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5. Working with PhotoLine

## 5.4 Browse

### 5.4.1 Basics

PhotoLine offers the function File/Browse to give the user a fast ability to get an overview over his images.

On selecting that function the browse dialog appears. On the left side you can select the directory that you want to browse by clicking in the folder list, and on the right side there are small preview pictures of the files in the currently selected directory. In addition to the folder tree there is Recent Files at the left side which allows to access the recently loaded files. They are sorted the way they were loaded. Favorites is an entry, that you can fill with your own picture folders in order to open them quickly (see chapter 5.4.14).

Below the folder list there are tabs which show different information. Prop is showing common information about active picture. IPTC lists the corresponding IPTC-information, if there are any, and EXIF shows the EXIF-data of the selected file. Keyword is listing all keywords found in the files of the active folder. Behind every keyword a number is given. On clicking on a keyword, all files containing that keyword are selected. Selecting a file highlights the keywords of this file.

The size of the preview images can be adjusted with Options/Browse/Preview Images (see chapter 7.10.1.33). These preview images are decorated by small symbols to indicate special properties:

: The picture file is write-protected.

: The picture has metadata (XMP, EXIF).

: The picture is a Raw file.

: The picture has an ICC profile.

: The picture has GPS data.

By double clicking one of the preview images the corresponding image file will be opened. In this case it will only be included in the recent file list, if the corresponding option is turned on in Options/Browse/Options (see chapter 7.10.1.34). If you want the file to be included regardless of that option, on Windows you have to drag it to a screen space, that is not occupied by another PhotoLine window. On macOS you have to drag it onto the application icon of PhotoLine.

It is also possible to drag one of the previews into a document window. In this case a new layer containing the image is created.

If the current browse window contains textures, you can drag them to a color field or to the pattern color list, too.

If you are dragging a picture on a folder in folder list, the corresponding file will be copied. By holding the Shift-key the file will be moved.

Under the list with the preview pictures you can open a large file preview.

The function menus offer various commands for creating documents containing the browse information and for editing the files in the browse window. These will be discussed in the following sections (see chapter 5.4.2 and following).

The arrow-left-button and the arrow-right-button allow to switch between the previously browsed directories.

The combobox allows to change the way of sorting. You can sort by all important criteria. Additionally you can turn on a customizable sorting. Using that you can change the order of the files by dragging them to a different location.

Beneath the sorting criteria there is an icon bar. The content of this icon bar is freely configurable (see chapter 7.10.1.34).

The preview area offers two different context menus. The standard context menu shows entries of the function menus which can be applied to the currently selected images. But if the context menu is accessed while holding the Ctrl-key (Windows) or Command-key (macOS) respectively, you can quickly assign (IPTC) key words (see chapter 5.4.15). This context menu allows to assign a rating to picture files, too. This rating is shown as stars in the browse window.