Category & Attributes Improvements

[dkorman]

While the functionality of iMatch (5.8.4) is amazing (thank you Mario), I have some "usability" issues which have existed across releases but which are problematic in my workflow:

1. Categories

The Category View is very "jumpy," making drag&drop category assignment, well, "painful."  Often, just as I am about to release a "drop", the Categories View "jumps," and the "drop" ends up in the wrong category.  In addition, after the "drop," the categories display re-highlights the source category with each drag& drop, taking the panel away from the set of categories I want to work with.  This complicates my detecting if the "drop" occurred in the correct category - I sometime have doubts.  Cut&paste is not a solution, because I need to select the destination category, which, of course, takes me away from the source images that I was trying to categorize.  The "jumpiness" seems to be worse when I have data-driven categories active; when I remove the data-driven categories, the Categories View is somewhat smoother, but the issues remain. 

Do others experience this problem?

If the "jumpiness" is addressable, it might be nice to be able to have two Category Panels open at the same time, each with their separate view of categories and their own related selected image display.

2. Attributes

Attributes work "as advertised," and I use them as an essential feature if iMatch.  However, the requirement that importing attributes replaces rather than appends to an existing attribute set is burdensome.

OS: Windows 10
processor: i7 920 2.67/2.79 GHz
RAM: 12 GB RAM
paging file on hard drive
iMatch installed on SSD
databases on 7200 RPM,  4 TB hard drive
memory when running iMatch with other typical applications 45-65% (according the Task Manager, though I have no idea of fragmentation)

   

[Mario]

1. Assigning categories via drag & drop is actually a rather untypical workflow. Most users use the category panel, copy/paste (you can copy files into the clipboard and then paste them into a category to assign them) or Favorites / Keyboard shortcuts.

2. Importing Attributes is usually something you do once, to fill the Attributes in your database initially from an external source. Hence the import modules add/replace, not append.

[dkorman]

Mario,
Thank you for your speedy reply.

Regarding Categories, I can change my thinking so that the Categories View and Categories Panel have different functions: selecting vs. categorizing (which I mixed together in the Categories View and found problematic).  This is a reasonable adaptation on my part, and I thank you for pointing it out.

Regarding Attributes,  I find an Excel-type interface seems to give me more control at standardizing the attribute data and is smoother and more "fluid" than in iMatch, but maybe I'm just more adapted to the Excel interface and need to work more with iMatch.  Still, for me in my workflow, being able to append to the Attribute Set would be welcome. (I clearly have no idea of the technological "hurdles" that would be necessary to allow this).

You have accomplished so much with iMatch - I greatly look forward to your implementation of new technologies in version 6, and wish you well.

David

[Mario]

Which features do you use the "import" Attribute from elsewhere?