Picture Organizing software - help

AsSiMiLaTeD

What I'm looking for is really simple. I need a program that will allow me to open a series of photos in large size, scroll through those photos, and at the same time allow me to drag that photo over to one of a few folders on my desktop.

Think windows explorer, where you can open a picture folder and view thumbnails and then be able to drag those pictures to different folders, except with bigger thumbnail sizes. I'm using Vista, and am using the largest size (extra large icon), but it's not big enough for me, I need to be able to see full detail, and then based on what I see move that picture to a folder.

I've got thousands of pictures, and would like to avoid having to open each one of them up, view it, close the program, move the picture, and then repeat...

What I'm looking for doesn't sound too unrealistic, but I've tried and downloaded multiple programs and none of them allow it.

MS photo viewer allows me to scroll through the photos, but not drag to another folder. MS Office picture manager allows me to open the photo in full size and drag to another folder, but I can't scroll through the photos in that program. Most of the other programs I've tried such as Picase and photo organizer act more like MS photo viewer.

Or if there were a way I could just open the picture right in the Windows Explorer window or increase the maximum icon size that would work...

Any thoughts?

audiobliss

If all the folders you would be moving your pictures to are in the same parent directory, this might not be too hard.

You could have that parent directory open, so you can view all the possible destination folders in that one window. Then in Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer you can scroll through them and look at them in high detail. It'll allow you to see the picture in high detail in the top portion of the window, but you can't click on the large photo itself and drag it. However, along the bottom will be a little filmstrip with thumbnails of all the photos; you CAN drag those. So, you look at them along the top, decide which folder this one goes to, then you just click on the photo you're looking at (that will be highlighted in the filmstrip along the bottom) and just drag it to the parent directory in your task bar, then drop it in whichever folder you want it in.

It's not the simplest or most streamlined process, but it really should work just fine.

Hope that helps, and I hope you were able to follow my descriptions.

mmadden28

ACDSee? Or Photoshop Elements?

I haven't gotten a Round TUIT yet, so I haven't delved into the massive task before me, but I have tried both and they both have some good organization features built in. Especially tagging. You could just tag all the photos to organize them, then view all the pics with a specific tag and move them all at once. I beleive both apps allow you to change the preview size as well.

Just a thought.

I thought Vista had a better pic viewing app built in. I have Vista Ult at home-I'll check.

mmadden28

What apps have you tried?

Kris Siegel

You may be able to do what you need with Picasa from Google. It's quite a nice piece of software.

dee1949

....I have been using Thumbsplus for years...can also do slide shows with audio


http://www.cerious.com/

AsSiMiLaTeD

I've tried Picasa from Google and like it a lot, but it doesn't do what I need.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I have Photoshop, don't know anything about the tagging though. With Photoshop there doesn't seem to be a good way to view lots of pictures at once...

AsSiMiLaTeD

It looks like I can use Picasa to do what I need to do grouping things into photo albums. It's not ideal, but it works. I can't believe that MS didn't give a better picture viewer program in Vista, or give me the ability to enlarge the icon size more...

mmadden28

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I have Photoshop, don't know anything about the tagging though. With Photoshop there doesn't seem to be a good way to view lots of pictures at once...

Not PS CS3 but Photoshop Elements-I'll have to check the version I have tonight when I get home.

jcaut

Have you looked at Fast Stone Image viewer? It's free and my favorite file viewer utility. I'm using an older version and I haven't tried the latest one, so I don't know what all they've changed. I don't think it'll let you "open" several images in a large size, but you can get reasonable size thumbnails and then drag and drop images to different folders, like Windows Explorer. It does a whole lot of stuff- look here, if you haven't tried it.

http://www.faststone.org/

mmadden28

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

It looks like I can use Picasa to do what I need to do grouping things into photo albums. It's not ideal, but it works. I can't believe that MS didn't give a better picture viewer program in Vista, or give me the ability to enlarge the icon size more...

Did you try Windows Photo Gallery? It's built in to Vista (at least the Ultimate edition). I was able to drag from the window to folders in the folder list in the app as well as in folders in separate explorer windows. Hold CTRL and scroll your mouse wheel up and down to resize the previews. There's also a GUI way to do it, but CTRL+scroll is much easier. Is that what you're looking for or is tha not big enough?

petrym

I know there's a registry hack to make photo thumbnails bigger, but it's years since I've seen it. Have you tried a search for something like this?

Just searched and found this link.

I just tried the TweakUI and bumped the thumbnail size up to 240 pixels, works like a dream.

[Deleted User]

acdsee works great.

Sansui

halenhoang wrote: »

acdsee works great.

I totally agree! I registered about a billion years ago right after it came out and have never regretted it to this day.