Open with in IMatch gives all - Open with in PM gives just the images selected

[Stenis]

Hi! I have long appreciated the very excellent interoperability between both PhotoMechanic and XnView and Photolab. In both these applications it is possible to select a set of pictures of your choise and open them with DXO Photolab ready for editing - and just those pictures and nothing else.

If I do the same with iMatch, Photolab will open with ALL images in that active folder of the first picture I selected.

This is a very important feature for DXO users using PhotoMechanic and a very important reason why I have stuck with PhotoMechanic. The thing is that Photolab unlike most other converters is working directly on the files in the file system and lacks import functions which can make the application slow (when rendering previews) if there are many files in a folder. Of that reason this feature is very important for Photolab users.




Three images selected in iMatch for opening in DXO Photolab




Photolabs opens with ALL the images in the folder of the first selected image in iMatch





When selecting images from different folders in PhotoMechanic to open with DXO Photolab
the selection opened in Photolab will just be the ones selected in PhotoMechanic.
It workes exactly the same if I select the images in XnView.

So my question is if you can fix so iMatch can work in the same manner?

From the beginning this didn´t work in PhotoMechanic either but I got it solved through Camera Bits Forums and their eminent technician Kirk Baker and it has been in place through many new updates without any further problems.

[Stenis]

Here you can see a picture of this very useful feature in DXO Photolab called "External Search".
Through the file icons we can see which application that sent these selections and when.
Even the number of files in each selection.
This way it is very easy to call up a certain selection made in PhotoMechnic or XnView.
I have not seen anything like it in any other converter so far.

[sybersitizen]

Hi! I have long appreciated the very excellent interoperability between both PhotoMechanic and XnView and Photolab. In both these applications it is possible to select a set of pictures of your choise and open them with DXO Photolab ready for editing - and just those pictures and nothing else.

I've been using PhotoLab for a long time. As far as I know, the only way that can happen is if the sending app is somehow creating a PhotoLab 'Project' using only those chosen files.

From the beginning this didn´t work in PhotoMechanic either but I got it solved through Camera Bits Forums and their eminent technician Kirk Baker and it has been in place through many new updates without any further problems.

When this feature was described, am I right that it does create a 'Project' within PhotoLab?

[hluxem]

You can open any selection from Imatch in Photolab if you create an application favorite. 

Go to the favorites - application tab, drag a Photolab short cut from your desktop into the tab. Then you can drag any selection of files to the favorite and only the selected files are opened in Photolab (Project). Images don't have to be in the same folder either. I have been using this method for a longtime.

If you use Photolab, make sure you define the .dob files as buddy files. If you move, delete or rename files, the buddy file will be moved, deleted or renamed as well. 

Heiner

[Mario]

As shown in Opening Files in Other Applications, there are many ways to open files in other applications with IMatch.

If I do the same with iMatch, Photolab will open with ALL images in that active folder of the first picture I selected.

How do you open images from IMatch in PM? That would be helpful to know.

Does <Ctrl>+<Enter> not work? Or "Open with..." from the File Window ribbon?


IMatch implements the official Windows protocol for drag & drop (you can, e.g. drag one or more selected files into Photoshop or into Windows Explorer to move/copy them) and IMatch implements the official mechanisms to open files with the associated application etc.

If files are dropped onto another application, it's under the control of the receiving application what it does with the dropped files. Photoshop, Affinity, Windows Paint, Camtasia, etc. open the dropped files. Windows Explorer accepts them for copying/moving.

Lightroom, for example, does not support drag & drop with files, it just opens the folder of the first dropped file. That's just the way Adobe has implemented it.

I have not used Photolab for a loong time, so I don't know how they implement the Windows Drag & Drop protocol.
When you start dragging, IMatch creates a "drag & drop" object from all selected files and hands it over to Windows, which does the rest, including delivering the list of dragged files to the receiving application. What PM does with that list is up to it. If you use drag & drop, check out The Alt key

Note: Photolab does not implement the sophisticated metadata processing and synchronization IMatch has. If you edit metadata in Pl and IMatch, take good care that PM does not accidentally wipe metadata in your files, especially native metadata like EXIF, IDC, maker notes etc. Use the IMatch Metadata Mechanic to check for problems afterwards and the Metadata Compare & Sync with a before & after file perhaps, to check for missing tags.

You can open any selection from Imatch in Photolab if you create an application favorite.  

This sounds as if Pl does not support Windows file drag & drop, but supports opening files provided via the command line. But there are length limits to command lines, so with too many files selected or when very long paths and file names are used, this might fail.

[Stenis]

Hi! I have long appreciated the very excellent interoperability between both PhotoMechanic and XnView and Photolab. In both these applications it is possible to select a set of pictures of your choise and open them with DXO Photolab ready for editing - and just those pictures and nothing else.

I've been using PhotoLab for a long time. As far as I know, the only way that can happen is if the sending app is somehow creating a PhotoLab 'Project' using only those chosen files.

From the beginning this didn´t work in PhotoMechanic either but I got it solved through Camera Bits Forums and their eminent technician Kirk Baker and it has been in place through many new updates without any further problems.

When this feature was described, am I right that it does create a 'Project' within PhotoLab?

No, it is not creating a "Project" but an "External Selection" as I have told you. In fact, both of them are stored in the same SQL-table in SQL Lite but stored there they are "flagged" a little differently so they are two different birds in the same tree. A Project i more "formal" and has to be created manually. The "External Selection" is more ad hoc and being created on the fly when an external application sends a selection to be opened by Photolab. It is in fact this that makes it so effective. This function I think is pretty unique for Photolab - haven´t seen anything like it anywhere else. From what I have seen Photolab does not support this function "internally" I mean makes it possible to make a selection in the "PictureLibrary" module to refine i "The Customize"-module. Iyt is just possible to use when integrating with external software.

[Stenis]

As shown in Opening Files in Other Applications, there are many ways to open files in other applications with IMatch.

If I do the same with iMatch, Photolab will open with ALL images in that active folder of the first picture I selected.

How do you open images from IMatch in PM? That would be helpful to know.

Does <Ctrl>+<Enter> not work? Or "Open with..." from the File Window ribbon?


IMatch implements the official Windows protocol for drag & drop (you can, e.g. drag one or more selected files into Photoshop or into Windows Explorer to move/copy them) and IMatch implements the official mechanisms to open files with the associated application etc.

If files are dropped onto another application, it's under the control of the receiving application what it does with the dropped files. Photoshop, Affinity, Windows Paint, Camtasia, etc. open the dropped files. Windows Explorer accepts them for copying/moving.

Lightroom, for example, does not support drag & drop with files, it just opens the folder of the first dropped file. That's just the way Adobe has implemented it.

I have not used Photolab for a loong time, so I don't know how they implement the Windows Drag & Drop protocol.
When you start dragging, IMatch creates a "drag & drop" object from all selected files and hands it over to Windows, which does the rest, including delivering the list of dragged files to the receiving application. What PM does with that list is up to it. If you use drag & drop, check out The Alt key

Note: Photolab does not implement the sophisticated metadata processing and synchronization IMatch has. If you edit metadata in Pl and IMatch, take good care that PM does not accidentally wipe metadata in your files, especially native metadata like EXIF, IDC, maker notes etc. Use the IMatch Metadata Mechanic to check for problems afterwards and the Metadata Compare & Sync with a before & after file perhaps, to check for missing tags.

You can open any selection from Imatch in Photolab if you create an application favorite. 

This sounds as if Pl does not support Windows file drag & drop, but supports opening files provided via the command line. But there are length limits to command lines, so with too many files selected or when very long paths and file names are used, this might fail.

You don´t! ... it is all happening totally automatically and it is this that makes it so productive and effective. This way you can work with selections from PhotoMechanic really as they and PhotoMechanic were an integral part of Photolab. You just toggle between Photolab and PhotoMechanic with the Windows commands Alt+Tab whenever you like to do a new selection in PM.

When you make a selection and then select "Edit with " in PhotoMechanic (and Photolab is open in the background) Photolab will directly display the first image of this "External Selection" in Photolabs "Customize" (Develop-module) and all images in the selection will get displayed in Photolabs "filmstrip" as you can see above. It will automatically store all "External Searches" in the lower left of the Photo so you can access them any time to call up a selection previously done.

[Stenis]

You can open any selection from Imatch in Photolab if you create an application favorite.

Go to the favorites - application tab, drag a Photolab short cut from your desktop into the tab. Then you can drag any selection of files to the favorite and only the selected files are opened in Photolab (Project). Images don't have to be in the same folder either. I have been using this method for a longtime.

If you use Photolab, make sure you define the .dob files as buddy files. If you move, delete or rename files, the buddy file will be moved, deleted or renamed as well.

Heiner

Thanks for that input, I´ll try it!

[Mario]

You don´t! ... it is all happening totally automatically and it is this that makes it so productive and effective. This way you can work with selections from PhotoMechanic really as they and PhotoMechanic were an integral part of Photolab. You just toggle between Photolab and PhotoMechanic with the Windows commands Alt+Tab whenever you like to do a new selection in PM

I don't understand what you mean with this. You don't what?

I haven't used PM in a decade and never used Photolapb (DXO, right?)

I select files in IMatch and drop them into Photoshop or Affinity Designer or my video editor to open them.
What could be easier? Or, I select a bunch of files in a File Window and press <Ctrl>+<Enter> to open them in the associated application. Or I use "Open with..." and select the application I want to open the files in.
I have application favorites for the programs I use frequently and added them to the File Window ribbon. I can just click a button to open files from IMatch in Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Blender, ...

It all just works.

[Stenis]

Mario, I ment I don't do anything at all in Photolab or PhotoMechanic after selecting the images, right click and select Edit with ... Photolab. After that all selected images were opened automatically in Photolab.

By default this was NOT at all the case when I opened a selection from iMatch with Photolab because what I then got was ALL the files in the file window in iMatch.
That was the reason a filed this case.

Everything is perfect now after configuring the favorite and assigning a short cut too

The reason I lifted this is that it is such an important function that isn´t at all to take for granted. It is for example impossible to get this to work as I want it in my other converter Capture One.  There it is several obstacles. Especially applications with "import functions" seems to be problematic and while PM and iMatch integrates with the "External Selection" Capture One is trying to create "a project" instead of just an ad hoc selection

Thank you!

[Jingo]

I noticed that your sample screenshots for Photolab show the 2 different "modes"... PhotoLibrary and Customize.  When you select and launch from IMatch, does it always default to Photolibrary while launching from PM and XNView always launch into Customize?

[Mario]

By default this was NOT at all the case when I opened a selection from iMatch with Photolab because what I then got was ALL the files in the file window in iMatch.

I'm still missing the info on how you opened a selection from IMatch in Photolab. 
Maybe you did use drag & drop and Photolab does not support this? Or supports it in the way of Adobe Lightroom, where it just takes the folder of the first dropped file and opens the entire folder in the Library?

Using "Open with..." or a Favorite does not work the same as drag & drop, Windows implements these commands differently.
IMatch has no control over which of the ways Windows offers for opening files in other applications is handled by the receiving application or how.

How good that IMatch offers a multitude of ways to open files in other applications.

[sybersitizen]

Hi! I have long appreciated the very excellent interoperability between both PhotoMechanic and XnView and Photolab. In both these applications it is possible to select a set of pictures of your choise and open them with DXO Photolab ready for editing - and just those pictures and nothing else.

I've been using PhotoLab for a long time. As far as I know, the only way that can happen is if the sending app is somehow creating a PhotoLab 'Project' using only those chosen files.

From the beginning this didn´t work in PhotoMechanic either but I got it solved through Camera Bits Forums and their eminent technician Kirk Baker and it has been in place through many new updates without any further problems.

When this feature was described, am I right that it does create a 'Project' within PhotoLab?

No, it is not creating a "Project" but an "External Selection" as I have told you. In fact, both of them are stored in the same SQL-table in SQL Lite but stored there they are "flagged" a little differently so they are two different birds in the same tree. A Project i more "formal" and has to be created manually. The "External Selection" is more ad hoc and being created on the fly when an external application sends a selection to be opened by Photolab. It is in fact this that makes it so effective. This function I think is pretty unique for Photolab - haven´t seen anything like it anywhere else. From what I have seen Photolab does not support this function "internally" I mean makes it possible to make a selection in the "PictureLibrary" module to refine i "The Customize"-module. Iyt is just possible to use when integrating with external software.

Well, I'd say the result is equivalent to a Project.

Interestingly, the normal behavior of FastStone Image Viewer when passing a file to PhotoLab is to create an External Selection rather than causing the entire folder to be opened.

[Stenis]

As you can see also below in the picture the iMatch interface can sometimes be a bit confusing.
I see three Photolab icons!

I have found that the only rock solid option in iMatch in my opinion is to use Fn-button F3 and configure the properties of the favorite "DXO Photolab" to the F3-button.
I just press F3 twice quickly and then the selection and nothing else will be passed as an "External Selection" to Photolab, just the way I wants it.

Using the mouse either for Drag and Drop or clicking icons in the ribbonbar is not a professional option I think because it just kills all the productivity.
There has never been faster typist than the ones B.M (before mouse)
They mastered even a lot of three key combinations by hart.
For those that were new to the profession every industry standard application came with "Function Key Templates" in plastic to put around the twelve function keys.
Productivity shoot outs were made for example between Word for DOS 6.0 and Wordperfect
The one with the least button presses was the winner.

I also found that right clicking the selected images was hit and miss. Sometimes it offered Photolab to open and sometimes it opened the PhotoWiewer in Windows. And when I succeded - when the Photolab was there on top of the meny available after the right click it did not open just the selected images but ALL images in the active folder in iMatch

[Stenis]

I noticed that your sample screenshots for Photolab show the 2 different "modes"... PhotoLibrary and Customize.  When you select and launch from IMatch, does it always default to Photolibrary while launching from PM and XNView always launch into Customize?

No, when using PhotoMechanic and XnView it always just transfers the selected images and always display them in "Customize" view ready to develope.

With iMatch it seems to work the same only when configuring a "Favorite" to use in my case F3 after defining that in the properties of the "Favourite".

In all the other cases of iMatch it opens in PhotoLibrary with all images in the active folder.

[Mario]

Still unanswered: How do you transfer the files when Photolab fails? Drag and Drop? Or a command?

[Stenis]

Hi! I have long appreciated the very excellent interoperability between both PhotoMechanic and XnView and Photolab. In both these applications it is possible to select a set of pictures of your choise and open them with DXO Photolab ready for editing - and just those pictures and nothing else.

I've been using PhotoLab for a long time. As far as I know, the only way that can happen is if the sending app is somehow creating a PhotoLab 'Project' using only those chosen files.

From the beginning this didn´t work in PhotoMechanic either but I got it solved through Camera Bits Forums and their eminent technician Kirk Baker and it has been in place through many new updates without any further problems.

When this feature was described, am I right that it does create a 'Project' within PhotoLab?

No, it is not creating a "Project" but an "External Selection" as I have told you. In fact, both of them are stored in the same SQL-table in SQL Lite but stored there they are "flagged" a little differently so they are two different birds in the same tree. A Project i more "formal" and has to be created manually. The "External Selection" is more ad hoc and being created on the fly when an external application sends a selection to be opened by Photolab. It is in fact this that makes it so effective. This function I think is pretty unique for Photolab - haven´t seen anything like it anywhere else. From what I have seen Photolab does not support this function "internally" I mean makes it possible to make a selection in the "PictureLibrary" module to refine i "The Customize"-module. Iyt is just possible to use when integrating with external software.

Well, I'd say the result is equivalent to a Project.

Interestingly, the normal behavior of FastStone Image Viewer when passing a file to PhotoLab is to create an External Selection rather than causing the entire folder to be opened.

No it is not at all equivalent to a "Project". They have totally different purposes. Projects have to actively be created and manually managed through it´s own "Project" interface. You have to put the images there yourselves and Projects are used mainly to manage a group of images that mostly have something in common and have been gathered for som reason and purpose. Projects are not at all suitable for fast and efficient high productivity workflows as the "External Selections" are.

The "External Selections" on the other hand are optimized for quick retrieval of image-selections through one single click in that special interface. It have the potential to save a lot of time when you have to go back and forth between different seletions. Then a certain selection can´be retrieved even without having to open iMatch or PhotoMechanic again. The data is then just a klick away in the "External Selection"-list. Try that with "Projects" a few times and you will understand the difference the hard way.

[Mario]

Still unanswered: How do you transfer the files when Photolab fails? Drag and Drop? Or a command?

[Stenis]

Still unanswered: How do you transfer the files when Photolab fails? Drag and Drop? Or a command?

I didn´t say Photolab fail because I´m not sure why some of your routines are transferring ALL pictures instead of the ones I have selected. I don´t know if that is intertially or not.

The only process that seems to work as I expect is to create and use a favorite fot DXO Photolab and configure it to use the f3 button. Now I just activate the selected image transfer by pressing F3 twice. It is rock solid compared to some of the other processes. The rest I leave to you Mario. I don´t need anything else than that.

... but I wonder why there seem to be processes that transfers all the images in the active folder or maybe even a set of images instead of only the ones I have actively selected?? Is that on purpose?? Have I misunderstood so you intentially have at least two different processes: one that transfers just the selected images and another that transfers everything in the active folder? Because I definitely have got two differenr results from iMatch. Things like that I have never seem with PM Plus or XnView.

[Mario]

I didn´t say Photolab fail because I´m not sure why some of your routines are transferring ALL pictures instead of the ones I have selected. I don´t know if that is intertially or not.

As I've explained above, IMatch does not do that.
When you do drag & drop, IMatch creates a drag and drop object of the selected files and hands it over to Windows. Windows then does the drag and drop logic and provides the file names to the receiving application. IMatch has no say in this.

Normally, applications just open the files (Photoshop, Affinity, Blender, Acrobat, ...).
Adobe Lightroom instead opens the folder of the first dropped file. Sounds familiar?

You can easily test this: Select a few images and drag and drop them into an empty document in Windows Notepad.
You will see something like this:

Code Select Expand

"imatchDrop":{
 "guid":"5EE7BBFF-FB55-44A6-96BB-25DB4FF979B1",
 "type":"files",
 "id":[30419,30420,30409]
 }
I dropped 3 files, and their ids are visible in the "id" array.

Have you tried the Alt option Using Drag and Drop


When you use "Open with..." or a Favorite, IMatch constructs a shell file container object from the selected files and uses Windows shell functions to "open" these files with the selected application, the associated application or the application associated with the Favorite. Again, IMatch has no control over how the receiving application processes the file names.

[sybersitizen]

Hi! I have long appreciated the very excellent interoperability between both PhotoMechanic and XnView and Photolab. In both these applications it is possible to select a set of pictures of your choise and open them with DXO Photolab ready for editing - and just those pictures and nothing else.

I've been using PhotoLab for a long time. As far as I know, the only way that can happen is if the sending app is somehow creating a PhotoLab 'Project' using only those chosen files.

From the beginning this didn´t work in PhotoMechanic either but I got it solved through Camera Bits Forums and their eminent technician Kirk Baker and it has been in place through many new updates without any further problems.

When this feature was described, am I right that it does create a 'Project' within PhotoLab?

No, it is not creating a "Project" but an "External Selection" as I have told you. In fact, both of them are stored in the same SQL-table in SQL Lite but stored there they are "flagged" a little differently so they are two different birds in the same tree. A Project i more "formal" and has to be created manually. The "External Selection" is more ad hoc and being created on the fly when an external application sends a selection to be opened by Photolab. It is in fact this that makes it so effective. This function I think is pretty unique for Photolab - haven´t seen anything like it anywhere else. From what I have seen Photolab does not support this function "internally" I mean makes it possible to make a selection in the "PictureLibrary" module to refine i "The Customize"-module. Iyt is just possible to use when integrating with external software.

Well, I'd say the result is equivalent to a Project.

Interestingly, the normal behavior of FastStone Image Viewer when passing a file to PhotoLab is to create an External Selection rather than causing the entire folder to be opened.

No it is not at all equivalent to a "Project". They have totally different purposes. Projects have to actively be created and manually managed through it´s own "Project" interface. You have to put the images there yourselves and Projects are used mainly to manage a group of images that mostly have something in common and have been gathered for som reason and purpose. Projects are not at all suitable for fast and efficient high productivity workflows as the "External Selections" are.

The "External Selections" on the other hand are optimized for quick retrieval of image-selections through one single click in that special interface. It have the potential to save a lot of time when you have to go back and forth between different seletions. Then a certain selection can´be retrieved even without having to open iMatch or PhotoMechanic again. The data is then just a klick away in the "External Selection"-list. Try that with "Projects" a few times and you will understand the difference the hard way.

The only difference TO ME is how the two things are created. Disagreement on this is pointless.

[Stenis]

I didn´t say Photolab fail because I´m not sure why some of your routines are transferring ALL pictures instead of the ones I have selected. I don´t know if that is intertially or not.

As I've explained above, IMatch does not do that.
When you do drag & drop, IMatch creates a drag and drop object of the selected files and hands it over to Windows. Windows then does the drag and drop logic and provides the file names to the receiving application. IMatch has no say in this.

Normally, applications just open the files (Photoshop, Affinity, Blender, Acrobat, ...).
Adobe Lightroom instead opens the folder of the first dropped file. Sounds familiar?

You can easily test this: Select a few images and drag and drop them into an empty document in Windows Notepad.
You will see something like this:

Code Select Expand

"imatchDrop":{
 "guid":"5EE7BBFF-FB55-44A6-96BB-25DB4FF979B1",
 "type":"files",
 "id":[30419,30420,30409]
 }
I dropped 3 files, and their ids are visible in the "id" array.

Have you tried the Alt option Using Drag and Drop


When you use "Open with..." or a Favorite, IMatch constructs a shell file container object from the selected files and uses Windows shell functions to "open" these files with the selected application, the associated application or the application associated with the Favorite. Again, IMatch has no control over how the receiving application processes the file names.

I suggests that you download a 30 days copy by yourself and test. Seeing is believing. I´m just telling you what I have seen using the different processes in iMatch to transfer a selection of data to Photolab.
The behaviors of these different ways of doing this do not give consistent results.

I have seen at least three different results:

1. Photolab do not open just the selection I have done in iMatch but ALL the files in the currently opened folder.
2. Photolab does not open at all instead the selected files opens in Windows Photo App.
3. The third is working correctly and that is the "favorite"-option that has been mapped to F3 by the propertios of the favorite. It opens just the files selected in iMatch in the "Custimize"-window of Photolab

Why do you have all these different types of processes?
Why three different icons doing the "almost same" and on top of that a possibility to configure a "favorite"-version mapped to a function button.
On top of that an "Open with Photolab" on top of the form that opens when right clicking one of the selected files in iMatch.
All these different options also add a lot to an already very complex application.

Don´t make the mistake to shoot the messenger Mario.
I have made the same thing of not trusting my users when I was a developer of product management and pricing applications.
All of them were girls and women.
They were right at that time and was not and I had to beg them to forgive me.
Finally I found it out through empirical tests.
That time my preconceptions led me totally astray.
Today I never take anything for given or granted.
I don´t believe in anything that I can´t verify empirically ad certainly not in god.

I will leave this now because I am totally content with the function key solution.
So you can close this request case but that doesn´t mean that the application is alright.

A special thanks to Hluxem that put me on trac to the "Favorite"-solution.
.... but dragging and dropping is not my bag and never will be because all unnecessary mouse actions are contra productive.
A double press on F3 is far more fast.
People who can handle the keyboard are mostly far more productive than the ones tied to mouse driven actions.

 

[Stenis]

I apologize for my questions but I´m evaluate this software now and I have to do this job before I starts to use it in production.
I have just a couple cases left before I will give it a go and migrate from PhotoMechanic after four years.
I still have one really irritating issue and that is the Copy and Paste keyboard functions.
Using just the mouse in the Metadata Layout form like I have done until now is not what I want to do.
It´s a pain but the keyboard commands don´t do what I have expected.
I have to do some more testing and reading.

The next thing is the Autofill-function.
I have started to look into that and it looks far more promising than the Metadata Templates.
The Metadata Templates do not at all suit me - they don´t give me control enough to trust them in (and me) in production.

Maybe I´m to spoiled by PhotoMechanic.
PM has a slightly different user group profile.
PM has been constantly developed with the passionate help from the most demanding users there is.
The ones with very very tight deadlines like sports photographers and journalists in the event businesses.


Thanks for your patience.

[Mario]

Please don't quote so much. We all know how to scroll. It makes your posts redundant and hard to read. Thank you.

1. Photolab do not open just the selection I have done in iMatch but ALL the files in the currently opened folder.

This is how it is implemented in Photolab then. Windows sends it the dropped files, and Photolab decides what if does with them.
Neither IMatch nor Windows have control over this.

2. Photolab does not open at all instead the selected files opens in Windows Photo App.

If you use the "Open with associated application", Windows opens the files in the associated application - which is in your case Windows Photo. Associate the files with Photolab in Windows Explorer. Use Open with... in Windows Explorer, select Photolab and enable the "Always" check box. See Windows help for more information.

3. The third is working correctly and that is the "favorite"-option that has been mapped to F3 by the propertios of the favorite. It opens just the files selected in iMatch in the "Custimize"-window of Photolab

Then this is how Photolab has implemented the "shell open" functionality in their software. Like with drag and drop, this is a standard Windows protocol IMatch fully supports. But neither IMatch nor Windows have control over how the application receiving the shell open these files command is handling it.

It´s a pain but the keyboard commands don´t do what I have expected. 

This sentence tells me nothing. You don't say which keyboard commands you use, where or what you expect.

Is it the Metadata Panel again?
I've just used Ctr+C and Ctrl+V to copy metadata from one file to a dozen other files in the Metadata Panel. Works perfectly.

Note that File Windows, most panels, tree controls etc. support Copy & Paste in their own way. See IMatch Help System.
Windows sends the keyboard commands to the currently active window / panel (IMatch shows the caption in orange), so make sure you have clicked into the Metadata Panel or made it active via it's keyboard shortcut. Pressing Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V while another window or panel is active will not copy metadata.

Clicking into the Metadata Panel or using the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl>+<E>, <M> or using the menu command Edit menu > Edit Metadata is required for Ctrl+C to actually "reach" the Metadata Panel.

If you click in the Metadata Panel, select the tags you want to copy, then click into the File Window to select the files you want to copy to and then just press <Ctrl>+<C>, the File Window, not the Metadata Panel will receive the keyboard command.

After selecting the files you want to copy to, make sure the Metadata Panel is active and press <Ctr>+<V>. Then the Metadata Panel will receive the keypress and insert the data.

This is of course a lot easier when you just press the buttons available in the Metadata Panel ribbon. Clicking the Copy button automatically focuses the Metadata Panel and clicking the Paste button does the same.

[sinus]

I select pictures in IMatch, and drag'n'drop them simply (in my case) into Photoshop. 
That's it, no problem, perfect for me. 

[Jingo]

From reading this string through - it sounds to me like there is a solution to the "issue" though?  Use the Favorites function (your F3 shortcut) in Imatch to open the selection into Photolab so only that selection is shown.  

I just tried this and it doesn't work for me (Photolab 7) - I still get the images shown in the PhotoLibrary and all images are shown... but if it is working for you - that seems to resolve this issue I think?

[sybersitizen]

From reading this string through - it sounds to me like there is a solution to the "issue" though?  Use the Favorites function (your F3 shortcut) in Imatch to open the selection into Photolab so only that selection is shown. 

I just tried this and it doesn't work for me (Photolab 7) - I still get the images shown in the PhotoLibrary and all images are shown... but if it is working for you - that seems to resolve this issue I think?

Works for me with PhotoLab 7 - same as selecting the image(s) and clicking on the Favorite icon.

[jch2103]

Works for me also (PhotoLab 7 and PhotoLab .