MiniCat Help

INTRODUCTION

MiniCat is a utility for sorting, cataloging and viewing pictures files (bmp, gif and jpg). Using a simple point-n-click interface based on thumbnail views, you can use it to create organized directories for holding your pictures.

MiniCat is particularly useful if you download a lot of pictures from the internet and need to sort them.

MiniCat uses catalog files which contain information about where groups of files are stored. You can create as many catalog files as you like. Each time you work with a catalog file, you can sort pictures using up to 10 different folders which you name.

MAIN WINDOW

Disk Selector Select the disk drive to browse for a folder of picture files. In the snapshot above “C: [Local Disk]” is selected.

Picture Type Select the picture type to show in the file list. ‘All pics’ includes bmp, gif, and jpg. In the snapshot above “All pics” is selected.

Folder Selector Select the folder containing the pictures you want to work with. In the snapshot above “SamplePics” is selected.

File List Displays the list of files within the selected folder that match the selected Picture Type.

- When thumbnails are displayed, click a file and the thumbnail will be highlighted

- Double-click a file to view it in the View Window.

- Right-click a file to see the popup menu of options:

o File name – the selected file name is displayed

o Show Full Size – opens a separate View Window

o Thumbnails – displays thumbnail versions of all the picture files in the selected folder

View Window Initially, this window will be blank. However, if you navigate to a folder containing pictures, you can view Thumbnails of the pictures in that folder by clicking the ‘Thumbnails’ button. You can also view individual pictures in this window. See ‘File List’ above and ‘Thumbnails’ below for more information.

Thumbnails Click this button to show thumbnails of the selected folder. Once thumbnails are displayed, you can:

- Move your cursor over any image and it will be highlighted.

- Double-click a file to view it in the View Window.

- Right-click any image to see a popup menu

o File name – the selected file name is displayed

o Show In Window – displays the selected picture in the View Window

o Show Full Size – opens a separate View Window

o Thumbnails – displays thumbnail versions of all the picture files in the selected folder

Open Catalog Click this button to Open an existing catalog, or to create a new catalog. A new window will appear. See ‘Catalogs’ below.

OPENING AND CREATING CATALOGS

Disk Selector Select the disk drive to browse for a folder of picture files. In the snapshot above “C: [Local Disk]” is selected.

Folder Selector Select the folder containing the pictures you want to work with. In the snapshot above “SamplePics” is selected.

File List Displays MiniCat catalog files.

- Select a file and click ‘Use Selected Catalog File’ OR

- Double-click a file to open it.

Use Selected… Click this button to open the selected catalog file.

Make New… Click this button to create a new catalog file. A new window will appear in which you can create a new catalog, select/create a Master folder to contain the sorted pictures, and create individual sort folders.

File Name Enter the name of the new catalog file you want to create. If you have already opened a catalog file, that name will be displayed.

Make Catalog Click this button to browse your folders and select a location to save the new catalog file. You can also change the name of the new catalog in the browse window. The final name will be displayed in the ‘File Name’ field described above.

Disk Selector Select the disk drive to browse for the Master folder of sorted picture files. In the snapshot above “C: [Local Disk]” is selected.

Folder Selector Select the folder which will contain the 10 sorting sub-folders folders (and therefore the pictures) you want to work with. In the snapshot above “LandscapePics” is selected.

Master Name Below the Folder Selector is a blank field where you can enter the name of a new Master Folder that you would like to create. The new Master folder will be created inside the currently selected folder above this area.

New Master Click this button to create a new Master folder to hold the 10 sorting sub-folders. The new Master folder will be created inside the currently selected folder.

Sub-folder Names Enter up to 10 names for the sorting folders. These folders will be created inside the Master folder. Regular Windows naming conventions apply – you cannot use the following characters: \ / : * ? “ < > |

Create Sub-folders Click this button to create the sub-folders in the list. If you create less than 10 sub-folders, you can add more later by returning to this window, adding the additional sub-folder names, and clicking this button. After clicking this button the window will close.

Use the new… When checked, the newly created catalog, Master, and sub-folder will become current (replacing any previously opened catalog).

Cancel Click this button to cancel the window. Note that this will delete the new Master folder (if you created one) and it will delete the new catalog file (if you created one). To avoid these deletions, click the window “X” instead.

USING CATALOGS

Edit Catalog Click this button to open the catalog creation and editing window (described above).

Sort Files Click this button to move the labeled files into their respective sorting folders. See

Auto Catalog When checked, the last opened catalog will be re-opened the next time you start MiniCat.

Auto Thumbnails When checked, each time you change the current folder in the ‘Browse’ section, thumbnails will automatically be displayed (if pictures exist). If this is not checked, you will need to click the ‘Thumbnails’ button each time you want to view the thumbnails for a selected directory.

Auto Rename When checked, files sorted into a folder where another file with the same name already exists will be renamed “Copy of XXX” where ‘XXX’ is the file name. For example, if the file being sorted is “abc.jpg”, it will be renamed “Copy of abc.jpg”.

Tips When checked, popup tips will be displayed when your cursor hovers over buttons.

Sub-folders (10) These 10 buttons are blank until you open/create a catalog file. Once there is an active catalog, each of the 10 buttons will have a name (and color) corresponding to each of the 10 sub-folders that “belong” to this catalog. If you click one of these buttons, you will “jump” to the folder that the button represents. Once there you can view the files.

Also note that once a catalog is active, the popup menu that appears when right-clicking a thumbnail image has changed.

This menu is used to set the sub-folder where each image should be sorted. Right-click an image in the thumbnail, then select the desired sub-folder from the list. You will see a label appear on the image indicating the selected directory. Once you have set sub-folders for the images (as many as you like), you can then click the ‘Sort Files’ button. You can also choose:

- Clear Selected – removes the sub-folder selection from the selected image.

- Clear All – removes all sub-folder selections from all images.

Help F1 Display the online help. Click this button or hit the F1 key.

About Click this button to open a window with information about WebMaster, including a link to our web site.

Status:… Displays the number of usable picture files in the current directory.

Catalog:… Displays the name of the active catalog.

Displaying… Displays the count of pictures displayed as thumbnails

WEB SITE

If you have questions that cannot be answered in this help file, would like to make a bug report or enhancement request, please visit our web site.

You can get to our website by clicking this link: www.FreewareOnly.net