PSRemote: Why must one use a mouse to change a filename prefix?

[LesC]

Hi all-

I'm trying to set up an image capture workstation for pharmacists, and PSRemote looks like almost just what I need.

The installation needs to be hi-volume and quick, so I'm trying to get things as keyboard-centered and automated as possible.

Each file needs to be saved with the prescription number as (at least part of ) the file name for future reference.

After not finding a "Take a picture and ask me what to call it" option, I'm now considering using the "file name prefix" option in preferences. We can get to the preference screen fine, but no amount of tabbing or guessing at hotkeys can get the cursor into the prefix field; it looks like an obligatory mouseclick.

Other than violating Windows interface standards, it is kinda annoying and time-consuming for a "do hundreds of these a day" pharmacist to have to use the (unmacroable) mouse to get to that field.

Any one know of a workaround, or some other way to quickly do a "shoot this image and give it this name, or "thisname plus image00001.jpg" as a filename, with a minimum (prefereably zero) of mousing?

Or, barring a workaround, is someone maintaining a feature request list for the next release?

Thanks for any help here.

Les

[Chris Breeze]

The main reason there is no quick keyboard shortcut to do this is that nobody has asked for this feature before.

A number of people are using PSRemote and DSLR Remote Pro for shooting images for catalogs and have asked for the ability to change the filename prefix using the remote interface library to make it easier to integrate the software with their database systems. This has been added to the interface libraries for PSRemote v1.4 and the latest beta of DSLR Remote Pro. Maybe you could get the system that generates the prescription number to use the interface library to set the filename prefix in PSRemote?

[LesC]

Chris:

Thanks for your reply.

The camera arrives today, and after confirming my suspicion that the software shipping w/ the A75 won't do what I need, I'll buy a copy of PSRemote and get the app going.

You're right- hooking stuff up directly to the Rx database would be the best way to go, but at this point this isn't going to happen. Doctors use the patient data system to write the Rx and the app prints the Rx. That piece of paper goes to the pharmacy, who then enters the vitals back in to a different computer system. (And for some odd reason, the folks who run both systems aren't too keen on letting some custom app get hooks into either the writing or the filling of Rx's; go figure...) The imaging setup is the "doublecheck and remotely viewable backup" component of the data reentry.

At this point, since everything but that one mouseclick into the prefix field can be done by the keyboard, I'm thinking about a foot pedal mouseclick or something like that. We've got a little time to tweak the system, and I'll keep you posted as to how things go.

Les

[LesC]

OK, they threw me a curve.

Got the A75, installed the (superior to A70) software suite, notice their image capture software looks pretty good and does not need mousing, talked to the person who will be doing the work, and found out that there are...

Multiple prescription numbers on the same piece of paper, and we need to search for any one of them. Sigh. Could be as many as 6 or 7 7 digit numbers.

PSRemote has a comment field. A few questions before I purchase.

1. How many characters are available in the comment field?
2. How is the comment field stored in the image? i.e., which metadata standared are you using?
3. Do any of your viewing products (or, hopefully sez the cheapskate, Picasa 2??) (ThumbsPlus?) effectively search on either partial or complete data in your comment field? That is, be able to find an image that has a comment of "1234567, 2345678" by searching for "2345678"?

Essentially, what if I let the default serialization work for the actual filename, but have (multiple) users searching a shared drive for comment metadata?

There's got to be a solution out there somewhere. Thanks for any help.


Les

[Chris Breeze]

The comment is stored in the standard EXIF UserComments field and should be readable by all decent browsers. The comment may be up to 256 characters long. I don't recommend having several users running PSRemote on different machines and all storing the images in the same directory on the network because you will probably get problems with filename clashes.

One solution is to modify PSRemote so that it can use the comment as the filename prefix (please contact me directly if you want discuss this further - [email protected]). Alternatively it wouldn't be difficult to write a folder watching script which renames the files using the UserComments and then copies them to the network drive. You could even launch the script using PSRemote's editor option.