Use

This program allows browsing through a pictures directory. It displays simultaneously 9 successive pictures on a 3x3 grid, from left to right and top to bottom (files are sorted according to their names, in ascending order). The user can move pictures to and from a separate repository directory (if audio comments* are present they are moved synchronously with their corresponding picture files). The program is designed to ease the choice of the best pictures when groups of similar pictures of a same subject exist in the source directory. The use of a repository allows undoing rejects if necessary.

* files of the same name and of .wav extension are considered audio comments of pictures.

Directions for use  

Button Action  
? Displays an "About" dialog box, which, in turn, gives access to the help displaying window.
Go to... Used to choose the source directory and the first file to be displayed in the center of the pictures grid. The user is then prompted for the repository directory path. In both folders only files with the same extension as the chosen first file are considered.
<<<   >>> Browse buttons. They shift the pictures grid contents by one picture.
Remove Transfers the picture displayed in the center of the grid to the repository.
Restore Transfers the picture displayed in the small box between the buttons from the repository back to the source directory. The restored picture is inserted between the pictures displayed in the 4th and 5th (central) boxes (except when a picture can be restored after the last image of the source directory and when this is displayed in the central box). This command is available whenever the restoration can be made preserving the relationship of displayed pictures and files names orders: this command will NOT change pictures order.
Exit Terminates the application (the main window's close box may also be used).

A click (left mouse button) on any displayed image (including the small restorable image) will open a zoom window for the same picture. Zoom windows can be closed with their system close box.

A right-click on any vignette (including the small restorable image) displays a popup menu with two items: "Play audio..." and "Swap audio comments". In both cases, a warning message box is displayed if the command is issued and no audio comment can be found for the clicked picture. The [Swap] command swaps audio comments between the pointed out picture and the central picture outlined in red (issuing this command twice on the same picture with no intervening swaps restores the initial audio comments set-up).

The progress bar on the right of the controls is activated during lengthy pictures load operations. A pictures to load count is written nearby when necessary.
When the progress bar is active some commands may be rejected (though the buttons might have been enabled asynchronously by the GUI thread): the program then emits a warning (dialog box).

Note on application launching

The "java -jar Selector2.jar" or "javaw -jar Selector2.jar" command line, run from the installation directory, should do the job, assuming your path variable points to the java/bin directory. Windows® and Solaris® users may just double-click the jar file.

If you handle heavy pictures (> 2.5M pixels), you might want to optimize memory allocation and garbage collection to speed up pictures loading (the effect may be very significant). With Sun's® JVM (Windows®, Solaris® and Linux) use the -Xincgc and -Xms40m options (example command line: "javaw -Xincgc -Xms40m -jar Selector2.jar").

Note on pictures loading

Pictures are loaded asynchronously by a thread managed by the application itself, using the newest Java 1.4 image APIs, for performance reasons (the daemon thread used by the older APIs is far too slow).

Recognized formats: jpeg, gif, png (depends on your java toolkit's capabilities).

Disclaimer and distribution policy

THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS (INCLUDING INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE) ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. FURTHER, THE AUTHOR DOES NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE, OR THE RESULTS OF USE, OF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS IN TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY YOU. IF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE DEFECTIVE YOU, AND NOT THE AUTHOR, ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.
THE ABOVE IS THE ONLY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, THAT IS MADE BY THE AUTHOR.
THE AUTHOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT, EVEN IF HE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

This program is freeware and may be freely copied if all files (see hereafter) are distributed simultaneously, without any modification.

Files in the package:  

File Use
Selector2.jar The program.
infowin.jar API package fr.free.palbou.infowin (Copyright (C) Pierre Albou, 2002. All rights reserved)
readme.txt Directions for use.