Messages

51

General Software Discussion / Re: XnView 1.90 Alpha (Early test version)

« on: August 09, 2006, 04:52 PM »

Just when I thought I had tried all the major viewers, I just recently run into this truly excellent viewer: ExifPro
http://www.exifpro.com/
It is nagware, you have to register to remove the welcome screen, but otherwise 100% functional and great, great full screen viewer.

I'll agree that XNview is a good viewer, although I am not too fond of its interface. I prefer the slower FaststoneViewer. Another free viewer that deserves mention is cPicture.

For organizing / tagging / viewing I also use Picasa. :-)

52

General Software Discussion / Re: best tool for separating (cropping) figure from background?

« on: August 09, 2006, 10:12 AM »

There is an interesting free PS plugin:
http://graphics.cs.m...h/Segment/index.html
http://research.grap...cut/gml-growcut.html

53

Image Manager Shootout / Re: keywords and image management thoughts

« on: July 18, 2006, 07:17 PM »

News on the freeware department:
Idimager just released a free version of its image management program:
Idimager Lite, which is full featured (including XMP, DNG, etc...) and the most complete FREE image management program.
http://www.idimager.com/
Differences between Lite, Standard and Pro versions:
http://www.idimager....mp;id=13&Itemid=

54

General Software Discussion / Re: Browsers, Bookmarks, & synching

« on: July 13, 2006, 11:49 PM »

Not sure whether this what you are looking for, but I use the Syncmarks Firefox extension to auto-synchronize my bookmarks to a back up hard drive. It can also be configured to sync to an online ftp/http server, but I haven´t tried this feature:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/350/

55

Image Manager Shootout / Re: keywords and image management thoughts

« on: July 13, 2006, 11:42 PM »

Yes, Pixvue has plenty of interesting features; it turns windows explorer into an image management application and raw viewer.
The really powerful feature is its "Galleries":
http://www.pixvue.com/help/organize.html

56

Image Manager Shootout / Re: keywords and image management thoughts

« on: July 13, 2006, 04:32 AM »

do any of the 'desktop search' programs read/store exif/iptc/etc/etc?

-nudone (July 13, 2006, 03:38 AM)

something like this? :
http://www.pixvue.co.../product/search.html
http://www.pixvue.com/product/index.html

57

Image Manager Shootout / Re: keywords and image management thoughts

« on: July 12, 2006, 05:53 PM »

i've yet to make the transition to using 'metadata' even though i tried to convince myself that it was an important feature when i was reviewing acdsee - i guess folder heirarchies and structure are something ingrained into me.

I think folder hierarchies and structure are very useful and intuitive.
Metadata (keywords,captions, etc...) are just one more tool to help you search and browse thru your pictures.
I usually include names and locations in the caption while include generic categories as keywords ("portrait", "BW", "landscape", "sports", etc...).
This allows me to very quickly find/gather photos of a particular location/person/subject that might be spread over very many folders ...

58

Image Manager Shootout / Re: keywords and image management thoughts

« on: July 12, 2006, 05:40 PM »

Hi nudone,
I realize that ACDSeePro has an IPTC editor, thus obviously it is possible to write a keyword, caption, etc to IPTC.

My point is that programs such as Iview or Idimager can write/sync DATABASE keywords to IPTC. With Iview it is a manual operation while Idimager can be set to do it automatically (as Picasa does for JPEGs). This way, if you assign a keyword to a picture with the application, you can embed that tag into the IPTC metadata without invoking any IPTC editor.

So to get back to ACDSeePro, if you drag a picture into various keywords/categories, can you make ACDSee write those keywords to IPTC automatically (and not by manual entry in the IPTC editor)?

app:
Portfolio is a great application but to get back to my topic it apparently has some trouble writing metadata to XMP/DNG (raw files):
http://thedambook.co...index.php?topic=26.0
In my experience v7 isn´t designed to keep a perfect sync between DBkeywords and IPTC keywords (it would append keywords to the existing ones and not keep them in sync). Don´t know how v8 behaves.

59

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« on: July 12, 2006, 07:10 AM »

Great! 

Looking forward to the next version!

60

Image Manager Shootout / keywords and image management thoughts

« on: July 12, 2006, 05:39 AM »

Hi all,
IMHO assigning searchable keywords to images is fundamental to modern image management.
Preferably those keywords are embedded in the image metadata (IPTC or XMP) and do not only reside in the program's database. This allows to easily migrate your photos to a different DAM program in the future (Digital Asset Management). A DB is also desirable to speed up sorting/searching/browsing operations of large collections.

Among the free programs,
Faststone or Irfanview do not allow to assign/embed keywords, while free XNView and cPicture can do it AND include a search tool (no DB though).
Picasa does everything that is needed; it has a great interface, has a  DB, performs well and allows to easily tag/caption/search your pictures. Tags and pics get embedded into JPEG IPTC metadata. The latest 2.5 beta does show folder structure and can embed "Geotags" (long./lat.) into a picture´s EXIF data with the help of GoogleEarth:
http://fileforum.bet...Windows/1067993856/1

Managing RAW files does get tricky as it is usually not possible to embed metadata into RAW files (and not recommended if possible). You either write it to an XMP sidecar file or else convert to Adobe DNG raw which is designed to have embedded metadata and preview.
Programs such as Idimager, IviewMediaPro and Imatch can write keywords to XMP/DNG; they are not free, IviewMP being the priciest (but has an academic discount).

Picasa 2.5 can read RAW files (incl DNG) but will not embed captions or tags into them; as a RAW user, my workaround is to shoot RAW+JPEG and to embed captions/tags into the JPEGs, which also act as very fast previews (if I have a JPEG I don´t need Picasa to show me the RAW file).
Incidentally those RAW shooters that convert to adobeRGB should be aware that Picasa is not colorprofile aware, use an external viewer that is  (such as Faststone but not XNview or Irfanview).

I did try the latest ACDSee and although ACDSeePro has an IPTC editor I believe it will not embed keywords into IPTC. Someone correct me if I am wrong.


Those are my hopefully useful 2 cents... 








Also, As it isand to successfully manage an image collection I think ii

61

General Software Discussion / Re: Photo panorama creation

« on: July 10, 2006, 06:21 PM »

Hi,
I have tried a number of stitching programs, including a few of the mentionned above, so I'll pitch in.
Some programs can only stitch one row of pictures to create a traditional panorama, such as PanoFactory.
While others can do multiple row stitching (Autostitch, PTGUI, Realviz, AutopanoPro, etc...)

In my experience Autostitch, PTGUI, Autopano do a noticeably better job at automatic stitching than Realviz or PanoFactory, especially in difficult situations.

There is also a substantial difference in functionality between programs such as PTGui/AutopanoPro and Autostitch. With the first two you can choose the projection to be used:
- rectilinear<wideangle lens like - no curved lines->
- cylindrical <panorama>
- spherical
And on top of that you can preview-tune the result before rendering. Autostitch can only do spherical and no preview (and jpeg only, no tiff, no psd, etc..).

AutopanoPro has also the capability to merge 2 different exposures of a same pic to achieve a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo (haven´t tried it).
And, VERY USEFUL for those that shoot pictures in RAW format is AutopanoPro´s support of RAW as an input format.

I think that Autostitch does the job for the casual panorama while PTgui and Autopano offer far better creative possibilities and control to the enthusiast photographer.

62

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« on: July 09, 2006, 04:39 AM »

Hi skrommel,
I thought a bit about my previous post about pasting into highlighted text.

Perhaps a simpler solution than what I suggested would be to simply have a "temporary disable DragKing while pressed" hotkey. That would be more useful than the current permanent disable hotkey.

Keeping such hotkey pressed would allow me to select a text without copying and after release I could use the paste hotkey tp replace it with the clipboard content.
Also it would be great if such hotkey could be only ONE key, such as Ctrl, Shift ...

What do you think?

Thanks


edit:

(alternatively there could be a Paste previous clipboard entry Hotkey or Hotkey modifier. That would work too.)

 

63

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« on: July 08, 2006, 04:36 AM »

Hi skrommel,
1st of all, thanks for the great software!

As has been suggested above, I would like to use Dragking to paste into highlighted text by using the Paste hotkey.

It occurred to me that this could perhaps work if :
1- copy is disabled while using the paste hotkey (in my case Ctrl+mouse LB1)
2- paste hotkey allows selection by dragging or double click

So, for instance, I could copy text by drag-select/double-clicking, and then replace a 2nd text with it by by PasteHotkey drag-select/double clicking.

Right now the Paste Hotkey is instant, it occurs as soon as you click down even before you release the mouse button. Perhaps it could be more intelligent and wait for button release so as to allow drag-selection?  And perhaps wait a tiny bit and sense a possible double-click selection?

My 2 cents, hopefully it makes sense

 

64

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Small App To Turn Background Windows Transparent Automatically

« on: January 22, 2006, 05:19 PM »

Hi skrommel,
thanks again for such a great utility :-)
Any chance that the taskbar could be excluded and not made transparent?
I am asking because that way I could set the transparency to 0 and still have access to the taskbar.
I also enjoy using this program along with the TaskswitchXP  utility as the previews in that utility are not affected by the transparency in TransOther.

65

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Minimize all other windows but the active one

« on: January 22, 2006, 11:32 AM »

Thanks skrommel for MinimOther :-)
I am enjoying using it along with Visual Tooltip (which shows window thumbnails as you move the cursor over the taskbar) : http://chsalmon.club.fr/index.html

66

Best E-mail Client / DreamMail

« on: January 06, 2006, 03:06 PM »

Hi,
I have been a long time user of Foxmail and recently switched to Pocomail, mainly because of Foxmail's use of MS IE engine.
I just ran into DreamMail, which is very much like Foxmail and which uses MS IE engine as well; unlike Foxmail though, it has much better security settings, since it allows to disable ActiveX (by default) as well as scripts and java if desired. Message preview can also be set to "offline" (default) so no content is downloaded in html messages. It also supports webmail (it read fine my Yahoo mail).
Anyone that is fond of Foxmail should take a look at it:
http://www.dreammail.org/gb/

 

67

General Software Discussion / Re: Free DVD Menu authoring software, is there such a thing?

« on: December 15, 2005, 01:35 PM »

AFAIK, you have DVDStyler DVDAuthor GUI, both free:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=2#2

The video clips must be mpeg2 dvd-compliant. If not convert them 1st to dvd-mpeg2
(you have a few free mpeg2 encoders here: http://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=40#40 )

68

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Quick Serial Number Copy

« on: December 02, 2005, 05:33 PM »

Hi,
wouldn´t a password manager such as Keepass do the job? It has plenty of fields such as url, username, password (you could put your serial number here) and notes. A special "serials" folder could be created to separate the serials from the web passwords or simply use a distinct Keepass file for serials.
Double clicking on an entry column automatically copies the corresponding data the clipboard (such as user or serial). To facilitate pasting serial numbers into a multiple field entry, free DM2 (see dialog extenders review) comes with a very handy plugin that allows to paste (Ctrl+Alt+P) a serial number into a multiple field entry.
(better explained here: http://dm2.sourcefor...et/plug_pastesn.html )

:-)

69

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Visual CD is pretty incredible catalogue software

« on: October 20, 2005, 06:43 PM »

VisualCD does not work on my PC either. I posted  a note about my problem in the forum (now dead?) and never got a response...
For basic CD cataloging I use Cathy.

 

70

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to browse thru my documents (pdfs, pics, word, rtf, and so on...) ...

« on: October 18, 2005, 06:16 PM »

Hi Darwin,
so far file managers with good viewers (such as ExplorerPlus or Dopus) are the best solution to my quest ;-)

71

General Software Discussion / Re: Software for Mindmapping etc

« on: October 18, 2005, 06:13 PM »

Another free concept/mind map software would be CMap:
Download here:
http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/
The developer´s own conceptmap:
http://cmap.ihmc.us/
CMap allows you to upload and share your maps on the internet.

 

72

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: A-book: a very good, sync-able, alternative addressbook

« on: October 15, 2005, 03:35 PM »

Thanks for the feedback 

Also looking forward to your calendar software review; I have being playing with EPIM and Calendarscope. I like EPIM's hierarchical ToDo list (pro version only though) but I find very unfortunate that they do not show the task list in the calendar view, for easy drag and drop on to the calendar (which Calendarscope does)

73

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: A-book: a very good, sync-able, alternative addressbook

« on: October 10, 2005, 06:12 PM »

Hi m_s,
thanks for the very informative review;
I am planning to get a PocketPC pda and have therefore started to consider the possible contact mngr and calendar alternatives to Outlook (which I have never used).
A-book seems great; I am also very interested in your calendar sofware review; I have noticed that Calendarscope can sync to ppc but not so EssentialPIM? 
 

nood question: I just noticed that EssentialPIM can import/export from/to Outlook. Is it possible to export to a Outlook file (without having Outlook installed) and sync from that to PPC?

74

General Software Discussion / Re: Supercharged Alt-tab replacement utility

« on: October 10, 2005, 03:40 AM »

Thanks, TaskswitchXp does something similat (it shows the title bar of the window)

75

General Software Discussion / Re: Supercharged Alt-tab replacement utility

« on: October 09, 2005, 07:32 PM »

Hi Nighted,
does AltSwitch preview minimized windows?
Thanks