TOPIC: Idea to speed up photos even more!

I agree, I'm always trying to keep those two areas organized but I'm never satisfied with the results!

Dominic- I made a post about the changes you made in a photo section drop down assignment blocks (but I can't find it).

To refresh your memory; I use keyboard shortcuts to assign a photograph to a section in the report by typing the first letter in the drop-down. If it's not the correct one because there is another section with the same letter, striking the first letter again moves down the list.

Currently as soon as you select a section it jumps over to the subsection. I have to go back and click on the section scroll down find it and click on it. Depending on the template there can be a lot to scroll through.

As you know I hate to" hunt and pick"!

The greatest asset that this reporting program provides to me is the ability to handle photographs.

Currently the way things are, it is taking me forever to process my photographs. There are way too many keystrokes and too much reading to my liking.

As far as I'm concerned you can get rid of the second sub section and just use the report section tab and print all of the pictures in chronological order at the bottom of the report section.

For example: if I select "interior section" I have a tab named "comment". I assign all of my photographs to the "comment tab". They print at the bottom of each section.

The keystrokes are as follows: left click on the picture section drop down, type "I", then "C"; move on to the next picture.

The subcategory drop-down allows you to type multiple "same first letters" but by the time I have to use my mouse and read down the list, I may as well continue using my mouse. Another list to go through to find "comment".

Just putting it back the way it was would make me perfectly happy.

I have a touch screen on my desktop computer and even that is unbearably slow!

It can make using the first letter of a section the selection keystroke a headache, and going from mouse to keyboard is a major pain.  But there are a couple work arounds to this problem.

1. When the sub section automatically opens striking "Shift-Tab" takes you back into the first category dropdown and striking the letter again goes down the list of categories one more step. It still adds keystrokes, but they are fast ones and it eliminates going back to the mouse or the touch-pad. If you have a hotkey it could be set up to do this.
2. Re-name the main categories so they all start with different letters.  Not an attractive idea but it would solve it. Might be a bit difficult to come up with names.
3. Dom could make it an option which can be switched on or off.
4. Not sure if this can be done or not, but maybe Dom could set up the main category to only select when Enter is struck. So striking a letter just jumps through the list until Enter is struck and then the subcategory opens. It adds one keystroke but it is a common and intuitive one for guys categorizing photos this way.

Dom, about David's other idea with the photos just printing at the bottom of a main section instead of after sub-sections. Could the photo categories be set up to do just that if a main category is selected but the subcategory is left blank?

Thanks Cameron, I did #2.
Am using "Space-Bar" as Electrical...

Changes the others. Exterior to "outside" didn't fly...

I always found those drop downs to be a pain, but the keyboard option worked fine, but not that's gone.

I don't like "working for computer programs". That is why I'm here.
but this has been a big step back for me this last Qtr. Seems like I'm chasing photos all over the place now.

I have "Grounds" and "Facade" sections for all the exterior stuff. It's nearly impossible to have all of them different and have them also be intuitive.