Photo Mechanic™ Version 4.3 History

Below is a list of changes made to Photo Mechanic for Version 4.3, released January 15, 2005.

This version is available as a free update for registrations good through December 2004.

Added RAW + JPEG view mode to combine RAW and JPEG files with the same base name into a single thumbnail. This view can be toggled by Control (Windows) or Command (Mac) J (think of Join). When combined, Photo Mechanic will use the JPEG for displaying thumbnails and previews, and for operations such as save-as, print, email, and HTML/text/XML export. Also when combined, operations such as rename, delete, rotate, tag, and caption will be applied to both the RAW and the JPEG files. For copy and FTP, you can choose either RAW + JPEG, only the JPEG, or only the RAW to be copied or sent. Also added a preference to select whether the RAW or the JPEG is edited externally (e.g. with Control (Win) or Command (Mac) E). To edit the opposite file (i.e. JPEG or RAW), use the Shift (Win) or Option (Mac) keyboard modifier.
Added zoom function to the preview dialog which can be toggled in the zoom panel (or with the 'Z' keyboard shortcut). The zoom factor can be set to 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, or 200% (keyboard shortcuts for zoom factor are '+' and '-'). When zoomed-in such that that view is larger than the preview window, you can pan/scroll using the hand cursor which is activated by holding down the space bar or Shift (Windows) or Option (Mac) keys. You can also pan/scroll with the Shift (Windows) or Option (Mac) and arrow keys, and pan/scroll faster by also using the Ctrl (Windows) or Shift (Mac) keys. When zoomed-in in 2-up mode, check the "Lock scrolling" box (or 'L' key to toggle) to pan/scroll both photos together.
Added background ingest functionality. Now when you ingest a disk or multiple disks, the ingest process runs in the "background" so you can continue to use Photo Mechanic while the files are copied from the camera disk(s). If you choose to open contact sheet(s) during ingest, then the destination contact sheet(s) will open at the start of the ingest process and automatically be scanned every 5 seconds to show the freshly copied photos. Multiple ingest processes can be run concurrently.
Added ability to rename files during the ingest. RAW + JPEG pairs will be named together with the same base name.
Improved speed of preview and slide show.
(Mac) Improved speed of disk scans for contact sheets, Favorites and Navigator panes, and ingest.
Simplified contact sheet printing by allowing user to directly enter desired number of columns and rows. Also added ability to control thumbnail orientation.
Added a Find and Replace command to search and replace IPTC information.
Added support for browsing Olympus ORF RAW files from the C-5050, C-7000, C-8080, E-1, and E-20 cameras. However, only the E-1 and E-20 cameras create a preview; the C-series cameras are limited to the Exif thumbnail.
Added support for browsing Adobe DNG RAW files. However, the preview is limited to the 256 pixel TIFF-EX thumbnail created by the Adobe DNG Converter.
Support for CMYK JPEGs is now handled internally without using QuickTime.
Added support for CMYK TIFFs in chunky format only.
Added retry in FTP progress dialog to resume broken transfers. Also, sent items are saved as soon as they are processed rather than after they have been transmitted.
Added more support for viewing CR2 RAW files from the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and EOS 20D cameras.
Added more support for viewing NEF RAW files from the Nikon D2X.
(Mac) Added a button in the preferences to configure Image Capture to launch Photo Mechanic when a camera disk is inserted.
(Win) Added AutoPlay v2 support so Photo Mechanic can be launched when a camera disk is inserted. First you must enable the AutoPlay for each card reader to use Photo Mechanic for handling "Mixed content" (since some cameras create audio .WAV or video .AVI or .MOV files). Then Photo Mechanic can be configured to either ingest or browse an inserted camera disk. Do not choose Photo Mechanic to handle AutoPlay for your CD devices. If you are not using Windows XP Service Pack 2, then you may experience some problems with AutoPlay due to Windows SNAFU. Microsoft has an AutoPlay Repair Wizard which can be downloaded to help fix any problems.
(Win) Added contextual menu items to Windows Explorer that will let you open a folder into Photo Mechanic.
(Win) Added multiple document icons for display in Windows, one for each file type that Photo Mechanic registers.
(Win) Added the Favorites pane above the Navigator.
(Win) Right click drag of photos from the contact sheet to the Navigator now shows move/copy menu.
(Win) Added a "fake drag & drop" workaround for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to handle launching multiple photos.
(Mac) Navigator now shows Finder's sidebar favorites along with mounted volumes.
(Mac) Added ability to create new folders or rename folders in the Navigator and Favorites panes by Control (or right) click.
(Mac) Open contact sheets that are renamed by the Favorites or Navigator update themselves properly.
Added three character Country Code IPTC field as a combo box. Also added variables {contrycode} or {ccod} to access this field.
Added {colorclassval} or {colorval} or {ccvl} to access the color class value as a number from 0-8 (e.g. useful for custom sort).
Added enhanced status information at the bottom of the contact sheet that shows the total MB of selected files, the number of RAW and JPEG files (when viewing as combined RAW + JPEG), and number of "unknown" files not being displayed in the contact sheet.
(Win) Added direct renaming of individual photos from the contact sheet window by double-clicking on the file names.
Added "View by" popup menu in the toolbar of the contact sheet.
(Win) Added color management toolbar button to toggle color management on/off.
(Win) Filename labels for the thumbnails are now trimmed to fit width of cell rather than just being truncated.
Added option to control copying of associated WAV files.
Added contextual menu item for thumbnails in the contact sheet for selecting others photos with the same color class.
Added user preferences for Preview window background color and selected background color.
Added '+' and '-' buttons to increase or decrease the size of the Info pane.
(Win) Turned on word-wrap for the Info pane.
Added 'M' keyboard shortcut in the Preview window to rename a photo.
Added mouse wheel support in the Preview window to advance through photos and change the zoom factor when in zoom mode and the Shift (Win) or Option (Mac) key is down.
(Win) Added font face, size, and color to HTML export.
Added new "Home label" and "Home URL" fields in HTML export. Also added checkboxes to preserve EXIF and IPTC information in the generated JPEGs (for HTML export of JPEGs only).
Added Shift (Win) or Option (Mac) keyboard shortcut timer to dynamically change the "Set {seqn} variable " button to "Reset {seqn} variable" in the following dialogs: Save As, Copy, Rename, FTP As, and Ingest.
Added Shift (Win) or Option (Mac) keyboard shortcut timer to dynamically change the "Clear" button to "Options" (clear options) in the IPTC Stationery and IPTC Info dialogs. Also, in the IPTC Info dialog, the OK button will change to "Eval".
(Mac) Added work-around to fix a bug with MacOS X incorrectly replying that a locked file was copied during a drag & drop from Photo Mechanic. This could cause locked files to be deleted if the destination was the same volume as the source contact sheet and the Option key was not held down (to indicate a copy rather than a move).
(Mac) Fixed a bug where using the crop tool could keep Photo Mechanic from generating thumbnails.
(Mac) When opening a contact sheet, the PM.lock file is now created invisible and is only created on writeable and removeable disks (e.g. camera disks mounted into a card reader). This file won't be created on local or network volumes. The creation of this file on removeable disks is to warn the user against physically unmounting a camera disk before the contact sheet has been closed.
(Mac) Fixed a bug where contact sheets would open at strange sizes when no other contact sheets are open and an FTP progress window is open.
(Mac) Fixed a bug where the scroll wheel would still think the mouse button was down after a drag & drop operation.
(Win) Fixed a drag & drop bug that was preventing multiple photos from being dragged. Also fixed a drag & drop bug where the contact sheet would start scrolling and selecting thumbnails.
(Win) Fixed a problem with saving and restoring the splitter bar between the Preview window control panes and the preview (vertical scroll bar now taken into account).
(Win) Updated the spelling checker to solve text field selection problems experienced by some users.

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