Navigation Pane: Collections vs Computer

[manglwise]

I wanted to confirm my understanding of the Collections list versus the Computer list in the Navigation Pane.

If I browse images in the Collections list then the folders containing the images will be included in the PSP Database. The database contains thumbnails and metadata for the images. I believe this database is call the Catalog.

If I browse images in the Computer list then the folders containing the images will NOT be included in the PSP Database.

Since I use ACDSee Pro for managing my images, I did not want to have PSP create its own database of the same images. Can I stop any PSP "cataloging" by going to File/Preferences/General Program Preferences/Manage and add my image folders to the Uncataloged Folders list?

If I have the above information correct, is there any down side to doing this?

[MarkZ]

Manglwise:

You can use Manage and Navigate without ever using Collections. If you select Computer/. . ./your folder, that path is not added to the cache.

In C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\Local\Corel PaintShop Pro\16.0 are the folders for Database and Thumbs - note that the database is separate from Thumbs. Entries are made into the database when you use Collections. It is safe to delete the databases and they will be recreated when you next open X6. If you want to experiment you may want to rename what is there to play it safe. I've deleted the caches a number of times when I wanted to do a quick clean-up.

As far as I can tell, The thumbs sub-directories are created every time you access images not viewed earlier and if images are added to a folder and then viewed. If you access a folder with images, even from Computer, the thumbs are created. When I was short of memory I used to delete lots of the thumb folders because they take up so much space. They do speed up access to images in Organizer.

Can I stop any PSP "cataloging" by going to File/Preferences/General Program Preferences/Manage and add my image folders to the Uncataloged Folders list?

I suspect that if you add the image folders to the Uncataloged Folders list you will not be able to access your images. The folders that are now in that list do not show up in the navigation tree.

[manglwise]

Thanks Mark, I will just use the Computer part of the Navigation Pane. It is too bad that including a folder in the Uncataloged Folders list will also keep me from accessing images in the folder.

I went ahead and deleted the database and thumbs directories.

[MarkZ]

Thanks Mark, I will just use the Computer part of the Navigation Pane. It is too bad that including a folder in the Uncataloged Folders list will also keep me from accessing images in the folder.

I went ahead and deleted the database and thumbs directories.

Greg:

Be aware that even though you use only the Computer part, thumbnails will be added to the Thumbs directory. Every time you access a new folder or one that has had files added, the thumbs you see in Organizer (whether in Manage or Edit) are added to the Thumbs folder until the folder reaches some limit. In my case that seems to be 500 MB. I looked for where this limit could be adjusted but did not find such a setting.

I prefer to use Collections for the simplified navigation it provides. The ImageDB.db had grown to 12 MB before I deleted it when testing. It now stands at 5 MB after a month of use.

[Rick_R]

If you right-click on a folder name there is a Do Not Catalog option. It looks like you have to do that for each folder. I haven't tried it but if you click high up on a folder set, perhaps the subfolders will automatically also be excluded.

[Rick_R]

I only started working with Manage recently. I just backed up the database and the ZIP file is 284MB.

I have a 64GB solid state disk, so I prefer not to accumulate these types of small files on the SSD. I looked at Preferences > File Locations but it looks like there is no option to change the location of that database.

I routinely move such things to a hard disk using a junction, which is what I'll do with this, but I'd like to know if there is a "kosher" way to change the location instead.

(In my case, my computer dual boots X6 in Win 7 Home Premium or X5 in Win Pro 8.1, so I'd rather have two junctions pointing to the same place.)