Contents / Introduction / Usage / Main Window /
Settings / Sub-Folders / Date Formatting / Custom Camera Profiles /
Troubleshooting /
About Credits /

cardWatch Main Transfer Window

Once you've configured cardWatch and inserted a camera/memory card in your PC then cardWatch is ready to go.

The main window in cardWatch is made up of many parts.

Camera

When cardWatch detects a memory card or camera it recognises the "Camera display will show the appropriate information. Please note that cardWatch doesn't actually detect the camera as such.

cardWatch in fact detects the layout of the images on the memory card/camera. It does this by loading camera profiles from our web server(s). If your camera is not present in the list you can contact us to let us know or you can setup your own custom camera profile in the settings.

Source

The source folder is the drive and path to either your camera or the memory card mounted in a card reader. This folder is where cardWatch has detected relevant image files.

You control which drive cardWatch should look at in the settings, cardWatch will take it from there.

Note: cardWatch could have been programmed to look at all the drives automatically, however as cardWatch checks the drive once a second we felt it was less intrusive on the system to have it check specific drives only. And even then, only removable drives like your camera plugged in to your PC via Firewire or USB or your camera memory card plugged into a memory card reader.

Target

The target is the fully qualified drive and path to where you want to transfer your images too. This path will include the sub folder (if selected) and will have the fully rendered "Sub Folder Creation Mask" - in this example %d - %u (%d for date and %u for user entered name). See the settings for more information on the "Sub Folder Creation Mask".

Custom Folder (User Entered Name)

This particular item in the main window will only be visible if you have %u in the "Sub Folder Creation Mask". Refer to the settings for more information on this.

You can change this as you see fit before transferring the images. The changes will be reflected in the "Target" (above) in real time.

Please Note: Windows won't accept certain characters in file or folder name. This means you will be unable to type them into the "Custom Folder". These characters are: -

\ / : * ? " < > |

Settings

The settings button will open the settings window.

Exit

The exit button will quit cardWatch. You'll be asked if you are sure before cardWatch will actually shut down.

Select All

Images must be selected before they can be transferred from the source to the target. This button allows you to select all the images in one easy click.

This button is only enabled when one or more of the images are not selected (see later).

Select None

This button deselects all the selected images. If no images are selected then this button is disabled.

Delete Selected

This function allows you to delete the selected files from the camera/memory card. Please be aware there is no going back once this has been done.

Preview

The preview button allows you to open a preview window allowing you to see larger versions of the images.

The preview window appears as a separate window to the main cardWatch window. If you are running a relatively low resolution then you may find the preview a bit useless due to it taking up too much screen space.

Those more generously endowed or with multi-monitors will note that the preview window remembers its last position and so can be easily used on a secondary monitor.

You can set the size of the preview images in the Settings although be aware that the larger the preview the longer it'll take cardWatch to load the the images from the memory card.

Transfer

This button will initiate the transfer process.

This button will not be enabled if you have no images selected.

Images List

The list of image thumbnails* pulled from the images on your camera/memory card. These represent the files on the camera/memory card.

You can click them to select/deselect prior to transferring them to your target destination.

In the example shown, the far left image is deselected while the other two are selected.

You can also hold the mouse over a thumbnail to see the preview (if enabled)

* cardWatch can only extract thumbnails from selected cameras. However not being able to see the thumbnails doesn't affect the operation of cardWatch. It just makes it slightly harder to decide which image is which when selectively transferring your photographs. If you tend to transfer them en masse then this issue is unlikely to affect you.