Rating images "1" and dumping the rest...

[Danny W]

Hi,

Lets say I go through 500 images. I rank all the images I want to keep "1" is there a way to automatically delete the rest?

[DavidB]

As you only require two states ('keep' and 'dump'), tagging is perhaps better than ranking for your purposes.

Chris describes a very good way of using tagging to select 'keepers' in the BB Pro Help file; search for 'using tags'. This ends up with all the 'keepers' selected. All you would then need to do is press Ctrl+I to invert the selection and then Del to move all the selected (i.e. dumped) files to the recycle bin.

Alternatively, if you want to use ranks, you can select all your '1s' with Ctrl+Alt+1, then invert and delete as before.

Hope this helps

[Nill Toulme]

If you look at the Edit menu, there's an item "Select Ranked Images." On that submenu, assuming you've only ranked images 1 and nothing else, you could choose "Add Unranked Images to Selection" (shortcut ctrl-alt-0) then hit Delete.

But if that's all you're going to do it would probably be quicker and easier just to tag the keepers instead of ranking them. I actually tag the non-keepers (in the Slideshow view, using the right and left arrows to move thru the shoot and the up and down arrows to tag and untag), then hit F6 to Select Tagged, hit Delete and I'm done.

Anyway, back to ranking, if you've ranked the images beyond just 1, then on that submenu mentioned above what you'd probably want to do is choose "Add Rank 1 Images to Selection" (shortcut ctrl-alt-1), then (and this is a critical step!) then hit "Invert Selection" on the Edit menu, then hit Delete. This is also what you do if you're just tagging, but tagging your keepers instead of your trashers — invert your selection, then delete.

Make sense?

[p.s. Wow, David said the same thing much more succinctly than I did...]

[p.p.s. But David I don't get your search-for-'using-tags' step. F6 (i.e., Edit/Only Select Tagged) seems like a much more direct way to select the tagged images.]

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

[DavidB]

Nill

Sorry if I was not clear. I was simply providing Danny with a pointer to the BB Pro Help page where Chris helpfully lists the keystokes required to use tags for sorting. And F6 is indeed the last keystroke in the sequence.

The difference between Chris' method and yours is that his method requires more keystokes (though not significantly more, particularly if one is sorting through a lot of images), but does provide a neat way of handling multiple passes through the sequence. If you can do the selection in one pass, your method is simpler.

Hope things are now clear

[Nill Toulme]

Interesting... I'll have a look at it. I do use multiple passes though, maybe in a different sense. I usually go thru once and tag about 80% for the trash, delete those, then go back through again with a more critical eye and tag anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of what's left, and trash that again. Up to tag, F6 to select tagged, delete, repeat.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

[DavidB]

The way you describe your method, I think Chris's approach might just work more smoothly for you. The point is that, in this method, you just keep running through the slideshow, untagging images to dump them, in order to select iteratively. As soon as you untag an image, it disappears from the show, so you are only ever looking at 'candidate' images.

Of course, you would have to exit the slide show to change your mind, or, for instance, to view images side by side, but, once you hit Ctrl+S again, the selection is still the same as when you left the slideshow.

[Nill Toulme]

You mean it works dynamically? That's interesting. I do change my mind at least once or twice per run though, so that could be a problem for me. Thanks,

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net