File > Open Image Collection

This allows you to use Omniscope to explore and manage your photo collection.  Using File > Open image collection, Omniscope will ask you for a starting folder, and will scan all images within the folder, representing each as a record within the resulting data file.

You will see a Tile view showing your images in a grid, a Table view showing the data, and a series of filters.  The data and filters will include information about each file, including image tags such as width, height and GPS location (lat/lon, if available).

More information 

Opening image collections is very similar to opening folders of files. See Open Folder of Files for more information about advanced options, tagged files and renaming / applying edited tags to files.  The only differences between the two are:

• "Open image collection" only picks up supported image files, whereas "Open folder of files" picks up all (or custom) file types.
• "Open image collection" starts configured for viewing images in a grid.
• "Open folder of files" starts with a Pie view showing.

Additional advanced options

Assume files without extensions are images: By default, only files with a supported image extension (such as ".jpg") are included.  If this is ticked, Omniscope will also assume files without an extension are images also.  Used for specific image servers which don't provide filename extensions.  All image files on Windows usually have an extension.

Warning: The following text applies to earlier versions of Omniscope and is out of date.

Import images into your file, or refer to an online image set

Omniscope can be used as a photo browser, allowing you to explore and manage large folders of images, and to send selected, annotated collections to others in compact, searchable .IOK files with supplementary information on the photos, their locations etc. 

Open and link to folder

File > Open Image Collection opens a new Omniscope file in folder browser mode that allows you to point at any folder (with or without sub-folders) containing image files in .JPG, .GIF. .BMP, or .PNG format. Browse to the folder, select it and click Select.

Browse Photos & Save File

Wait a few moments for Omniscope to import the pictures.  The Tile View and left Side Bar will appear, with the images scaled down to display in the Tile View. The Side Bar filter/query devices allow you to Search All for a keyword, to filter the size of the files (and hence the quality/size of the picture), and to filter the date of the pictures. The Tile View initially shows all the pictures found in the folder chosen. As you filter, some pictures will disappear, and the remaining pictures will get bigger.

At this point, you might want to save a new .IOK file linked to this image folder. This will capture any settings you configure to the file.  You do not have to embed the pictures in the file at this time.  In future, you can use File > import into current file > Refresh from source to update the file to include any new photos added to the folder. 

Selecting collections

You can Select and Move pictures you want to exclude from further consideration, thereby enlarging the remaining pictures. When you see a picture you would like to add to a collection file (such as  your 'holiday highlights'), click the picture to get the Details pop-window showing a larger view, then click Add to basket to save that picture in the BASKET universe. Carry on filtering and exploring your photos, adding more pictures selected for the collection file to the Basket.

Viewing the basket

When you've finished selecting photos for the collection file, view the Basket by clicking the  Basket  button to the right of the Barometer on the Main Toolbar. A Table View of the BASKET universe will appear. Click Table View  to display the View Chooser, and select a Tile View of the BASKET universe. For more detail, see Data Universes

If you're happy with your BASKET of images, you might want to view a Slide show. See Viewing Details.

Saving the new image collection file

When you've finished reviewing the images you wish to save as a collection, choose File > Save as IOK/IOM. In the Save as dialog that appears, you will see a number of configuration options on the right-hand side. 

Click Records (rows) and choose Records in the Basket (XXX records). This will create a new file with only the images you added to the Basket. When you make this change, the dialog will transform from a Save as dialog to an Export the images dialog with the Images tab pre-selected.

Under Embed images, click Image sets and tick Image. This means the image set called 'Image' will be embedded inside the IOK file. In other words, the IOK file will be like a ZIP or archive, containing images. If your images are quite large, you may want to down-size them when embedding in the IOK file. If so, tick Reduce image sizes. A dialog for down-sizing the images will appear after you click Export.  In Linked data source, un-tick Keep link to remove the reference to the original folder of images on your PC.  Enter the name you want to save the file as, say 'My holiday snaps', and click Export.

If you chose to reduce image sizes, enter the maximum dimensions you want for any image (in pixels), and all images exceeding these dimensions will be down-sized, preserving their aspect ratio, until they fit within these dimensions. You may have to wait a while down-sizing the images, but once done, you should have a simple and small (depending on the size and number of images) Omniscope file for sending to friends. 

If you send an .IOK file, they only need the Omniscope free Viewer to open and view it, even export their own selected images if you have not locked the file.