4 Replies Latest reply: Oct 6, 2012 6:11 AM by MichelBParis RSS

    Selecting only 'best matches' in the result of a search with stacks/version sets

    MichelBParis Community Member
    MichelBParis Sep 28, 2012 7:40 AM

      One thing I don't like when you do a search and some results are included in stacks of version sets, it that you are shown the best matches with the non matches indicated by a special icon. Then you can't have the option to 'select only best matches'.

      Maybe I am missing something to do that ?

      An example :

      Suppose you usually shoot raw and keep only the best edited jpeg in a version set together with the original raw. 

      You want to delete the original raws when there is an edited jpeg in the version set.

      You can perfectly use the search by details for files in a version set and filename with the raw suffix.

       

      How can you select only the 'best matches' in the result of the search ?

      Unless there is a way to do that easily, I would like to introduce a feature request to add 'show only best matches in stacks/version sets' in the option menu of the result of the search.

       

      You could :

      - select all the results and expand all stacks and version sets

      - assign a temporary keyword like 'IsInVersionSet' to all

      - do a new search by detail for 'IsInVersionSet' and filename ends with raw suffix

      - Select all and delete

      - remove the temporary keyword.

      That would work for version sets with only one original and one edited jpeg, not for multiple files in a stack or version sets, the info about stacks or sets would be lost.

       

      The only method I have found to do the selection and deletion with keeping stacks and version sets is:

      - create a catalog copy (copy of the whole catalog folder)

      - in the new catalog, use the above procedure to delete the raws

      - in the old catalog, find missing files and delete them from catalog.

       

      Anyone to support such a feature request ?

      • 630 Views
      • Tags:
        • 1. Re: Selecting only 'best matches' in the result of a search with stacks/version sets
          SO_PSE Community Member
          SO_PSE Oct 6, 2012 1:23 AM (in response to MichelBParis)

          One way to delete all the raw files and to keep only the top edited file in the version set is to "Flatten the version set". Here are the steps -

           

          1. Select all the version sets.

          2. Right click and select Version set->Flatten Version Set...

           

          This would keep only the top file and remove all the other files from the version set.

          • 2. Re: Selecting only 'best matches' in the result of a search with stacks/version sets
            MichelBParis Community Member
            MichelBParis Oct 6, 2012 1:57 AM (in response to SO_PSE)

            SO_PSE wrote:

             

            One way to delete all the raw files and to keep only the top edited file in the version set is to "Flatten the version set". Here are the steps -

             

            1. Select all the version sets.

            2. Right click and select Version set->Flatten Version Set...

             

            This would keep only the top file and remove all the other files from the version set.

            Yes, but flattening version sets (or stacks) is destructive, it destroys the version set (or stack) by keeping only the upper image. The correct way is to 'convert version set to individual items' - this keeps all images but unfortunately loses the link between other items in the version set. If you want to delete one file in the version set while keeping the rest of the version set... see my previous post.

            All versions of the Organizer are able to display the result of a search while showing the 'best matches', but they also display the other files in the version set/stack, so you can't really select 'best matches'. I would like another option in the options button : 'show only best matches' together with the existing : 'Hide best match...' option. I understand that such an option would require some processing time, but that would be better than not having the option.

             

            I don't think many PSE users really use stacks or version sets besides keywords and albums, so that's probably not a priority for Adobe. However I think that there is a growing percentage of users shooting raw or raw+jpegs, and there, version sets or stacks are natural and common. Implementing version sets and stacks make the software architecture much more complex. (It seems that even Lightroom is a bit restrictive with stacks, if I believe John R Ellis.) So, even if it's not an easy task to implement that option, I think it's worth the challenge.

            • 3. Re: Selecting only 'best matches' in the result of a search with stacks/version sets
              Little_Pale_Face Community Member
              Little_Pale_Face Oct 6, 2012 2:33 AM (in response to SO_PSE)

              Michel,

               

              First, I would never delete my RAW files but I can probably dream up some other search criteria that it is hard to achieve with the current search mechanism.

               

              I think that I would like to see the 'select only best matches' option as you suggest. Perhaps the option should be 'select only exact matches'. I see it is still omitted in PSE 11. I'm not sure why Adobe chose to show the "non matches" and not give the option to hide them.

               

              The version set icon stays with the latest (non match) version so perhaps there would be a need for a caution icon just in case you couldn't remember what your search was.

               

              Brian

              • 4. Re: Selecting only 'best matches' in the result of a search with stacks/version sets
                MichelBParis Community Member
                MichelBParis Oct 6, 2012 6:11 AM (in response to Little_Pale_Face)

                LittlePaleFace wrote:

                 

                Michel,

                 

                First, I would never delete my RAW files but I can probably dream up some other search criteria that it is hard to achieve with the current search mechanism.

                Brian

                You are right, I also would never delete my original raw files...  unless it's in a catalog copy (catalog + media). I did choose that example because I recently wanted a 'light' version of my catalog for use on a notebook with the second copy of PSE. I wanted to be able to show on screen any of my pictures with all the search organization in my catalog. After a backup/restore on the notebook, I deleted all raw files having a final jpeg version (nearly all).

                I could have deleted pictures without a star rating, but was not sure if interesting ones had been omitted...

                That already cut the total size by a half.

                Now, something I would not recommend to beginners : I used Faststone Photo Resizer to resize all jpegs to a pixel size for screen (1024 x 768) without changing the file names or locations. That way the database is not fooled by the name and location of files. The only thing I did was to delete the thumbnail cache and let it be rebuilt because the thumbs.5.cache stores the pixel dimensions. As I don't know why, I thought it was better not to have wrong data in the catalog. The light catalog was less than 1/10th of the original, without losing any catalog information.