Finding Old Files

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Robert Schleif
Posts: 340
Joined: May 1st, 2009, 8:28 pm

Finding Old Files

Post by Robert Schleif »

Despite using a directory structure of the form Year/Month/Name/Final, e.g. 2019/09 Leaves/Final, or 2019/09 Leaves/143/Final, at times I'm finding it difficult to locate older images. Is there a program that will start at a directory that I specify and generate a page of thumbnails of the jpg or tif files located in all subdirectories labeled "Final" (and no others) located in the directory tree below my specified starting point? If there isn't such a program, one like this might be a convenient addition or adjunct to PWP.
jsachs
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Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Finding Old Files

Post by jsachs »

You might want to check out FastStone -- it's a fast image file manager that can quickly display thumbnails of the image files in a folder. It doesn't print pages of thumbnails however.

Also, see this Windows tip for printing thumbnails of selected images in a folder:

https://www.thundercloud.net/infoave/ne ... -a-folder/
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
Robert Schleif
Posts: 340
Joined: May 1st, 2009, 8:28 pm

Re: Finding Old Files

Post by Robert Schleif »

Thank you. I'm not sure either of these can do quite what I seem to need. I think that I need something to scan a directory tree for folders with a specific name, and then make a set of thumbnails from images in such folders.

I suppose that as I work, a minor variant of PWP's Export could be used to place thumbnails of images in a "Contact" folder, and this would be relatively easy to use each time I store final images. To be most useful however, it would be nice if the path to the image could be made part of the thumbnail's name.
Robert Schleif
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Joined: May 1st, 2009, 8:28 pm

Re: Finding Old Files

Post by Robert Schleif »

I believe that the long-term usefullness of PWP 8 would be enhanced if it contained features that facilitate finding old images. As I read the specifications, the program FastStone mentioned by Jonathan does not appear to allow finding all the "Final" directories and only the "Final" directories in a directory heirarchy. Therefore, as a stopgap measure, my present needs are partly met with a Python script that searches downward from a specified start folder for all tiff images in "Final" folders and copies them to a "Contacts" folder in the specified start folder, having given them a name showing where they lie in the folder heirarchy. Then, as Jonathan pointed out, the Windows File Explorer is convenient for displaying thumbnails of these images.
MarkT
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Joined: April 24th, 2009, 2:07 pm

Re: Finding Old Files

Post by MarkT »

Don't know if you've looked into IMatch from photools.com. It has built-in scripting tools, and I see there is a sample script that has something to do with searching for folders: https://www.photools.com/community/inde ... 7#msg37617. Sounds like it would be able to find the "final" folders, but I've not been able to try it.
Charles2
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Re: Finding Old Files

Post by Charles2 »

Not knowing Python, I assume a script can invoke a program. If you have a program that generates a thumbnail .jpg from a .tif, then you can presumably write a script that solves your problem.

You might seach generate thumbnail from tif in order to find such a program.
pierrelabreche
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Re: Finding Old Files

Post by pierrelabreche »

If you are willing to use cloud services, an application such as Google Photos allows to upload all photos starting from certain directory folders. Then, you will be able to use Google Photos AI search to find people by name, things and places, and specify date ranges. The returned images can be inspected to view metadata such as date taken, etc. With this data, it should be easier to locate your old pictures in your computer folders.
Robert Schleif
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Joined: May 1st, 2009, 8:28 pm

Re: Finding Old Files

Post by Robert Schleif »

Charles 2 Python scripts look like programs and run like programs if your computer has Python installed as the installation provides an interpreter of Python scripts. Python functions exist that will resize images. For speed of execution, I chose to have my script simply find Final directories and then copy tif files from Final directories to a single directory. I delete those copied files when I have found the original image and its location in my file structure.

pierrelabreche I haven't used cloud storage but perhaps I should as the searching capabilities sound useful. How does the yearly cost compare to using one's own hard drive? A quick look at AWS suggests that a USB hard drive costs less than storing the drive's capacity in the cloud for a year, but I fear that I've misunderstood the pricing.
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