Previous | Search Window - Image Search | Next

# 5.1 Search Window

GQview provides a utility to find one or more images based on various parameters.

To display a new Search Window press F3 or select Search from the File menu.

To start a search activate the Find button. A search in progress can be stopped by activating the Stop button.

The progress of an active search is displayed as a progress bar at the bottom of the window. The progress bar will also display the total files that match the search parameters, and the total number of files searched.

When a search is completed, the total number of files found and their total size will be displayed in the status bar.

Search location

One of several locations can be chosen as the source to use in the search.

Path: The search will include files located in the selected folder, enable the Recurse check box to include the contents of all sub folders.

Comments: The search will include all files that have a keyword or comment associated to it.

Note: Only keyword and comment associations stored in the user's home folder are included in this search type.

Results: The search will include all files currently listed in the results list, use this to refine a previous search.

Search parameters

Each search parameter can be enabled or disabled with the check box to it's left. For a file to be a match, all enabled parameters must be true.

File name: The search will match if the entered text appears within the file name, or if the text exactly matches the file name, depending on the method selected from the drop down menu. The text comparison can be made to be case sensitive by enabling the Match case checkbox.

File size: The search will match if the file size on disk is equal to, less than, greater than, or between the entered value, depending on the method selected from the drop down menu. The between test is inclusive, for example a file of size 10 will match if the size parameters are between 10 and 15.

File date: The search will match if the file modification time on disk is equal to, before, after, or between the entered date, depending on the method selected from the drop down menu. The between test is inclusive, for example a file with date of 10/04/2003 will match if the date parameters are between 10/04/2003 and 12/31/2003.

For convenience, the button with the down arrow displays a pop up calendar to enter the date.

Image dimensions: The search will match if the image dimensions are equal to, less than, greater than, or between the entered values, depending on the method selected from the drop down menu. The between test is inclusive.

The image dimensions test is simple, both width and height must be within the allowed values for a match.

Image content: The search will match if the image contents are similar within the percentage value, inclusive. This uses the same test and data that is used to determine image similarity when Finding Duplicates. The entry is for entering the path for the image to use in this test.

Keywords: The search will match if the file's associated keywords match all, match any, or exclude the entered keywords, depending on the method selected from the drop down menu. Keywords can be separated with a space, comma, or tab character.

Results list

Files that match the parameters of the search are shown in the list. By default they are displayed in the order that they are found, to sort the results list by a column activate or click the column title. Activating a column that is already used to sort the list will toggle between increasing and decreasing sort order.

A context menu is available for the result list by right clicking the mouse or pressing the Menu key when a row has the focus.

Keyboard shortcuts available in the results list:

Shortcut | Context menu name | Description
Enter | View | Opens selected image in main window.
V | View in new window | Opens selected image in a new window.
Control + A | Select all | Selects all images.
Control + Shift + A | Select none | Clear the image selection.
Control + 1 through Control + 0 | Edit sub menu | Executes the respective editor command.
Control + P | Properties | Opens a properties window for selected images.
C | Add to new collection | Creates a new collection containing the selected images.
| Print | Opens a print dialog for selected images.
Control + C | Copy | Copy selected images.
Control + M | Move | Move selected images.
Control + R | Rename | Rename selected images.
Control + D | Delete | Delete selected images.
Delete | Remove | Remove selected images from result list.
Control + Delete | Clear | Cleared the result list.
Menu |  | Displays the context menu.
Control + T |  | Toggle display of thumbnails.
Control + W |  | Close window.

The selection can be changed using the keyboard and mouse the same as in a file pane of the main window.

The image Dimensions column of the result list will only contain dimension information when dimensions are included in the search parameters.

Status bar

At the bottom of the search window is an area that includes the following items from left to right:

Thumbnails: Enable this check box to display a thumbnail next to each image in the results list.

File count display: Displays the total count of files in the results list, and their size on disk. The count of selected files will appear in parenthesis.

Search progress: When a search is active, the text “Searching...” will appear here. Two numbers in parenthesis will also be displayed, the first number is the number of files that match the search parameters and the second number is the total number of files that were searched.

Find: Activate the find button to start a search with the selected parameters.

Stop: Activate the stop button to end a search that is in progress.

Drag and Drop

Drag and drop can be initiated with the primary or middle mouse buttons. Dragging a file that is selected will include all selected files in the drag. Dragging a file that is not selected will first change the selection to the dragged file, and clear the previous selection.

Previous | Contents | Next
|  | GQview User Manual