This version of the Side Panel is used for displaying information (metadata) contained in the current photo, video or audio file in the Browser. It is located on the right side of the Manager module and can be shown and hidden by pressing F8. The histogram is shown in the top part of the panel (for pictures only), along with basic file information and the number of items in the current folder. If multiple files are selected, the number of selected files and their combined size are shown instead of the histogram.
Under the histogram there is a toolbar containing several buttons:
– moves to the next or previous file in the folder.
– rotates the picture by 90°.
– automatically enhances the selected picture or pictures. These enhancements are non-reversible changes to pictures.
– offers tools for creating panoramas, multi-exposures (HDR), 3D images, and PDF slideshows.
This panel’s contents can be shown by right-clicking in an empty part of the panel and using Customize Toolbar.
Below this is a toolbar with buttons for the most frequently used functions, and below that, the Description section, in which information is organized into groups based on file type. To set what information is shown, click the gear-wheel button at the bottom left of the Information panel. This shows the Information Settings window. Use it for showing and hiding various information types. This window has buttons for saving and loading your settings.
You can edit some types of picture information here directly (unless the picture file is read-only). To save these edits:
- click the Save button at the bottom right of the panel
- press [Ctrl+Enter] while in an editing box in the panel. This saves the edited information and selects the next picture in the listing. This makes tagging a series of pictures easy.
- switch to another file in the Browser.
If multiple files are selected in the Browser, then the Rating, Label, Title, Description or Keywords can be batch-edited for all of these files. Keywords are a bit exceptional here. If pictures with differing keywords are selected, an asterisk appears before any keyword that is not contained in all files. Erase the asterisk to make that keyword be saved to all files.
If multiple files are selected, then the panel shows the Batch operations section, providing access to several functions for batch work with images, such as Batch renaming, Batch Assign Information, Panoramas, 3D Images, Exposure Blending HDR, Tone Mapping HDR and Work with Multi-page Documents.
If a selected picture contains GPS coordinates, then ZPS automatically determines the text description for the location: Location, City, State/Province, and Country Code. You can browse pictures by these location texts using the Location View section of the Navigator. This function requires an Internet connection. This information is not written directly to the files; it is stored in the Catalog instead. Text descriptions of locations are only written to files when one of these items is edited manually. To batch-store locations in files, use the function named Write Location to Files.