PRE ORGANISING PHOTOS!

[edphoto]

Hi
Apologies for the amateur question/s but i'd be grateful for a bit of advice if possible;
I have a good few thousand photos stored on my computer and they are in no way organised.Many are not named,just in date order.
Before i get to grips with imatch5 ( or the previous version i bought ) i want to organise them quickly -for a start at least a third can be deleted so it seems sensible to do that but as i go through them i'd like to name them simply, because  i need to be able to find photos for work and am wasting time looking through folders.At least windows search would hone in on the right ballpark (if i named the photos).
The questions really is;
Would it be a good idea to name the files ( and use the windows search in the short term) or would it be better and quicker to leave them un named and start tagging them in imatch
I guess you can tag simply to start with and add complexity later?
Part of my hesitation in using imatch is that the new version will be out soon..ish and also from glancing at the forums from time to time it all seems very complicated. I'm prepared to put a good few hours in of course and i'm sure it could be a great way of organising not just my photos but information but i'm worried i'll just get stuck. I don't want another hobby just a useful tool.But have no idea how hard it will be to get to grips with it.Will there be a user manual at any point? There's an old saying,"when you are up to your ass in alligators, it is difficult to remember that your inital objective was to drain the swamp" I don't want to get stuck fighting alligators!!!

[herman]

Welcome to IMatch!

Any powerful piece of software has a learning curve.
IMatch is no exception.
One of the big advantages of IMatch is the help system.
When you want a user manual just click "help" and open the help file.
Or click <f1>, it usually brings up the right part of the help file.

IM5 is still beta.
Although it can do a lot of things and many of us are tempted to use it for production work, it is still beta.
It may contain bugs, the database format may change, the risks are up to you.
Most people here work with a copy of their images just in case......
Did I mention it is beta? 

Culling images is usually easier in IMatch than in Windows.
Just import all your images in IMatch, view them, mark the non-keepers.
Marking can be done with a flag, the <delete> key (if configured properly), a category, whatever is easiest for you.

Please start with browsing the help file though, it is amazingly good!

[Richard]

I do NOT consider file names as being a high priority. Most IMatch users have changed their minds as to what should be in a file name. Categories are the heart of IMatch but most of us have also changed our minds as to what we want for Categories. It is easy to make changes. I will recommend that you COPY your image files to a new folder named Copies and let IMatch 5 index that new folder. That will keep your originals out of harms way should something go wrong with a Beta version of IMatch 5.

1. Download and install the current Beta version of IMatch 5.
2. From the Windows Start Menu go to photools.com and copy the Help files to your desktop. Or make a link.
3. Open IMatch Help to the first page and read: First Steps, Meeting IMatch, and Working with Categories.
4. I will suggest that your first database start with the five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, Why.
5. Assign all images to all five Ws.
6. Create Categories that fulfill each W. I will start with "Where".
7. To answer "Where" I will create a category labeled "Location"
8. Under "Location" I will add: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa.
9. I would next open Where and select thumbnails for say Europe and move the assignment to Location|Europe. Once all images have been removed from Where and assigned to a Location, you know you are done with Where until you add more files.
10. Repeat step 9 for each of the Ws.

Most likely you will want to refine many of the Categories created in steps 9 and 10. For example you might add Child Categories like Canada, USA, Mexico under North America. Still too course? No problem, just add more detailed Child Categories. Just as a rule of thumb, I start thinking about adding sub-categories when a category gets to about 100 files.

[Mario]

You've got already very good advice from the other posters.

Just a small remark to the original poster: WRITING IN ALL CAPS is considered as yelling, so please don't.

[edphoto]

Many thanks Herman and Richard and Mario for taking time to help. It is much appreciated.
I now feel i can make a start with the imatch ( and dispense with renaming and deleting files in windows- that could have been a big waste of time! )