Some tricks with EVENTS

[ubacher]

Imatch EVENT are intended, as the name implies, to organize photos of events.
There are however other uses.

To store a result window (or instead of using a result window):
Select the files, right click, create event from selected files.
This stores the selected files to survive a restart of Imatch.
(Result windows disappear when Imatch restarts.)

To display files created today:
Create a folder and specify today as the start and end date.
An alternative to the COLLECTION Recently Added but will not work
for old files.

To accumulate files.
You can add files to the clipboard (drag&drop) one by one. With this trick you can accumulate files in an EVENT one by one.
Do this: create an EVENT based on a category. I call th category and the EVENT both Earmarks. Add the earmarks category to a Favorite panel.
Clicking on the Earmarks in the favorite panel adds the file(s)
to the EVENT,  SHIFT-clicking the Earmarks entry on favorites deletes the selected file(s) from the event. This is simpler than drag&drop to add files to an EVENT.

You can use this also instead of assigning BOOKMARKS.

As an alternative to folder bookmarks:
Create a folder based EVENT and you can quickly display the files in it.
It is then easier to return to the previous folder since it will still be
on display.
If you have a fixed folder where you add new files to Imatch it would be a candidate for this.

As a alternative to category bookmarks:
You can create category bookmarks to quickly switch to a favorite category.
Having an EVENT based on a category is a quicker way to see your favorite category.
AND! you can use the filter for the specific EVENT instead of filtering for the category.
(Although you could set up a filter preset for this category)

[Mario]

Some related tips:

To store a result window (or instead of using a result window):

Alternatively, select the files and create a new category for them via the toolbar button in the Category Panel. This creates a new category and assigns the files.
If you maintain a common root category for this, like "STORED RESULTS" in my case, you can organize any number of results produced somehow for later recall.

To display files created today:

The Recently Viewed > Today collection does this.

To accumulate files.
You can add files to the clipboard (drag&drop) one by one. With this trick you can accumulate files in an EVENT one by one.

You can drag any number of files to the IMatch clipboard.
To add files to an event, use Ctrl+C in any File Window in IMatch, switch to the Event and press Ctrl+V
Or select the file and drag it to the "Events" tab at the top to open the Event View, and then drop it into the File Window.
This works the same for folders, categories etc.

It is then easier to return to the previous folder since it will still be
on display.

You know that the Media & Folders View keeps a history, allowing you to navigate between recently viewed folders?
Blue arrow buttons in the Media & Folders toolbar.

You can also create Folder and Category favorites in the Favorites panel to quickly jump to your favorite folder/categories.

[ubacher]

Update for Imatch 2021

Imatch now lists events only along a timeline.
If you use events for purposes where the time is meaningless you will have
a difficult time to find the event on the timeline.

I present four methods to handle such events - none, however,  is particularly convenient to use.

Method 1: (My preference!)
Make a favorite for each of you "timeless" events. Use a separate tab for these favorites and you can
use these favorites to quickly go to your events.
For this I recommend having the timeline on the top - you can then reduce it to just show the icons.
This gives you access to the maximize timeline icon which is a simple way to get to see
the full timeline.

Method 2:
Mark all you "timeless" events with bookmarks (star). You can then quickly find your event on the dropdown list
of bookmarked files.

Method 3: Make youself a dummy file and change its timestamp to the earliest possible.
Include this file (or a copy of it) in each event. This makes all your "timeless" events show at
the beginning of the timeline and they will be listed at the top.

Method 4:
Assign each of your timeless events to a specific event category. To find your event use the filter function
to select this event category. You can then select from the listed events.

Note that I assume that you will have a small number of such "timeless" events.

For method 2,3 and 4 note that the dropdown lists of starred events or filtered events will be hidden
(they do not get displayed on top of the files window). You need to maximize the timeline to the full
window before you select these lists.

[Mario]

If you use events for purposes where the time is meaningless

That's definitely not a typical use case for events. Time is the core of events.

[sinus]

If you use events for purposes where the time is meaningless

That's definitely not a typical use case for events. Time is the core of events.

Yep, true, but I think, that is why ubacher wrote this in the "Tips & Tricks" - section, where it belongs.
And maybe for some users such tricks can be very interesting.

[ubacher]

Displaying a summary of events as thumbnails:

If you assign the cover image (or any image you like) a category
(say: PictureINDEX2EVENTS) then you have an overview of events by displaying this category.

You can then use a thumbnail display setting which shows the event name.
(Somewhat inconvenient having to switch the display method.)
And you can, of course, display with different sorting methods.

More elegant is it if you create a dummy image (using batch processor) which
shows the event name on it. (see sample image attached).

To go to a specific event you then right-click -> EVENTS -> Go to EVENT.

For a different timeline display you can then select timeline and filter by the category.
Select show hierarchy.