Copying selected images to batch

[tomczak]

Maybe there is an easier way to do this.

I used FastStone to select images I want to process in PWP. If I drag and drop them to PWP, each image is opened as a separate top level image (BTW the way I have PWP set up is to ask if it want's to convert colour space to the working colour space if the image is without a profile, e.g. when copying and pasting. If several images are copied this way, I have to confirm each image - I can't figure out how to indicate to convert/not to convert them all at a single click without changing the preferences. Cancel, cancels last image in the copy cue, and then another comes up).

What I was hoping to do is to have all those selected images to form a list in a batch. The only way I can think about is either copy the selected images to another location and then recall them from PWP File Open as a batch (or start selecting them from PWP File Open to begin with).

[jsachs]

I'm not at my computer, but I believe that if a File Open dialog box is currently open, dropping images into the main image area adds them to the file list.

[tomczak]

Thanks, dropping the files into the File Open dialog box seems to be adding them as a list for batch processing, but it also seems to be moving the actual files into the File Open current folder from the original folder.

[jsachs]

You need to drop the images into the PWP main image area, not into the File Open dialog box.

[tomczak]

Oh, ok, thanks. I don't seem to be able to do it with consistency - it worked once or twice and it was probably my dragging technique and having to have two windows side by side that impeded it.

I tried copying images from either Windows Explorer or FastStone, but PWP doesn't seem to recognize whatever image format or link to it is being placed in the Windows clipboard. Is it possible to enable it at all?

[jsachs]

Sorry, I misread your message. Yes, there does seem to be a problem with copying via the clipboard -- will check it out.

Starting with the next release, to hopefully make things slightly less confusing, you drop the files into the PWP File Open dialog box (e.g. on the file list itself) instead of the main image area.

[jsachs]

For the next release, you can now paste single images from Explorer or FastStone.

[tomczak]

Great, thanks!

I don't quite understand how different the clipboard copy and paste vs. dragging files into PWP are. Is clipboard involved when files are dragged? What happens if more than one image (from e.g. File Explorer) is selected and copied to clipboard - is the list of those images or actual files in some format copied to the clipboard from which they could be pasted (with some restrictions, I imagine)?

[jsachs]

The standard way the clipboard has historically worked is that copying an image to the clipboard would actually copy the image as a bitmap to the clipboard, thus capturing a snapshot of a single image, either as a V1 or a V5 bitmap. Under 32-bit Windows, there were limits on the size of an image you could copy, but these no longer apply with 64-bit Windows.

Drag and Drop is implemented by simply passing a list of pathnames, with no image copy being made and without using the clipboard. This does not snapshot the images, so, unlike copying to the clipboard, if the files change or get deleted before you paste them, they will no longer be available even though they are on the clipboard.

At some later date, Microsoft added a new way to use the clipboard that is similar to drag and drop -- it copies a list of pathnames to the clipboard instead of copying the images themselves. This is what Windows Explorer currently does.

For the next release, I modified PWP to recognize this clipboard format, but the Paste transformation can only paste a single file, so I ignore all but the first one in the list (usually the last one selected), and the image comes in as a Paste transformation. If you drag and drop files, each one comes in as its own top-level File Open transformation. If you want to copy multiple files, Drag and Drop is the method to use as it also gives you the option of dropping the file list into a File Open to simulate a File Open Multiple command. The clipboard is a less flexible mechanism, but handy for exporting images to a word processor for example, or importing from a screen shot utility.

There is generally no way for PWP to copy images to the clipboard in the drag and drop format since there may not be an image file if the image has not been saved, so there is no pathname to pass. Consequently, PWP copies to the clipboard as a bitmap as before.

[tomczak]

Many thanks for this, Jonathan.

I think I understand it better now. One more related question, probably naïve: if in e.g. Explorer a list of multiple image paths is copied to the clipboard, would it be somehow possible to paste/add those paths to the batch list of File Open (maybe as a popup prior to invoking File Open Multiple command or an option in File Open transformation)?