Recollector User’s Guide

Modifying a Collection’s Fields & Specifying the Image Directory

The Modify Fields dialog box lets you make changes to the definition of the fields in your collection, as well as make changes to the definition of the Image Directory, to the currency and/or measurement units, or to the name of the collection.

This dialog box will appear when:

· You are defining a new collection and you click the Modify Fields button from the initial collection-setup dialog.
or

· You click the Modify Fields or Image Directory button on Recollector’s Control Window.
or

· You pick Modify Fields or Image Directory from the Edit menu of the collection window.

Modifying the fields or image directory for a collection requires that the collection window be closed. If the collection window is open when you pick Modify Fields or Image Directory, the program, after prompting you for confirmation, will close the collection window before displaying the Modify Fields dialog. If the request was made from the collection window’s Edit menu, then the collection window will be automatically redisplayed after the Modify Fields dialog has been closed.

Note: If you are creating a new collection and have opened this window from the Create Collection dialog, then the Specify Image Directory block at the right will not be shown. This is because you must first define and save your new collection file before specifying an image directory.

The main list in this window shows the names of the currently defined fields in the collection database, with the corresponding field type shown in square brackets. In addition to the fields shown, every database definition includes an identification number field. This field, whose default name is ID #, cannot be deleted, or its type changed, but it can be renamed, by clicking on the button in the upper right-hand section of the dialog. For example, if you are cataloging a coin collection, you might want the identification number field to be named Coin #.

For a newly created collection, the fields shown in this dialog will be the ones specified by the template chosen when creating the collection. The example shown in the illustration above is based on the “generic” template; other templates provide additional fields.

All data fields have one of the following eight data types:

• [Text – one of:]

· Short text – Text that is quite short (typically just a few words at most).

· One-line text – Text that is longer than short text, but that will still normally fit on a single line.

· Multi-line text – Longer text, which may span any number of lines.

• [Numeric – one of:]

· Currency – Numeric values, in the currency specified by the collection’s currency choice.

· Dimension – Numeric values, in the units specified by the collection’s measurement-unit choice.

· Number – Numeric values (for anything other than currency or dimension values).

• Date – Date values, which may be fully specified dates (e.g. July 14, 1976 or 12‑SEP‑2005) or whole-year dates (e.g. 1976).
• Image/Audio/Video – Text that identifies the location of a digital image or an audio or video clip (either a file or a web-address URL).

Notes on data types:

• The three text datatypes (short, one-line and multi-line) differ only in how they are handled in the data-entry screens, when adding or editing data. When displaying or printing your collection, all text field types are handled identically. In the data-entry window, short text fields are shown as either a short text-entry box (about 25 characters long) or as a drop-down picklist. (See about Picklists for additional information.) One-line text fields are shown as a full-line text-entry box in the data-entry window. Multi-line text fields are shown as scrollable multi-line sub-windows in the data-entry window. Multi-line text fields also provide enhanced formatting capabilities (italics, underlining and hyperlinks).
• Currency and dimension datatypes are identical to the number datatype, the only exception being that the labeling for these fields will include the appropriate currency or measurement-unit labels.
• When displayed in the List view of the collection viewer window, columns that contain numeric data (currency, dimension or number) are displayed right-justified; all other data are shown left-justified.

• Image fields are used to hold the filenames of digital images or audio or video clips. When an image/audio/video field is shown in the Item Details view of a data record, images contained in it will ordinarily display as thumbnails. (If an image is not accessible on the local computer, it cannot be displayed as a thumbnail; in this case the image field will display as text.) See the description below for more detailed information about image data. If this kind of field contains an audio or video clip, it will be displayed as a clickable link, either Play media (audio) or Play media (video). When clicked on, these links will open the Windows Media Player and play the identified audio or video file.

Adding a Field

You can add as many fields as you want to your database definition; there is no limit. To create a field, click the “Add a New Field” button. This will bring up the following dialog box:

Enter a name for the new field and choose a field type (see the description of the various data types earlier on this page); then click OK. The new field will be added at the end of the list. The order of the fields, as shown in the Modify Fields dialog, does not necessarily reflect the order in which the fields are displayed when viewing your collection. The display order of fields is controlled from the collection viewer window, and is described in Using the Collection. The order shown here, in the Modify Fields dialog, is of no real importance, and just reflects the order in which the fields were initially defined when creating or modifying your collection database.

Note: The field name that you specify will be shown both in the List view (at the top of the column that contains that field’s data) and in the Item Details view (each field’s data value is shown preceded by the field name). If you wish to eliminate the display of a particular field name in the Item Details view, you can accomplish this by enclosing the field name in parentheses, here in the Modify Fields dialog. For example, if you name an image field “(Photo)”, then the image thumbnail will be displayed in the Item Details view without the name “Photo” preceding it. Omitting the field name in the Item Details view is particularly useful for image fields, since often a collection record’s image is self-explanatory – it’s the picture of the item – and there is no need to waste space in the Item Details view by also including a field name with the picture.

If you later want to change either the name or the data type of an existing field, select it from the list on the Modify Fields dialog and click Modify. The program will display the same dialog box as that shown above, but it will be filled in for the current name and type of the field. Make any desired modifications and click OK.

To delete an existing field, select it from the list and click Delete. If you delete a field from your database after you have added at least one data record, any data that had already been entered for the field you are deleting will be lost when the database is next saved. You will be warned of this when you are asked to confirm the field deletion.

The Image Directory (for collections with digital images or audio/video clips)

If you have digital images of items in your collection, or audio or video clip files associated with items in your collection, and they are mostly located in a single directory on your computer, specify that directory as the Image Directory. There are a number of benefits to placing all of your collection’s images (along with any audio or video clips, if you have them) into a single directory:

· Recollector will help you out when you ask to associate an image (or audio/video clip) with a record in your database: When browsing to locate the image file, the program will start your browsing right in the Image Directory folder, so you will avoid having to navigate through your disk’s folders to locate the desired image file.

· Your collection will become easily portable. To move your collection (to a different location on your computer or to a different computer), you will only need to move two objects: the collection file and the Image Directory folder.

· You protect against accidentally assigning the same filename to two different images for your collection. If all your images are in one folder, all the image files necessarily will have distinct filenames. This is particularly important if you plan to use the Recollector App (for Android smartphones or for iPhone/iPod), since the presence of duplicate filenames could result in incorrect matching of data records and images when looking at your collection on your smartphone.

The Image Directory folder that you define can be placed anywhere on your computer’s hard drive. However, we strongly recommend that you place the Image Directory in the same folder that holds your collection file. The following diagram shows an example of this recommended arrangement:

In the example shown above, the collection file (ShellCollection.xml) is located in the C:\Collections\Shells folder. The Image Directory (the folder named Images) is also located in the C:\Collections\Shells folder. By placing the Image Directory folder into the same folder that contains the collection file, Recollector is able to locate images via their location relative to the location of the collection file. The primary advantage of this is that it guarantees that your entire collection can be relocated (to a different location or disk on your computer, to a movable USB thumb drive, or to a different computer) without having to make any changes to your collection. Consequently, we strongly recommend that you follow this guideline, and, when defining the specification for your collection’s Image Directory, the program makes it easy for you to do this.

When you Click on the Specify Image Directory button (or if you are creating a new collection and you choose to specify the Image Directory as the last step of the set-up process), the following dialog box will appear:

Above the boxed area in this window you will see the collection’s currently specified Image Directory, or, as in the screen shot above, you will see Image Directory not yet specified. You can either choose an existing directory to be your Image Directory, or you can ask the program to create a new directory for this purpose. As mentioned earlier in this section, it is strongly recommended (though not required) that your collection’s Image Directory be located in the same folder as the collection file. As shown in the image above, the parent directory for the Image Directory is initially set to follow this recommendation (note the label: [collection file directory]). The program is also suggesting the name Images for the new directory it will create. Edit this field if you want your Image Directory folder to have a different name. There is nothing special about the name Images; an Image Directory can have any name you want.

You also have the option of specifying the full pathname for the folder in which the Image Directory resides. If you turn off the check box labeled Specify parent directory location relative to collection file, the parent directory label will change to display that directory’s full pathname:

These two methods of specifying the location of the Image Directory (either as a full pathname or as a location relative to the collection file) are equivalent. However, as described above, it is recommended that you use the relative-location format.

You can use the Browse button to select any existing folder as the parent directory for a new Image Directory folder. If you choose a parent directory that is not the directory (or sub-directory thereof) that the collection file resides in, then the relative-location specification checkbox will not be disabled, and the full pathname form of the directory specification will be shown and used.

If you want to use an existing directory as your Image Directory, click the Specify an existing directory radio button. You can then click the Browse button to navigate to, and choose, the desired directory. If the directory you choose is the directory containing the collection file, or a sub-directory of it, then you can convert the directory’s specification into a relative pathname by clicking the Specify directory location relative to collection file button. As described in the previous paragraphs, specifying a relative location is recommended, though not required. The following image show the appearance of the Specify an existing directory section of the dialog as it would look immediately after using the Browse button to select the folder C:\Collections\Shells\Images as the Image Directory:

To convert the full pathname to a relative pathname, click on the Specify directory location relative to collection file button. The display of the directory name will change:

The directory name (Images) is now shown as the specification for the Image Directory. Since this is a relative pathname, the program combines this with the directory specification for the collection file’s folder (C:\Collections\Shells in the current example), to figure out the full location of the Image Directory. If the collection and its Image Directory folder are moved at some future date to a different location, the use of a relative pathname will ensure that the collection will continue to work properly and that its images will be found.

Additional Notes on Images and the Image Directory:

• The Image Directory is a convenience, allowing you to specify less information (just the filename, rather than the full pathname of the file) when you provide data for an image/audio/video field. If you specify an Image Directory, you can still provide full pathnames for any images (or audio/video clips) that don’t reside in the Image Directory. Therefore you can use simple filenames for files that reside in the Image Directory and full pathnames for files that reside elsewhere.
• The Image Directory does not have to be a directory on the local computer, though that is certainly likely to be the most common case. The Image Directory can also be the path to a directory somewhere on the World Wide Web. In this case the path must begin with http://. To specify a non-local, or World Wide Web location for your Image Directory, use the Specify an existing directory section of the dialog and type in the full network path or URL of the desired Image Directory location.
• If you specify a full pathname when identifying an existing folder to use as your Image Directory, you have the option of removing the drive-letter specification (e.g. “C:”) from the pathname. In this case, the program will use the same drive letter as that used by the collection file. This is useful if you copy your collection and its Image Directory to a CD-ROM, DVD, or USB flash drive. These devices, when mounted on a new computer, will be assigned a drive letter, but which letter is assigned is not predictable. By leaving off the drive letter on the Image Directory specification (i.e., by specifying something like \Collections\Shells\Images rather than E:\Collections\Shells\Images), the program will work properly, regardless of what drive letter the removable media (CD-ROM, DVD or USB flash drive) has been assigned. (The use of a relative pathname, as described earlier on this page, is another way to deal with the problem of changing drive letters.)
• You can control some of the characteristics of image display (e.g. size of thumbnails, initial size for full image windows). See the discussion of Image Preferences for more information.

Notes on Audio and Video clips:

Recollector uses the Windows Media Player to play audio or video files. Therefore you can include links to files in any media format that is supported by the version of Windows Media Player running on your computer. Recollector uses the filename extension of files to determine whether a file placed in an image/audio/video field is an audio or a video file. In general, all common audio and video file types (such as .avi, .mov, .mp3, .mpg, .wav) are supported by the Windows Media Player, though the particular set of supported file types varies somewhat among the different versions of the Windows Media Player.

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