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Expand selection using parameters of selected file(s)

Posted: 2024-10-20, 21:41 UTC
by buyerbruce
Dear forum,
I regularly have to sort my thousands of photos from various personal devices, as I'm sure many others do.
To quickly group photos, I would like to select a photo and then expand the selection based on dates. However I am missing something which seems fundamental: why are the parameters (like the date) of the selected file not available in the "Expand selection > Define selection" dialogs?
It seems the "Define selection" dialog is more general purpose and only allows static values.

So my request is that the parameters of the already selected file(s) are made available in the "Define selection" dialog so that selections could be expanded / retracted according to relative values (e.g. creation date within x days of selected).

Thanks for your consideration.
Regards,
Bruce

Re: Expand selection using parameters of selected file(s)

Posted: 2024-10-21, 08:40 UTC
by petermad
2buyerbruce
When you use the "Expand selection" function, you can either just use traditional wild cards. But you can also filter via a saved definition. So in the "Expand selection" dialog click the "Define" button -that opens a "Define selection" dialog which has all the same options as the "Find Files" dialog (Alt+F7) - here you can click on the "Advanced" tab and choose the date range or the file age. Click on "Save" when you are done. The saved definition is displayed in the "Expand selection" dialog with the name you saved it with. This definition can also later be retrieved in the "Find Files" dialog in the "Load/Save" tab.

It is correct that the saved definition is static - for a new date you will have to edit the saved definition and save it again with the same name.

Maybe a definition based on the "Not older than" set to for example 7 days will suit your purpose - You could make several of these with different number of days, ready to use.

Re: Expand selection using parameters of selected file(s)

Posted: 2024-10-21, 16:30 UTC
by hi5
Similar to loadsearch with current file properties viewtopic.php?t=76717