User Guide

Welcome to Photo Selector! This guide will walk you through all the features of the application, helping you to sort, organize, and manage your photos faster than ever before.

🚀 Getting Started

Your entire workflow in Photo Selector is saved in a single project file (.json). This file keeps track of your source photo directory, your selections, rejections, and all the albums you create.

Creating a New Project

1. Go to File -> New Project.
2. First, you'll be asked where to save your new project file. Choose a location and give it a name (e.g., vacation_2024.json).
3. Next, you'll be asked to choose the source directory containing the photos you want to sort.
4. The application will then load all the photos from that directory, and you're ready to start!

Opening a Project

• Open Project: Go to File -> Open Project to open an existing .json project file.
• Open Recent: The File -> Open Recent menu gives you quick access to the last 10 projects you've worked on.
• Auto-Load: The application will automatically reopen the last project you had open when you start it up.

🖥️ The Workspace

The main window is divided into two parts:

1. The Photo Area (Left): This is where you see your photos. You can switch between viewing a single large photo or a grid of thumbnails.
2. The Control Panel (Right): This panel contains all the tools for managing your project, selecting photos, creating albums, and viewing statistics.

✅ The Core Workflow: Sorting Your Photos

The primary goal of Photo Selector is to make the sorting process as fast as possible.

Selecting and Rejecting

You have three easy ways to select or reject the current photo:

1. Buttons: Use the large ✓ Select and ✗ Reject buttons in the "Actions" block.
2. Keyboard: Press S to select the photo or D to reject it.
3. Mouse: In the single photo view, left-click anywhere on the image to select it, or right-click to reject it.

After you select or reject a photo, the application automatically moves to the next one to keep your workflow moving.

Navigating Your Photos

• Keyboard: Use the Right Arrow and Left Arrow keys to move between photos.
• Buttons: Use the ◀ Prev and Next ▶ buttons in the "Actions" block.
• Mouse Wheel: Simply scroll your mouse wheel up or down to navigate.

🔲 Working with Many Photos: The Grid View

For batch operations, the Grid View is your best friend.

• Toggle View: Press G on your keyboard or use the "Grid View" button in the "View Options" block to switch between the single photo view and the thumbnail grid.
• Batch Selection: In the grid, each thumbnail has a checkbox in the top right. Click these checkboxes to select multiple photos.
• Batch Actions: Once you have photos checked, you can use the options in the Edit menu (Select Checked, Reject Checked) or right-click for a context menu to perform actions on all checked items at once.

Organizing with Albums

Albums are the best way to group your selected photos.

1. In the "Album Management" block, type a name for a new album and click Add Album.
2. The new album automatically becomes the active album.
3. Now, any photo you select will be automatically added to this active album.
4. You can switch between your active albums at any time using the dropdown menu.

🔎 Filtering and Viewing

The "View Options" block gives you powerful tools to see only what you need. You can filter your view to show:

• All: Every photo in the source directory.
• Selected: Only the photos you have selected (from the currently active album).
• Rejected: Only the photos you have rejected.
• Pending: Photos that you haven't reviewed yet.
• Review Required: Photos that have been flagged by the analysis tool.

🤖 Intelligent Tools: Let the App Do the Work

Photo Selector includes powerful tools to automate parts of your sorting process.

Analyzing Photos for Issues

1. Go to the Tools -> Analyze Photos menu. This will analyze the photos in your current view for common issues.
2. The analysis runs in the background, so the app remains responsive. A progress dialog will show the status and allow you to cancel the operation.
3. The tool currently detects:
   • Blurry Images: Using variance of the Laplacian algorithm.
   • Closed Eyes: Using facial landmark detection (requires mediapipe).
4. Reset Analysis: If you want to re-run the analysis on all photos, you can select Tools -> Reset Analysis Data.

The Human Review State

Instead of automatically rejecting photos, the analysis tool flags them for Human Review. This gives you the final say.

• After the analysis is complete, it will report how many photos have potential issues.
• These photos are added to a special "Review Required" list. You can view them using the filter in the "View Options" block.
• When viewing the "Review Required" list, you can decide to select or reject them.

📤 Exporting Your Work

Once you've finished sorting, go to Edit -> Copy Selected Photos. This will:

1. Open a progress dialog for the copy operation.
2. Copy all photos from all your "Selected" albums to the destination directory you've set.
3. It preserves your organization by creating sub-folders named after each of your albums.

⚙️ Customization

• Themes: Go to the Theme menu to instantly switch between Light, Dark, or System Default themes.
• Languages: Go to the Language menu to change the application's language.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts