adapted time thumbnail's tooltip.

Rotate photos

Choose the number of degrees, and choose the arrow below the button or the right mouse option Turn Photo. Choose any of the buttons Turn 90°, Turn 180° or Turn 270°. Known issue is that the thumbnail orientation does not change, but it does in full view using this information. Modern cameras should add the correct orientation information. An incorrect entry can be restored by turning again several times.

Insert GPS

If you have photos for which no GPS location has been inserted (or it is incorrect), you can still insert them. To do this, you must choose the decimal representation with a . as a decimal separator, e.g. 51.897122, 4.481485 for Rotterdam Maashaven. Pay attention. Unlike the other changes in PhotOrganize, the file is recreated. The properties / quality remain basically the same and a difference with the original photo is not immediately visible but the file size can change; in our tests it took about 20% due to a different compression technique. For that reason, the photo with GPS is saved in the GPS folder under the current (usually Done) folder. If you are satisfied with the result, move with e.g. Windows Explorer, the photo provided with GPS coordinates up 1 level again and then overwrite the photo that has been edited. 

How do I get GPS coordinates?

There are various options for this, for example:

Google Maps https://www.google.nl/maps: click on a location with the left mouse button or first with the right mouse button, then from the menu "What is here?". In the box that appears you can click on one of the coordinates. These will then appear on the left of the screen and you can copy them. Use the decimal coordinates, not those in hours / minutes / seconds).

Bing https://www.bing.com/map: right click on a location, the coordinates appear at the bottom of the menu and you can copy them with Copy, below.

Open Street Maps https://www.openstreetmap.org/: click with the right mouse button on a location, then from the menu "Show address". The coordinates will then appear on the left of the screen and you can copy them.

If the coordinates themselves contain a comma, change it to a period first. So e.g. : 51.897122, 4.481485 should be entered as: 51.897122, 4.481485 

 

Edit photos (tab Edit)

Adapt name

PhotOrganize creates as name of the photo yyyymmdd hhmmss (= the saved date / time that the photo was taken) plus the subject chosen by the user, e.g. 20131229 183918 Mall of Dubai .JPG. Multiple photos on the same second will have a sequential number added to the name.

Use GPS

If your photos have GPS coordinates (e.g. if they were taken with a smartphone), you can request location details via PhotOrganize. This is called Reverse geocoding. Both with the GPS icon and the V box behind it:

descriptions of the exact location can be retrieved to help you name the photo, provided GPS information is available of course. After clicking either button (or Choose location data for the subject from the right mouse button menu) a window will appear that looks something like this:

The fields and the content behind them may vary by location. Sometimes you will find an exact address, with house number, in cities, while a rural location only receives a district indication. A maximum of 8 fields are extracted from the information. PhotOrganize uses OpenStreetMaps for this, which allows the end user (at the time of release) to request a placeholder up to 250 times a day without registration or costs. If you need more, please contact us.

An Australian campsite is recognized in the picture. By ticking one or more headings, in the image "Tourism" and "Country" and then clicking Ok, the combination of these 2 fields will be entered as subject, so Bendeela Recreation Area Australia. Complete this topic further if desired. After choosing the button Change name (yyyymmdd ...) this photo could be called: 20191126 173051 Bendeela camping Kangaroo Valley with wombats. Without this information you have to fill in the subject yourself. 

Subject

Select one or more photos, enter a subject or select a previously used topic from the drop down menu (or change it if necessary). Choose the button Change name (yyyymmdd ...) under the box Subject or via the right mouse menu Adapt name to date+time+subject. Once the word Busy, shown in red, changes into Show picture (the progress bar is filled), the requested selection is renamed. The names of the custom photos appear some time in a pop up window right below in the screen. The selected photos will be renamed and moved to the subdirectory /Done. The photos disappear from the list of photos to be renamed.

Add to used descriptions (button and right mouse menu option). This adds existing descriptions in the renamed pictures drop down menu. For this, select all or the required already renamed photos (usually by selecting these in the Done folder), choose the right mouse menu Add to used descriptions. Each subject is added once. This is useful if you continue later with a partially renamed series of pictures and want to use the same topics for photos which have not yet been renamed.

Revoke last (button and right mouse menu option). If you have just renamed a number of photos and instantly realize that the subject is not correct (i.e. not changed from the previous picture or a typo), then with this option the pictures of the last rename action are moved one folder up from the Done folder and displayed again so you can rename them again.
Note: You can always copy back renamed photos to the folder with not yet renamed photos again (e.g. via Explorer) and give a different subject, as if the previous rename had not taken place earlier.

Rename photos
You can also rename a selection made via Search, for example. This way you can easily restore an error in the titles that occurs in multiple photos. PhotOrganize warns if you try to rename different titles (apart from the date and time of course) in 1 selection (One or more photos have a different name - rename anyway?). With the renaming, only the title is modified, not the date and time. Note You usually use this option to change something in the subject of previously modified photos, for which you usually first chose Open / View button, Open the subfolder \Done.

Copy selected photos

If you select one or more photos, you can use this option to copy these photos to a disk/directory you choose from the folder selection dialog which follows. This can be handy if you want to take only photos from a database/selection with you on e.g. a USB stick. Note that the program does not overwrite existing files. Once the word Busy, shown in red, changes into Show picture (the progress bar is filled), the requested selection is copied. The toaster windows shows you how many photo's were copied and how many skipped.

Move selected photos (to chosen folder)

It is also possible to move a selection to another folder. This is a safe way to delete photos from the folder: choose a folder specially created for deleting photos. When you are sure that you have moved the correct photos there, delete the entire folder or only the contents via, for example, Windows Explorer to the Recycle Bin. You can move photos in 2 ways, both are in the ribbon and right mouse button menu: Move selected photos and Move selected photos to selected directory. The difference is that the first option will ask for a folder every time. The second option only asks for that folder the first time. Only when a folder has been selected the button Move selected photos to selected directory appears. After this, all moves are carried out to that folder, which you can see in the tooltip at the button. Click the button once to clear the path: the button will disappear and if you choose the Move selected photos to chosen directory option again, a destination folder will be prompted again. If necessary, first use the Search / Filter function to filter photos of a specific date or subject with a specific similar subject.

Add/remove photos to/from a database

A database is basically a text file with the photo name preceded by the folder where they are stored. This file is stored in the same directory as the edited photos. First, select a name (for example Short selection Costa Rica). Make a selection of photos and choose the button or right mouse option Add to database. The photos are stored in the text file. The subject may be adapted later; the program then searches the picture based only on the date and time in the subject. The latter does not apply if pictures have exactly the same date and time and a different serial number. Would you then later change the subject of a photograph already listed in the database, the program will only be able to find the first picture based on this date / time. Of course the same pictures can be used in multiple selection databases. The pictures can be displayed in the order of entry to the database, or sorted on date / time (alphabetically).

The "database" is saved as a text file, and looks for instance like this:

c:\testphotos\Done\20140903 124045 Rhino mother with calf
c:\testphotos\Done\20140903 124103 Rhino mother with calf

Remove from database

First select one or more photos (from the selection of photos from a particular database) and choose Remove from database to remove these photos from the database. The photos themselves, of course, remain on disk.

Search and move

The search function is usually the starting point of the move or rename function. Enter (part of) the description that should appear in photo titles in the Search/filter box right under the ribbon. This may also be the date (in the format yyyymmdd).Choose the Search/filter button. All the photos in the chosen folder containing the search term entered will be displayed, after which several of the other options can be applied, like moving a selection to another folder. To show all photos again: Empty the path and click once on the button Search/filter.

.jpg or .jpeg

The program works with .jpg bestanden. Do you have .jpeg files, then press the .jpeg button (in the Open/Show tab). The last made selection shows in blue and is stored in the registry, so remembered.

Language

The program starts by default in the language of your Windows version if this is Dutch or English. You can select the language by clicking the button Dutch (NL) or English (EN) (in the Open/Show tab). The last made selection shows in blue and is stored in the registry, so remembered.

Zoom thumbnails and zoom/pan photos

By dragging the button in the slider Zoom (below the ribbon), you can vary the size of the displayed photo thumbnails.

In full screen mode, you can zoom in on the displayed photo by scrolling the mouse wheel. If necessary, you can center the center of the part of the photo to be enlarged by clicking on that point with the left mouse button, holding it down and then moving the photo in the desired direction. Do the reverse to get the photo back to its original size and position.

Keyboard: with one of the 4 cursor keys, combined with the Shift (you hold it down) you can move the photo in the chosen direction with fixed steps ("pan").

With the cursor keys up / down, combined with the Ctrl (you keep this pressed) you can zoom in / out the image in fixed steps. Press Ctrl Spacebar to restore the original zoom factor. If you mix mouse and keyboard zoom controls for 1 photo, this last choice may not work properly. 

Shortcut keys during showing photos: 

• Cursor left/right browses photos

• Letter I(nfo) shows the filename, so after renaming you will see the date and time + subject. Press I again to switch this info off.
  

• Letter Z (black/white) toggles between a white info text (as displayed via I) and a black text (if the text is not visible against a white resp. black background)
  

• Letter M(ax/Min) switches between a full and normal screen.
  
  Letter C (ursor) toggles between an oversized arrow to point out more prominently in a photo and the normal cursor (chosen in Windows). That Windows cursor is also restored when the photo display window is closed.  

• Esc closes the screen.

• A double click shows the selected photo.