ACDSee Pro 3 Beta - General Discussion

Disappointed with new release - some things I had hoped for

• 

  wgm789
  Member

  Just some thoughts,

  I love your products. In the early days I used it for almost everything as it allowed a more DOS like approach to file management. These days I find myself searching the net for different applications to complete my photo presentations & editing functions.

  I spent 45 minutes with this new version and found no changes I had hoped for.

  I urge you to examine how your software became popular and enhance those features and stop mucking about with menus, & general appearance.

  Workspaces - Why can't I overwrite / update an existing workspace. Seriously how about when the user clicks on workspace management the browser jumps to that directory and displays in thumbnail form each and allows for normal file management. I have a need for multi workspaces - I hope this means I can define the entire display panel, Thumbnail size or detail view and drop a shortcut on the desktop to launch that feature set.

  On further review of the beta I cannot do these things -. I think I should just to school and learn to program. I think coding options that are so limited should not be an option.

  Why not allow the user to add directories to be cataloged instead of excluding thousands.

  How about an option to turn off the database (one of your products had such an option). When I dump from the camera I'm looking at hundreds of photos which will be reduced to 5 or 10 keepers. I spend a lot of time waiting for the database to update a few hundred files that I'm going to delete in the next few minutes. I just don't need everything cataloged.

  In Pro 2.5 the Database maintenance feature will not reduce DB file size even after deleting thumbs. Program runs slower as it rebuilds thumbs that I didn't want.

  Under PROPERTIES PANE I think it would be great if I could display EXIF information and FILE information or others at the same time. A Similar situation exists in the KEYWORD / CATEGORY Pane though I can't recall the specifics as I don't use it anymore because it slows and crashes the basic functions I need.

  I.E. why can't I customize the data views? (See workspaces comments above)

  Slide Shows

  One of your packages allows the transition delay to be set to zero; this option maximized my creative options. Currently one second is the fastest delay possible. My computer can currently complete 2,430,000,000 cycles a second. My camera can take 4.5 frames a seconds with the possibility of a 30 second burst. Please allow transition delay to be set to zero or reater.I will not purchase an upgrade until or unless this is changed. Let me say that another way. Make this change and you have one additional sale and vastly more functional product.

  Additionally why does the "PRO VERSION" have fewer transitions effects then others? Also why does local slide show have options that are not available in standalone SS / screens savers, and screen saver has option that Slideshow doesn't. That is to say a slideshow can't be turned in a SCR without a rework and vise versa. Each having a different interface. Then there is the PDF - EXE nightmare. This makes my head hurt and turn to other software. Auto naming of the project file doesn't seem like it should be hard to do. With perhaps a Predefined directory for SS and Project File. Stop making me type and select a directory each time.

  Also I think the auto save feature when editing is a great option. And I think an option is what it should be. I've already spent ten times more time deleting "original" then I have in my entire life spent wishing I had not deleted a file.

  I see no reason to buy this upgrade. If it were fee I would stay with 2.5. I see no need to get used to a new program interface that offers no basic changes in operation aside from this online stuff. (I already have a program for this sort of thing.)

  Congratulations on your new release it LOOKS different from previous versions, as different as your competitors. I waited for this release to examine its operation and I'm saddened that I still need to examine other options. Maybe I'm just not your target customer.

  <<<<<<< some time passes >>>>>>>>>>>

  Now looking a photo display / editing

  Why did you devote so much screen space to title, menu & buttons

  The old run of icons down the side was cool & simple Why two screens for display and edit. I usally don't edit one photo at time. Here's an Idea Allow the user to go through photos and click "target center" then these photos can be run through Batch Processes such as CROP & or RESIZE based on and from this "target Center" now that would be a feature.

  Close gadget closes the program not back to thumbnails that will take a million restarts before it sinks in. What ever

  Lastly

  Under editing or what ever you calling it now can you have Crop, Resize and similar functions default to "Last Used" or add a radio button for the same. I'v click "last used" like a thousand times.

  WOW having looked at this side of the software I hope major changes take place before the release as it stands I will not buy this product. If it had been you first release I would not be a customer.

  William Markle

  N.Huntingdon PA

  Posted On July 13, 2009 - 03:09 PM (4 months ago) (Permalink to this post)
• 

  Marc Sabatella
  Moderator

  Great observations!  Just a few comments:

  How about an option to turn off the database (one of your products had such an option). When I dump from the camera I'm looking at hundreds of photos which will be reduced to 5 or 10 keepers. I spend a lot of time waiting for the database to update a few hundred files that I'm going to delete in the next few minutes. I just don't need everything cataloged.

  In what sense are you "waiting"? ACDSee does most of what it does in the background, and even much of that can be turned off (eg, if you don't want ACDSee to generate high quality or high quality RAW previews, or to harvest IPTC or EXIF metadata, you can turn all that those off).  Entering a new folder with hundreds of newly improted images should be pretty much instant, but if you do notice a slight slowdown from whatever it is doing in th background, yu can usually interrupt that by clicking the status icon showing you the work being done.

  Under PROPERTIES PANE I think it would be great if I could display EXIF information and FILE information or others at the same time. A Similar situation exists in the KEYWORD / CATEGORY Pane though I can't recall the specifics as I don't use it anymore because it slows and crashes the basic functions I need

  There is a Custom pane I use for example this purpose.  I have mine customed to show the basics of File, EXIF, IPTC, and Database info all on one screen.  Only issue is that you can't easily *enter* data for the Database onto it, compared to the Database pane proper.

  I see no need to get used to a new program interface that offers no basic changes in operation aside from this online stuff. (I already have a program for this sort of thing.)

  Actually, it does offer a quite a bit that is new, including the non-destructive editing facility for JPEG (previously only for RAW) as well as some new processing tools like Advanced Color, Vibrance, a more sophisticated Advanced Lighting facility, some new non-destructive perpsecitve/distortion tools, improved NR algorithms.  It's actually quite a big step up int he image processing sense.  But very little changed so far in cataloging features, it is true.

  Why did you devote so much screen space to title, menu & buttons

  The old run of icons down the side was cool & simple

  Except it wasn't really - that row of icons was in the viewer, and every time you clicked one, you were taken to Edit mode, meaning to perform multiple operations on a single file, you were doing a lot of switching between modes.   It's much more efficient to have all tools in the same mode, and that's what the new Develop mode provides (it's also what the old Edit did, but not as efficiently or obviously, which is probably why so people used the icons in View mode and constantly switched back and forth from there to Edit mdoe rather than simply using Edit mode directly).

  Anyhow, the huge advantage of Develop mode here is its non-destructive nature, which incldues the ability to easily take processing settings made to one file and copy them to others.  As I said, it's actually a huge improvement in image processing workflow, but it does take some time to get used a different way of thinking.

  Under editing or what ever you calling it now can you have Crop, Resize and similar functions default to "Last Used" or add a radio button for the same. I'v click "last used" like a thousand times.

  See my resposne to another thread regarding the crop tool specifically. basically, you are describing the hardest possible way to do what you want.  Instead, try making your crop to one image, then simly copy that setting to as many other images as you like, then zip through them one at a time is necessary to correct the crop region.  It's actually a *MUCH* faster workflow than previous versions allowed.

  Posted On July 22, 2009 - 10:22 PM (4 months ago) (Permalink to this post)
• 

  wgm789
  Member

  Thanks for the info on the customize properties pane. To bad for me, I missed that option

  .

  In fairness the program offers a great deal of improvements, however most are of no interest to me, nor will they speed my workflow. The processes are great, the ability to customize their file management aspects disappoint and conflict with the file storage system in place.

  I hoped to find a product that covers file management customization first then adds luxuries.

  An example of this lies in your answer to turn off data base. You asked "In what sense are you "waiting"?"

  In the sense that the program is doing something unnecessary. Its not a matter of real time just a lack of option. I know and employ a few different workarounds but why? I fear the very nature of the software is becoming a workaround to taking proper photos.

   

  Under cropping.  The nature of what I'm doing is resizing for various displays. I'm cropping for ratio not necessarily content across various original formats. I have many presets at the ready.  Should the 2nd, 3rd,10th or each crop area need an adjustment, the constants are not locked in and I have to reselect constraints or select "Last Used".

   

  I just wish the program defaulted to "Last Used". I'm not asking for a rework of the whole workflow or upgrade to color correction, just half a line of code to eliminate a repetitive task.

   

  I don't understand what you mean by "copy that setting to as many other images as you like".  I looked for the reply you mentioned and will continue to search.

  http://community.acdsee.com/forums/topic/cropping-tool-hasnt-changed-at-all#post-39546

   

  Again thanks for help!

   

   

  Posted On July 23, 2009 - 03:09 PM (4 months ago) (Permalink to this post)
• 

  typpelt
  Member

  wgm789 said:

  ...

  Why not allow the user to add directories to be cataloged instead of excluding thousands.

  ...

  William Markle

  N.Huntingdon PA

   Kudos. That's exactly what I suggested since several years. I don't want ACDSee to collect Thumbnails on every network place I am viewing pictures and drawings during my business day, but I can't exclude them all. I just want the data base for my personal photo collections.

  Regards

  Posted On July 25, 2009 - 04:37 PM (3 months ago) (Permalink to this post)
• 

  noam
  Focus Group

  +1 for better inclusion/exclusion of folders. This limitation is one of the reasons I don't use ACDSee for spontaneous image viewing and browsing.

   

  Noam

  Posted On July 26, 2009 - 07:57 AM (3 months ago) (Permalink to this post)
• 

  Marc Sabatella
  Moderator

  wgm789 said:

  I don't understand what you mean by "copy that setting to as many other images as you like".

  I mean, once you've applied a crop to one image in develop mode, you can right click it, select "copy settings", then select the crop (and any other settings you want) from the dialog that lists the settings available to copy), then select as many other images as you want, right click, and click "past settings".  I've customized these operations to be C and V respectively from Manage mode, but you can do it from Develop mode as well - it's just a little more awkward to do the selections. Anyhow, once you;ve copied the crop to the other files, you will probably find that the actual cropped area is not what you want, but at least the aspect ratio will be what you want, then you can quickyl flipping through the image in Develop mode doing nothing but adjusting the region.  This sort of ability is a *HUGE* improvement in efficiency from previous versions.  But I agree some more options for retaining settings and controlling defaults would be great, too!

  Posted On July 27, 2009 - 05:28 PM (3 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

Subscribe to this topic via RSS

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.