Digital Image Suite Feedback

Summary: ProductFeedback about Microsoft Digital Image Suite Products

See http://www.microsoft.com/products/imaging/products.aspx

Digital Image Library Feedback

* Be able to import/organise/view video clips from digital cameras (eg. MPEG4 format) similar to iPhoto on the Macintosh can do.
* Support importing of camera RAW files (Example Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0, Apple iPhoto)
* Be able to create/organize photo keywords into a hierarchy or tree view. Right now keywords lack structure, if you have too many of them it becomes overwhelming when using the Keywords feature -- jmoliver
* Digital Image Library desperately needs a better Calendar View for photos, something like the Calendar or Timeline view in Picasa or Adobe Photo Album. In addition this view could include a cool timeline like Adobe's Photo Album -- jmoliver
* Better Search thru a search textbox (Example: Picasa) -- jmoliver
* Support IPTC/XMP (Example: Adobe, PixVue) -- jmoliver
* A location tab for entering photo location in the Photo Properties dialog. Examples: State/Country (like http://pixvue ) or latitute longitude ( http://wwmx.org or http://www.jetphotosoft.com). Plot photos with location photos on a map. (something like http://www.geobloggers.com). -- jmoliver
* An API which would allow users to send photos to other sites or services. Not just Email. (Example: Upload to Flickr, to a Ceiva Picture Frame, Publish to my MSN Space) -- jmoliver
* Customizable Preview Pane - Right now you are stuck with the same fields. It would be nice to allow it to display Photo Descriptions, and other fields. Let the user decide -- jmoliver
* Be allowed to leave dates blank or just display available info - A lot of the photos have incorrect dates, other where scanned. Digital Image Suite sometimes uses the file created date. I wish I could just leave the date picture was taken blank or just specify the year or month if it is known. (Adobe Photo Album has a similar option) -- jmoliver
* Be able to link to the Digital Image Library POD Database using Microsoft Access, or export the POD database to an XML File (Picasa allows to export to an XML file)
* Be able to export metadata for files cataloged in the Digital Image Library to text, csv or native Excel format
* Improve "Print an index sheet" and the "Print Layout" options so other fields could be included, be able to create more customizable print template, not just include the filename. Print Layout: It is nice that you can print the date taken, but what about the other fields? (Captions/descriptions/keywords/Date Taken/Star Rating). Digital Image Suite needs to improve on its printing features.
* Photographer field: Make it easier to batch edit the Photographer field. Add Turn it into a Label? Make it a drop-down box in the Photo Properties dialog? Photographer fied in the "Group By" option. Add copyright info? Copyright Info?
* Add "Notes" over a photo in the Library - Similar to the notes feature in Flickr.
* Warn user before closing if pending file writing operations are pending.
* Be able to add URL's to photo metadata.
* Some sort of integration with Media Center PC's - Generate a "Photo Playlist" for viewing photos on a TV or something.
* Generate an HTML Web Photo albums. I know there are powertoys which do this, but something integrated into Digital Image Library which uses photo info such as Captions and Dates would be nice. (Example: Picasa2- When you right click on a Folder user can create a Webpage using diffrent templates, including output to an XML file.). If such a feature is added, allowing customized templates to be added would be even cooler.
* Picture viewer in Digital Image Library just displays the first page of a multi-page TIFF.
* Make it easier to backup the Digital Image Library database.
* Make it easier to allow multiple Windows user accounts to share the same database. (See for example this post: http://www.shahine.com/omar/PermaLink,guid,d37f8345-2fa0-4d2c-81a1-fa5d700559dd.aspx)
* Allow to set the thumbnail image of the videos (a slide from the video or a custom image).
* Be able to set the Digital Image Library Image Viewer as the Windows default.
* Shell functionality in Library folders (Explore, Open, Search, ..., Properties)
* Multiple/advanced select in Library folders (ctrl-click, shift-click) maybe with possibility of merging and/or comparing folders
* On the labels which appear in the Preview pane and individualy "remove" them from photos by right-clicking. This can be helpful when one has a ton of Labels and Keywords.
* Store Photo Comments back to the Library? - Somehow be able to store the comments made on photos. Comments left on photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Ofoto for example. Store who (name and email) and when along with the comment. Then be able provide some sort of UI to see which photos contain comments.
* Provide an option to always automatically "Select without subfolder" when using the folder view.
* Be able to Geotag photos- Sites are doing photo integration with Maps (such as smugsmug, Flickr, geobloggers). A feature to edit location would be nice.
* A File renamer - Be able to rename photos using a pre-defined or user-defined mask. For example, rename using <Year>"_""Vacation".jpg would produce filename 2005_Vacation1.jpg.
* Facial Recognition on Photos tie up with People - http://riya.com - Or like Adobe Photo Album 3 which can "instantly find all of your photos that contain faces so you can tag photos of friends and family for easy sorting."
* Be able to delete metadata from the Digital Image Library for files that are no longer in the folders that Digital Image Library recorded them in (such as when files have beem moved or deleted not using Digital Image Library)
* Be able to remove a subfolder from the library, without deleting the subfolder from disk, while maintaining the parent folder in the library. Essentially to be able to select any folder, at any level in a folder hierarchy, for inclusion in or exclusion from the library.
* Be able to use multiple libraries, one at a time, selectable from a menu (as opposed to renaming the pictures.pd3 file)
* Add "AND" operator to DIS2006 Label view.
* Prompt the user if the file already exists in a folder, when copying a file. Digital Image Library Copy/Move/Cut operatios seem less reliable than Windows Explorer.
* Improve photo import wizard to cutomize folders so photos are saved in manegeable method. For example:

		             My Pictures\<Year>\<Current Month>-<Current Day>)\<Album Name> 
	

* Add comments to Folders - Folders are usually used as the Album container. It would be neat to actually be able to add to the folder additional metadata for the group of photos within it.
* Web Photo Album - iPhoto can do PhotoCasts. Digital Image Suite should include some really cool web photo album tools which use the captions and descriptions added to the photos in the library. Web photo album feature should also have customizable templates and RSS.
* Add a button in the Preview Pane which allows quick access to the Photo Properties dialog.
* Preview Pane should indicate if the photo contains a description. The description field is sort of hidden in the Properties window of the photo, if a photo contains more than just a caption- in the description field, the user might not even be aware of it.
* More options in the "Share" button - Something like send to KodakGallery.com, Flickr.com
* Photo RSS Support - Would be nice to suscribe to a Photo RSS (iPhoto like)
* Be able to "Play" videos fullscreen in the slideshow, preview mode.
* Batch rename to "Append" words instead of entire rename, for example if an image file is named "IMG1234.jpg", be able to append say the year taken to the existing filename "2006IMG_1234.jpg"
* IPTC Convert Caption/Keyword option - Library seems to read IPTC captions fine, I would like however to be able to automatically have IPTC info be converted into the format DIL uses, so it is editable in Windows Explorer.
* Google Earth/Windows Live/WWMX integration - Something like ITag - http://www.itagsoftware.awswa.com/
* Improve Performance - DIL takes some time starting up.

Digital Image Pro Feedback

* Support importing/editing of camera RAW files (Example Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0, Apple iPhoto)-Future version will support this -(http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jun05/06-01RAWWindowsPR.asp)
* Support for Cannon Rebel XT Raw images - this is the most popular Canon DSLR!
* Support for some kind of free transform tool for selections in addition of the regular skew and al. This would allow easier perspective matching.
* BUG: Some EXIF data is lost when saving. GPS EXIF data is gone after saving in Digital Image Pro.
* Inconsistency: When you plug in a camera, if you import photos using Digital Image Pro, the permissions on the files are considerably different compared to if you import photos using Microsoft Scanner and Camera wizard. If you save to the All Users folder using DIP, files can not be seen by other users due to missing permissions. If you save in All Users with S&CW, files can be seen by other users. Please make permissions on imported files match Scanner and Camera wizard.
* Be able to create custom Print Layout templates- Have a Print Layout Designer of some sort.
* Better handling of TIFF files - Support multi-page TIFF files, only the first page of a multipage TIFF is displayed, the rest is blown away (Example: Adobe supports this).
* Lossless JPG rotate
* Need adjustment layers (at least I can't find them in the trial version) - necessary to compete with PhotoShop Elements.
* Quick way to rotate crop selection 90 degrees. Seems it is always stuck in a landscape mode. Maybe a setting in the tool settings to the left.
* Batch cropping of photos in Mini Mode - Set some fixed coordinates and batch crop. Useful for removing borders.
* Non-destructive rotation of JPG images.
* Must Improve the performance! Even on "fast machines", Digital Image Suite speed is comparatively slow.
* Digital Image Editor erases a butch of EXIF data on save - Example Camera Makernotes are gone after a save.