Image Manager

FAQ - Getting the Best From Photo Organiser

What is Photo Organiser ?
Photo Organiser is a Pure Java application that allows you to organise and manage your photo collection. Unlike operating system tools and some other image organizers, Photo Organiser can use, but does not rely on directory structure. Photo Organiser allows you to group images by keywords you define (categories) and other information you enter; without using meta data, so the processing is much faster and the application is simpler to use. Install Photo Organiser and either point to directories where your images reside and make that location an "Image Store" or import whole directory trees containing images to a new Image Store location - either way, directory names and structures will be maintained and can even be automatically used as categories if you want. Many first time users feel more comfortable using Photo Organiser knowing that it wont move images, or change image file contents or "undo" their current storage system so they could stop using Photo Organiser any time and it would not affect their images! Once you have chosen where to keep your images you can use simple mouse driven features to categorise your photos, making it faster to view them and filter them, sort and find images more easily, group duplicate images, export copies of them, delete them, view full quality images or thumbnails. You'll quickly get the hang of it and wonder how you ever managed without it! In order to protect your images and data, Photo Organiser makes it easy for you to simply backup and restore them together - you not only protect your images, you ensures the time you spend creating, collecting and managing your images is not wasted. Photo Organiser is not an image manipulation tool, you cant make changes to the image files themselves. However, you can load your favourite image editing tool from within Phto Organiser while you are viewing your images. Photo Organiser is not an online image storage service or social networking tool, Photo Organiser is installed on your pc, your images are stored on your pc and you keep full control of them!
How many Images can I store In Photo Organiser ?
Photo Organiser can theoretically store millions of images, However, the current version is optimised for around 100,000 images. If you exceed this number then the performance of the application will be significantly reduced. In order to address this a Business version is in development, this will use an external database and have pretty much unlimited capacity, but the price will be significantly higher.
Photo Organiser Versions
Whether you are Buying or Trying - the version you get is the latest ! Check what version of Photo Organiser you are running by looking at the about box on the Photo Organiser help menu.
What are the Licence key and Registration text
When you purchase Photo Organiser you will be issued with your unique Licence Key and Registration text by email. Make a copy of this very important information incase you want to install Photo Organiser again Without the Licence Key and Registration text, Photo Organiser will only allow 3,000 images to be loaded. The Licence Key is auto generated by us, it will allow you to collect your free upgrades and new features up to one year from the date of purchase You do not need to re enter the Licence information during the upgrade process. However, if your licence key is more than one year old and you upgrade to the latest versions your installation will only allow 3,000 images until a new licence key is entered or you go back to your older version. If in doubt about your purchase date, make a note of your registration details before attempting upgrade. Or, install into a different location and try your licence key with it.
What do I do if I have lost my Registration text and Licence key
When you purchased Photo Organiser you will have been issued with your unique Licence Key and Registration text by email. Look for the email that contains the information - the subject line will say something like Photo Organiser LICENCE KEY Registration details are made up of the "Activation key or Registration Text: which is a number, and the Licence Key: which looks something like this IM-####-##-#### if you lost it due to system failure, look in a directory called config_secured which may contain a file called Photo Organiser.xml_processed, this will have the Licence in it if you are not able to find it, email support@believeit.ltd.uk, you need to include the following iformation;. the email address with which you purchased Photo Organiser an approximate date of purchase Without this information it is not possible for us to re issue Licence Keys
I upgraded to the latest version of Photo Organiser, but now a message "unregistered version" is displayed in red on the main form, why?
When you purchased Photo Organiser you will have been issued a unique Licence Key and Registration text by email. This Licence Key will allow you to upgrade and take advantage of new features for one year after your original purchase If you have downloaded from the shop page (the latest version) more than a year after your original purchase, it wont work with your original Licence You must either buy a new licence or downgrade to an earlier version Photo Organiser never expires because your original licence never expires, except if you try to use a licence with a version created over one year after your purchase.
How does Photo Organiser work ?
Photo Organiser uses a high performance Embedded SQL database. This provides a very fast search capability for example: Photo Organiser with 97500 images loaded each image on average having 3 categories assigned to it. The application will complete a search and select all images matching a cateogry selection of 3 categories Or'd within 10sec's on a AMD X2 2Ghz with 2gb ram on Linux.
Which Operating Systems Will Photo Organiser Run on ?
Photo Organiser is Pure Java, that means that theoretcally Photo Organiser will run on any operaing system running Java ver 1.6.2 or better. Photo Organiser has been tested on Windows XP, Linux ( Suse, Fedora, Mandriva).
Which package should I choose to download ?
In order to make installing ©Photo Organiser easy and flexible it is provided in a range of distribution pacakges (download options). The packages have the same features but are supplied differently for your convenience, heres what they are; Option 1 Windows 64 and 32 bit - supplied in .zip format (a compressed file) - This Photo Organiser image management software will install and run on Windows. . Option 2 Linux 64 and 32 bit - supplied in tgz format (a compressed file) - This Photo Organiser image management software will install and run on Linux Option 3 USB Version for Linux (and Windows) - supplied as .tgz format (a compressed file) Install once from Linux (or Windows) onto a USB storage device and the application will run from any of the supported platforms. i.e. you can plug the USB drive into a linux pc and use Photo Organiser, then you can plug the same USB drive into a Windows pc and use the same software and look at the same images with no further user configuration required It is supplied in TGZ format because that is the most common compressed file format for Linux. Option 4 USB Version for Windows (and Linux) - supplied in .zip format (a compressed file) - Install once from windows (or linux) onto a USB storage device and the application will run from any of the supported platforms i.e. you can plug the USB drive into a linux pc and use Photo Organiser, then you can plug the same USB drive into a Windows pc and use the same software and look at the same images with no further user configuration required. It is supplied in zip format because that is the most common compressed file format in Windows. If you still don't know what to download; choose Option 1 if you only use windows. Shortcuts are created on the Program menu Choose Option 2 if you only use Linux. Shortcuts are created on the Application Launcher menu Choose Option 3 if you want to install on an external USB drive and you will be connected to a Linux pc during the installation. No shortcuts are created. Choose Option 4 if you want to install on an external USB drive and you will be connected to a windows pc during the installation. No shortcuts are created. Once a usb version of the software (options 3 or 4) has been installed onto an external USB drive, users can swap the USB device between Windows or Linux systems.
What is an ImageStore ?
Photo Organiser needs to know where you want it to look for images you want to include in the Photo Organiser database - this location is called an Image Store. Every image store has a completely separate database. Every time you create an image store a database directory is created in that location too. The image store is where it finds the pictures you are managing and the associated database directory is where all the information you keep about the pictures is kept You can have one or many image stores. You might have two image stores if you wanted to keep family pictures totally separate from your hobby pictures. You can keep them together if you want and use categories to filter them. But, if you have (for example) a very private collection we recommend you keep them in one image store and keep your other images in another! Use the "Select another image store" option from the file menu - this allows you to select or to create image stores. As with all image management systems, it is possible to change folder names and file names outwith the management software using system tools - this should be avoided unless you know what you are doing! Photo Organiser doesn't "mind" if you delete or move images or folders in your image stores using system tools, Photo Organiser won't "break", next time you start Photo Organiser and do an "Update" Photo Organiser will "assume" the changes were intended and will match the changes, removing entries in the database for images and folders that no longer exist there. If you have mistakenly removed folders and images from your image store, follow the help in the section, Missing Images. It is important that you know which folders are being managed by Photo Organiser. A Pnoto Organiser image store will have a hidden folder called .PhotoOrg_Database in it. A new feature will be able to scan your system to find Image Stores Note. You can create an image store anywhere but Never create an image store within an image store (don't nest image stores!)
Swapping file systems - Can Photo Organiser be used on different file system, e.g. Linux and Windows ?
Yes, Photo Organiser can be used on Linux and Windows, or both, the application has been written to be operating system agnostic. Files and image data can be exported on one OS and imported on another same for Backups and Restoring. N.B Some operating systems will differentiate between upper and lower case characters in file names and therefore it is possible to name two files the same : e.g. On a Windows filesystm firstfile.jpg and FIRSTFILE.JPG would be treated as the same file, on Linux they would be different files. In cases where you are importing or restoring from a Linux filesystem to a Windows filesystem, and files do have the same name but different cases then Photo Organiser will rename the files automatically when the 'Rename Duplicates` option is selected from the Import / Restore dialogs.
I would like to use Photo Organiser but I already keep my images sorted into directories such as "holidays", "family", "landscape" etc. I don't want to have to re sort them. What should I do ?
If you have a directory structure similar to: MyPictures landscape scotland etc. family holidays ...and you want to keep your pictures stored in the same place but want to use Photo Organisers Unique features to manage and back them up, then just open Photo Organiser and select "Open a new Image Store" from the file menu, navigate to and select your MyPictures directory and choose the option "Create" to make this location an Image Store now click the Update Store button on Photo Organisers main screen and choose the Start Add Images option, each image will now be entered into the Photo Organiser database and a thumbnail and other associated information will be created for it. If you can't wait till all the images have been processed, you can click the All Images button intermittently on the main screen and the processing will continue in the background while you look at the images. .. its that easy. Every time you add images to the MyPicutres folder, click Update Store to keep Photo Organiser up to date. Photo Organiser will only see newly added pictures after you have run Update Store Warning, You should not designate system folders (e.g. your c:\ drive) as image stores. USE CAUTION WHEN MAKING FOLDERS (DIRECTORIES) INTO IMAGE STORES - IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE RULES TO AVOID POTENTIAL DISASTER Only use empty directories as image stores or directories created by you Do not designate folders as image stores if you have folders in them that have already been designated as image stores If you are still unsure, see the help section, How do I create a new empty Image Store Location and Import images to it?
How do I create a new empty Image Store Location and Import images to it?
This option for creating a new empty image store allows users to "start again" with organising their images. It leaves the original images in their original locations so you can delete the originals using system tools when you are confident you have them all in Photo Organiser and have backed them up. This option does use up more space on your drives, so make sure you have enough free Heres how to Create a completely new image store in a new location Choose Select Another Image store option from the Photo Organsier file menu Navigate to, and choose the location where you want the new image store to be Create the new folder there, e.g. P_O_imagestore (the name is not important as long as you will remember it is your Photo Organiser Image Store Location) click OK and you will go back to the previous screen, the new image store name will be displayed Click Create You will be prompted to enter a description for the image store (this name is displayed when backing up etc.) Click Create and the image store is created and you will be back at Photo Organiser's main screen. The main screen will be empty because you haven't imported any images yet! Note. Your current open Image store location is displayed near the bottom of the main screen (in the middle) Follow the instructions below to import images into Photo Organiser. Heres how to Import Images into Photo Organiser This option leaves the originals in their original location and makes a copy of them to the current image store You can import whole directories or individual images. The following example describes Importing directories of Images. Remember to make sure you have enough disk space to do this! From the file menu, Select Import Directory Of Images, navigate to, and select the directory containing the images you want to bring into Photo Organise. You can select directories containing directories. Tick the Recursive option to keep your directory structure, i.e. import not only the images in the chosen directory but images in directories contained in the chosen directory etc. etc. Select `Create Categories` if you want your original directory names to be converted into categories labels and added to the appropiate image records. In any case the directory structure is preserved Although the directory structure is preserved, there is no real need with Photo Organiser to separate images into different directories as multiple Categories can be assigned to each image from now on. sit back and wait for your images to be imported, the view will be updated in batches but you can click the Show All button on the main screen if you don't want to wait You don't have to use this method to import images, you can simply drag and drop images (or folders of images) into your image store from your desktop. Then click the Update button to make Photo Organiser "see" them. Click the Help button in Photo Organiser for more detail on importing.
I imported images and can't find them in Photo Organiser, why ?
Check to see if the locations of the original imported images have sub folders (directories). If there are sub folders and you didn't tick the 'Recursive' option in the Import dialog box the images in the sub folders (directories) wont be imported.
What is a "top level" folder/directory ?
When you choose the location from which to import images from, Photo Organiser will import all the supported image files from that "Top level folder/directory. If there are other folders in the Top level folder that contain images, they won't automatically be imported unless you tick the 'Recursive' option on the Import dialog.
Some or all of my thumbnails are not visible in Photo Organiser, Why ?
This may be because when you restored a backup you unticked the "update thumbnails" option. This option is there to speed up the restore of large backups and does not affect your images. In order to generate the thumbnails select Tools - 'Load Missing Thumbnails' this will generate all the missing thumbnails.
Sometimes, I know I have thousands of images in Photo Organiser but I can't see them, I have to exit Photo Organiser and go back in to see them. Why ?
Don't exit and restart the application, click on the 'Show All' button top right of the Photo Organiser form, this will clear all filters and show all images in the database.
I got a Missing Image warning, why ?
Have you deleted the ImageStore from outside the Photo Organiser application using system tools ? Fix Restore from a backup, select clear the database option. Have you opened the wrong ImageStore location ?. Fix From the file menu, select Open another Image store Navigate to your image store When you click on an image store, the message "Image Store Found: with -name of image store you chose when it was created - " is displayed Is the drive the ImageStores are located on working ? Fix Start the drive, if this is not possible then reinstall and restore from backup.
Missing Images - I think I may have deleted images from an ImageStore while I was messing around in the operating system. How do I know if I have and what should I do ? or How do I recover missing images ? or Can I do a partial restore because I have ruined some images, while editing them ?
Before you consider whether you have deleted images from your system, Make sure you are connected to network folders or USB devices that you store your images on. If you are connected, in Photo Organiser, run Tools - 'Regenerate All Thumnails' this will generate a thumbnail for each image, if an image is missing the Missing File thumbnail will be shown. To recover missing / damaged images either. Try and recover them from your Recycle Bin. Delete the missing / damaged image records from Photo Organiser and Import your last backup, this will add all the backed up images to the current database - if you have "rename" set, all images will be brought in without overwriting the images in the database - choose not to rename them if you want to avoid duplication. Before attempting any of the rememdies described above, make a backup of what you have!
I am fed up waiting for images to load on my PC, will Photo Organiser help ?
Yes, definitely, if you have very large image files, we think Photo Organiser is the best application to view them with. Photo Organiser is unique in the way image files are stored, loaded, viewed and processed, so you don't have to hang around for your image's thumbnails to load.
What are Thumbnails and why does Photo Organiser use them ?
Image files can be very large and will naturally take a long time to display - We know you don't want to wait too long so Photo Organiser is designed to use "cut down" versions of each image, these are called thumbnails - As each image is added to Photo Organiser a thumbnail is created and stored in the database for it - All the processing, searching, catalogueing etc.is done using the thumbnail, so it makes everything seem faster!
How do I Configure Photo Organiser to use my favourite Image Editor ?
Photo Organiser is a management tool that is Operating System Agnostic. One of the drawbacks of this is that it is not able to automatically intergrate with the Windows System Registry, so, in order to select an image editor you need to browse to the install directory of the required editor. Choose configure option from the Tools menu Select the External Tools Tab Use the browse button to Select Image Editing tool and browse to the install directory of the editor you want to use On windows, the applications are stored in the location that you installed Photo Organiser to, Typically, c:\Program Files\"image editing tool" On Linux, either type in the name of the editor or, in a command console, type `whereis gimp`, this will show the path you should use
Privacy and Security, I travel a lot and have pictures of my wife and family i take with me, how can i be sure that my pictures are safe and secure ?
Do a backup and leave it at home. We suggest if you have images that are private and you are mobile then store them on a encrypted USB drive. See TrueCrypt Open Source Drive Encryption Notes if yoy are using encryption: You have to make sure you have a backup on separate drives. If you forget the pass phrase then you will not be able to access your images Encrypted drives are more prone to corruption than other filesystem types. Don't switch off the drive before unmounting Don't unmount with Photo Organiser loaded. Keep current backups of important data.
How should I use a USB Drive ?
USB drives are great and the mobility brings a new level of flexibility in being able to carry your image collection to friends and family to share, however there is an extra risk to using USB drives, so be aware of the following warnings. Read the drive suppliers / manaufactures guidelines. Do not unplug / switch off a USB drive while mounted. (i.e. use the unmount or the "safely Remove" option before unplugging) Do not ummount while any application is accessing files on the Drive. Keep at least one current backup on a separate drive. Failure to follow these guidelines could result in loss of images and data.
How do I Install or Upgrade Photo Organiser ?
If you are Upgrading on either Windows or Linux, first, go to the Help menu in Photo Organiser and select the Register Licence Key option - MAKE A NOTE OF YOUR LICENCE INFORMATION and look at the associated date - this will tell you whether you can get the latest upgrade for free. Remember you can get free upgrades for a year after your Licence was purchased! You are advised to make a backup from Photo Organiser before continuing with an upgrade. Upgrading a Linux Installation, keeping your current images and data. If you haven't already done so, download and extract the new Photo Organiser archive (.tgz) from www.believwir.ltd.uk see help on extracting archive files if you are unsure how to do this. then continue with the Install instructions below Installing on Linux navigate to where you extracted your downloaded file. Depending on your system setup, you can click on the file install.sh to start the installation process. Alternatively, you may need to open a terminal in the temp directory and type ./install.sh follow the onscreen prompts During the installation you will be asked to choose an installation location, either create a new empty directory or choose the location where your previous version was installed to Photo Organiser will start automatically when the installation is complete unless you choose not to. From now on, you can start Photo Organsiser using the new short cut which has been placed on the Application menu NB If you are installing a USB version onto a removable device, no shortcuts will be created on the application menu. This is because, operating systems can mount removable devices to differenct locations - so, a short cut may not find it when you connect the drive again - make a mental note of the location where you installed Photo Organsiser so you can find the start_photoorg.sh file with which to start the application. Upgrading a Windows Installation, keeping your current images and data. If you haven't already done so, download and extract the new Photo Organiser archive (.zip file) from www.believwir.ltd.uk see help on extracting archive files if you are unsure how to do this continue with the installation instructions below Installing on Windows Navigate to where you extracted the downloaded file to click on install.bat follow the onscreen prompts During the installation you will be asked to choose an installation location, either create a new empty directory or choose the location where your previous version was installed to Photo Organiser can be started automatically when installation is complete Or, Start Photo Organsiser using the new short cut which has been placed on the Program menu NB. If you are installing a USB version onto a removable device, no shortcuts will be created on the Program menu, this is because, operating systems can name removable devices differently each time they are connected - so make a mental note of the location where you installed Photo Organsiser to. To create a shortcut onto your Windows desktop; right clicking over start.bat which is in the installation directory you chose choose create a shortcut drag and drop the shortcut to your desktop Note. If you choose to install Photo Organsiser to a new location, you will have two versions on your system unless you run the uninstaller.
Where should I install Photo Organiser to? ?
On Linux The convention is to install into a directory off your home directory e.g./home//Photo Organiser. Windows. The conversion is to install to a folder in \Program Files\ e.g. c:\Program Files\Photo Organiser
How do I extract a compressed file?
Photo Organiser is supplied as compressed files for a quicker download. When you choose to download, your system will probably put the downloaded file in your Desktop folder or Download folder. Follow the instructions on how to extract your downloaded file. On Linux A compressed file (an archived file) needs to be extracted, it will be named something like this; < name of file you downloaded >.tgz Compressed files can be uncompressed (or extracted) using desktop tools such as Ark, right click on a compressed file and choose "Extract To" from the menu. Then you should be able to simply click OK If your extraction is unsuccessful using a desktop tool, look at the default settings and try again, or follow the instrcutions below; Open a terminal where your compressed file is located (you probably downloaded to the Desktop, so we will use that scenario as an example) use the mkdir command to create a directory e.g. type.... mkdir temp_PO if you downloaded to the desktop, you will now have a folder on the desktop called temp_PO then... (still in the terminal) type the following command to extract Photo Organiser into the directory you created tar -xzf < name of file you downloaded >.tgz -C /home/< your user name >/Desktop/temp_PO replace the contents of <> (angled brackets) with the information specified within The installation files have now been extracted into the temp_PO directory. Now, all you have to do is close the terminal, navigate to temp_PO and install Photo Organiser, see Install Photo Organiser above. Windows. The compressed (archive) file you downloaded needs to be extracted, it will be called something like this;. < name of file you downloaded >.zip you probably downloaded to the Desktop folder or Download folder double click or right click on the zip file and choose to extract into a temp directory e.g. Desktop/temp_PO Once extracted, navigate to the temp directory and double click the install.bat file and follow the simple onscreen prompts to install Photo Organiser, see the Install Photo Organiser section above for more help
How do I know what versions I can activate with my Licence Key?
Your licence key is unique and is generated when you buy an Photo Organiser licence. Use your licence key to activate your software - unactivated software will only allow you to load upto 3,000 images into Photo Organiser. you can use your licence with any versions released up to and including the 12th month after your purchase date You can also use the licence key with any version released before your purchase date Your licence information is delivered to you by email when you purchase Photo Organiser Your licence key information is displayed in Photo Organiser - from the Help menu, select the Register Licence key option Your licence never expires, you only need to buy a new licence key if you want to upgrade to versions released later than 12 months after your original purchase. You can buy a Licence from www.believeit.ltd.uk
How do I Downgrade Photo Organiser ?
Follow the instructions for upgrading above but create a new location as the installation location. Once it is installed and you are happy you can open your original Image Store(s), then enter your registration details. The other instance of Photo Organiser can then be uninstall using the uninstall option.
Why have the producers of BelieveIT Photo Organiser got two websites ?
Details of the Photo Organiser Photo Management Software can be found at our original site, www.believeit.demon.co.uk because the site attracts alot of new traffic and also for the convenience of our original fans! We can also be found at our new look stie, www.believeit.ltd.uk.