Wishlist for features in the Organizer (advanced)

Hi Michel,

As you know, I've switched from PSE to PSP X5.  It's "Organizer" is very weak, but its Editor is outstanding.  So, after working with it for a week, I've come to the conclusion that as an "advanced" user I need to consider my computer as having an "imaging system" on it. 

The analogy is like building a home stereo system in bygone years -- choosing individual components on a cost/performance basis and picking and choosing the turntable, phono cartridge, pre-amp, amplifier and speakers that best fit my budget and needs.

So, the "hub" of my imaging system is the image editor.  To it I'll add an organizer, and a Raw image processor and a panorama program.  I can change the editor to CorelDraw if I need vector capabilities or Photo-Paint if I need specialized raster editing options (like working in CMYK).

I'm watching three image database organizing programs, and the IMatch one I mentioned a while ago looks the most promising.  I'm waiting for its new beta to be released before testing it, but even the current version has more image data, database searching, and drives management (as well as the points you mentioned) than the PSE Organizer or Lightroom or PSP will ever have in a million years.

I recently installed the free RAW Therapee editor, and it too has more image adjustments and features than anything the big companies can ever hope to include as an auxiliary part of their programs.

When I need panoramas, the free MicroSoft ICE program is stunning.

That's probably not the comment you were looking for when you posted your suggestions (which are perfectly reasonable for a future version of PSE), but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that an "all-in-one" image program (especially a modestly priced one) is bound to disappoint -- as a user becomes more skilled, he will become increasingly irritated at its limitations.

Just some food for thought....

Ken

Hi Michel.

Just a few comments:-

1) I'm not too sure what you mean about open JPGs directly from the organizer - I thought you could already

2) The advanced search in PSE 11 at least now has the "not" option

3) The manage drives, missing files list and catalog search wouldn't be much use to me as I din't seem to suffer from these problems.

4) The enhanced Export feature might be useful

5) The album sort by name wouldn't be of use as I tend not to rename my images except in a sequential manner therefore name order would tend to be the same as date/time order.

I think that if you submit your request for enhancements, it would be better if you submitted each enhancement separately rather than in one go.

Hope my comments are useful - suggest you post links to the requests so that we can add our counts there.

Brian

Ken,

I used iMatch some years ago and thought that it was very good and flexible mainly because you could write simple scripts to do the things you wanted to do. I did get slightly fed up because back then it wouldn't handle stacks very well.

That's when I switched to PSE as I liked everything being in one application. I have now started to look at Lightroom and find that it can do most of what I want. It does mean another learning curve though.

I guess that if there was one tool which did everything, we still wouldn't be satisfied - or couldn't afford it :-)

Brian

Michel,

Thanks for the clariication - I'll have another think about that.

Yes, I was referring to the Exclude option - limited but a slight improvement over PSE 10.

I agree the the other options would make troubleshooting easier.

I seem to be learning something new about PSEe 11 each time I use it.

Brian