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Windows 7 : Using the Pictures Library (part 2) - Managing Content in the Pictures Library

12/8/2013 8:11:38 PM

2.2. Managing Content in the Pictures Library

The Pictures library works like other libraries and most other shell locations in Windows Explorer and provides the standard Address bar, Search box, toolbar, Navigation bar, and Details pane. It also includes a number of features that are specific to pictures. For example, while all libraries include Organize, Share with, Burn, and New folder toolbar buttons, Pictures also includes a Slide Show button that enables you to trigger a full-screen picture slideshow.

You can organize photos and other pictures in various ways in the Pictures library. The Change your view toolbar button enables you to cycle through various shell view styles, including some, such as Extra Large Icons and Large Icons, which are particularly nice for viewing a folder full of pictures, as shown in Figure 3.

NOTE

You can access Extra Large Icons only by clicking the More options arrow next to the Change your views button and selecting Extra Large Icons from the list. If you simply toggle through the various views with the button, Extra Large Icons will never come up.

Figure 3. Some of the Windows 7 view styles are particularly nice when used with pictures.

In Windows 7, like Windows Vista, you can view picture thumbnails on the desktop. (This wasn't possible in Windows XP.) Previously, this functionality was available only in traditional folder windows. That said, the Windows desktop is still limited to three view styles only: Large, Medium, and Small Icons. In Windows Vista, Small Icons is called Classic Icons.


Additionally, you can use the organizational capabilities of Windows 7 to view picture thumbnails in a wide variety of interesting ways. As with Windows Vista, Windows 7 includes file organizational features such as Stacks and Groups, which can be quite handy when used in conjunction with Picture files.

To sort the Pictures library or any folder full of pictures, right-click a blank area of an open folder and choose Sort by. This triggers the submenu shown in Figure 4, enabling you to choose from a variety of sorting options, including Name, Date (modified), Type, Size, and others.
Figure 4. Windows 7's file sorting options let you sort your pictures in various ways.

The Group By and Arrange By options are somewhat more impressive. In the same popup menu described above, you can choose Group By and then Name, Date (modified), Type, Size, Tags, or Date, and choose whether to group in ascending or descending order. For example, you might choose to group by name, which would alphabetize the list of pictures and segregate them into groups such as A–H, I–P, and Q–Z by default, as shown in Figure 5. If you check the Descending option, the list will sort in reverse order.

Figure 5. Group By enables you to segregate the current view into logical groups.

You may have noticed there's also a More option in the Sort By and Group By sub-menus. If you click this option, you'll be treated to a Choose Details dialog that actually enables you to choose which items will appear in that submenu. That means you can remove some of the default options and choose from dozens of other related options. The lists are quite extensive, but of course many of the options apply only to non-picture files. Furthermore, this list can be customized on a folder-by-folder basis.


NOTE

To remove an applied Group By view, right-click as you did above and simply choose the new (None) option that appears in the context menu. This option isn't available to Sort By, however. It's unclear why there isn't a simple (None) option in the Group By submenu. However, the default is Name.

Windows Vista included a little-known and thus little-used user interface element called Stacks. This enabled you to organize files by category as if they were virtual stacks of paper, and it was heavily promoted in that version. It's no longer included in Windows 7, but its successor, Arrange By, carries on in the same tradition. There's just one caveat: arrange By is not available in any folder. It is only available in a library view like Pictures.

To access Arrange By, open the Pictures library. You'll see an Arrange By link near the top right corner of the window. By default, the Arrange By view is Folder, which displays the contents of the library in a normal, Explorer-style view. But there are four other options here: Month, Day, Rating, and Tag. Clicking one causes the library to change into a dramatic new view, whereby the contents of the library are sorted into stacks of pictures organized by the criteria you chose. This is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Stacks live on in Windows 7's new Arrange By view styles.

If you're familiar with the virtual folder capabilities in Windows 7, you'll recognize the Arrange By displays as in-place searches that can be optionally saved for later use. That is, you can save these views as saved searches and access them later whenever you want. Saving an Arrange By view isn't obvious at all: to do so, tap Alt to display the hidden menu, choose File, and then Save Search. You'll see a standard Save As dialog appear, and you can save the search to the Searches folder associated with your user account or any other location in the file system. You might use this feature to create a virtual folder called "Favorite Pictures" that is populated only with photos that have been rated with four or five stars, for example.

NOTE

Windows 7 saved searches use the blue Stacks icon from Windows Vista.

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