[KPhotoAlbum] Some suggestions from a user

[Jesper K. Pedersen]

One of the KPA users who wants to be anonymous (I wasn't aware that it was 
embarrassing to use KPA :-) sent me this email, that I'd like to share with 
the rest of you, in case someone finds something in there they would like to 
work on.

Cheers
Jesper.

 From my point of view to make KPhotoAlbum more usable and give it a 
better look the most important features must be accessible and visible 
right at the start.
    - Managing photos
        => Show the latest (not fully taged) photos on startup as 
thumbnails
    - Set rating
        => One rating field on the top right corner which shows the rate 
as stars
        => If this field is in keyboard focus the number 0 to 5 will 
select the number of stars
    - Tagging photos
        => One multi purpose tagging field on the right below the rating 
field (I will describe the function later)
        => The latest used tags selectable on the right
        => If only one image is selected the selection can be moved 
using the arrow keys. Only the selected image will be tagged.
        => If multiple images are selected all the images will be tagged.
    - Set tokens
        => One toke field on the lower right corner
    - Searching photos
        => One multi purpose search field at the top
        => By selecting the menu button of the search field (like in the 
Firefox location bar) a menu with the saved search and the latest search 
entries will appear
    - Status
        => Shows the status of the current selected image(s). Red: 
Images are not tagged at all. Yellow: Images are tagged but tagging is 
not finished. Green: Images are tagged and tagging is finished. (Image 
is tagged with the keyword "ok".)
    - Important: The keyboard focus have to stay on the latest selected 
entry fields (rating, tagging, tokens or searching) whatever you do in 
the thumbnail frame.
 
I have attached a schematic of the screen layout.
 
Multi purpose tagging field:
To tag my photos I have to do the following actions:
- Selecting photos
- Switch to the single or multi image tagging window (Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2)
- Select the group
- Add tags
- Select the next group
- Add tags
 
I can do this much faster than with other photo managing software, but 
not fast enough and not as comfortable as I wish.
Note: About 90% of the tags I use are already in the database.

To make tagging much faster a "multi purpose tagging field" is needed.
The features are:
- It can be used for all types of tags (person, location, keywords etc.)
- While typing it will suggest the matching tags with the group name 
separated by a @. (e.g. typing "Ja" will lead to "Jasper K. 
Pedersen at person" and "Java at location" and "java at keyword")
- When typing a new tag it can be added to a group by putting the group 
name behind the @ or you just press <enter> at the end of the tag and 
you will be asked for the group to add the tag in. The latest group used 
for a new tag will already been filled in the dialog. (E.g. If you add 
two new names to the "person" group the second name can be added faster 
because you only have to press <enter> twice after typing the name.)
 
The multi purpose search fields works the same but filters the thumbnail 
view. It should also be possible to combines tags with AND and OR and 
put them in brackets.

With the suggested changes the tagging would be much faster.
- Selecting photos
- Add tag (at 90% of the tags I only have to type two or three letters, 
because the tags are in the database and they have been used lately)

One more idea: A forward and back button to switch between the current 
and the previous thumbnail view would also be useful. To switch between 
tagging single and multiple images.

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