Left sidebar is the main difference in Showfoto user interface compared to digiKam Image Editor. As Showfoto does not provide advanced functionalities about Digital Asset Management as digiKam, at least Folders and Stack give to the user the essential capabilities to explore, reference, and access quickly to the preferred contents from the computer. All the settings adjusted in left sidebar are saved and restored between Showfoto sessions.
The Folders tab is a complete view to handle your system directory hierarchies, as a desktop file-manager.
The Showfoto Stand-Alone Editor Folders Tab from Left Sidebar¶
It divided in three views from the top to the bottom:
The Navigation settings view providing:
A tools-bar on the top to navigate on the directories hierarchies, return to your personal folder, adjust the thumbnails size, and two buttons to access to advanced settings and manage the current folder contents with the Stack and Slideshow tools.
An editable combo-box showing the current directory path and the history of previous places visited from this tab.
A combo-box where you can apply a type-mime filter to restrict the thumbnails list to the desired file formats.
The Thumbnails list where you can show the image files properties from the current selected folder set in directory combo-box behind. With the tools-bar on the top and with the context menu, you can adjust the flat list settings and assign content to the Places or to the Stack. Double clicking on a item from the list load the contents to the canvas.
The preferred Bookmarks and Usual Places. This view is optional and can be disabled in the settings available from thumbnails list context menu or in tools-bar on the top. Bookmarks references your preferred places that you can register when navigating on the folder hierarchies. Bookmark properties includes a Path, an Icon, and a Title. These properties can be modified later as you wish. The Usual Places is a read-only group to give a quick access to the standard folders from your personal directory.
The Stack tab is a helper view to catalog your preferred pictures grouped in a same container. Pictures can be hosted in different folders if necessary. This give a quick access to your best contents that you can slide or share easily.
The Showfoto Stand-Alone Editor Stack Tab from Left Sidebar¶
It divided in two views from the top to the bottom:
The Thumbnails list showing the current stack contents. You can access to the lead features from this view by the context menu available by a right click button of the mouse. Stack contents can be tuned with this context menu, or from the Folders tab. When you are agreed with the stacked items on the list, you can register the container as a Favorite.
The Favorites tree-view is a list of the preferred stacks classified using a hierarchy (similar than Tags in digiKam). This hierarchy can host nested Favorite folders to host your stacks (Favorite item). You can edit stack properties which includes Name, Type, Description, Creation Date, Icon, and the list of Stacked items. Double clicking on a item from the hierarchy plugs the stack contents to the thumbnails list on the top. If any, the last opened file from the stack is loaded in the canvas else the first from the list.
