JPEG Saver config — Filters dialog
Filters allow you to specify conditions which must be met for JPEG Saver to load the matching files. The filters dialog is accessed from the Folders tab by choosing the “Edit filters…” option from the filters menu button. It looks like this:
- Presets list
- Load preset
- Insert preset
- Save preset
- Delete preset
- Reset presets
- Filter tree view
- Add filter button
- Edit filter button
- AND group button
- OR group button
- NOT group button
- Remove button
- Clear all button
- Filters enable checkbox
When you first see the filters dialog, all the main filter tree control will contain is an “AND group”. Individual filters must be grouped together using AND or OR, and can only be added to groups. Groups may contain other groups for more complex conditions, or just to help you organise your filters.
Filter presets list
This combobox is where you can choose an existing preset or enter the name to save a new preset. JPEG Saver has a number of built-in presets that you can use, modify or delete.
Load preset
This button loads the selected preset into the tree view, replacing its existing contents.
Insert preset
This button loads the selected preset, inserting it into the tree at the current selection. This makes it easier to build more complex filters from smaller groups.
Save preset
This button saves the contents of the tree view as the preset named in the combobox. JPEG Saver will ask for confirmation before overwriting an existing preset with the same name.
Delete preset
Deletes the selected preset. JPEG Saver will ask for confirmation before removing it.
Reset presets
Clears the list of presets, reloading the built-in default set.
Filters tree view
This area shows the filters that you have defined and their groups. The tooltip displayed when you hover over the filter tree shows the filter in a format closer to the SQL that will actually be used.
Add filter
Adds a filter to the list with the Edit Filter dialog.
Edit filter
Edits the selected filter with the Edit Filter dialog. Double-clicking a filter in the list has the same effect.
AND group
Adds a new “AND” group to the tree. Filters in an AND group must all match an image for it to be displayed by the screensaver.
OR group
Adds a new “OR” group to the tree. An image will be displayed by the screensaver if it matches any of the filters in an OR group.
NOT group
Adds a new NOT group to the tree. A NOT group can only contain one entry, either another group or a filter. The NOT group inverts the group or filter inside it.
Remove
Removes the selected filter or group.
Clear all
Removes all filters and groups.
Enabled checkbox
This checkbox turns the filters on and off. (You can also toggle filters on/off from the filters menu button on the Folders tab.)
The edit filter dialog
Data field
This drop-down picks the data field that you want to filter by. The fields available are:
- Filename
- The complete image filename, including the extension. Example: “Bob and George.jpg”
- Folder path
- The complete path to the folder that the image is inside. This does not include the trailing slash. Example: “C:\Users\Bob\Pictures”
- Date/time created
- Date/time last modified
- These two fields are the image file's creation date/time and its last modified date/time - the could be the same as when the image was first created, but this is not guaranteed.
- Size
- The file size, in bytes.
- Width
- Height
- The width or height of the image. Unlike most other fields, these rely on information from inside the file. JPEG Saver reads the width and height of each file while the screensaver is running, adding the details into the database for the next time the screensaver runs. This means that filtering by width or height will miss any images that JPEG Saver has not got around to checking yet.
- Age in days
- This uses the image file's creation date to calculate the age of the file.
- Tags
- This is another option that relies on data read from inside the file, in this case the contents of the EXIF and IPTC keywords fields. During the file scan JPEG Saver creates a table of all the tags/keywords stored in the images and this field allows you to specify a tag to search for. If the scan has already run when you configure the filter, JPEG Saver will display an autocomplete box when you begin typing a tag.
Comparison method
This drop-down provides several operators for comparing the data field with whatever value you want to check it against:
- =
- Equal to
- !=
- Not equal to
- >
- More than
- >=
- More than or equal to
- <
- Less than
- <=
- Less than or equal to
- pattern (case sensitive)
- pattern (case insensitive)
- Support the standard DOS wildcards “*” and “?” for string comparisons. The “*” wildcard matches multiple characters, and “?” matches a single character.
For the filename and folder path fields, all of the comparison methods are available. For the size field, all apart from the pattern matching operators will work (though the “=” and “!=“ operators are not very useful).
For the date and time fields, the pattern matching operators are not available, and the “=” and “!=” operators are not of any practical use either.
For the tags field, only the “=”, “!=” and case insensitive pattern matching operators are available. Tags are always stored in lowercase, so the case sensitive version would not be useful.
Value to compare
This input is where you enter the value or pattern that you want to compare with the list of images. For the filename, folder path and size fields this is a simple text input, and for the date/time fields it changes to a date/time input with a pop-up calendar button.