Image Manger, available in Appraise-It 11.0 through 11.9.5, is a simple and lightweight utility which allows you to quickly copy new photos into your report, search all existing report files for photos, and perform basic image editing operations. You can access it from the Tools menu in Appraise-It.
The first time Image Manager or its sister program, Comp Manager, runs, a one-time database generation process scans all existing reports for comp and image data. This can be a lengthy process; it's best to let it run overnight. Future comp and image data is added automatically to the database when you save new reports.
When the database is ready, Image Manager will open.
The Interface
The Image Manger window consists of three panes and a sidebar. The leftmost Function pane displays the current options for the mode you select on the sidebar. The central Display pane shows thumbnails of the images in your currently selected folder if you're browsing, or thumbnails of your results if you're searching. The rightmost Report pane displays the available addenda and any photos already in the addenda of the active report in Appraise-It. The sidebar has four buttons:
Browse: Browse your computer's drives and folders for new photos.
Search: Search your database of reports for existing photos.
Settings: Change display and transfer settings, and clear your recent history.
Help: Access online help documentation via your default web browser, including this article.
Clicking the Browse, Search, and Settings buttons will display each mode's options in the Function pane on the left of the window.
The Active Report
Image Manager is only capable of working with one report file at a time; whichever report is open and active in Appraise-It at the time you open Image Manager from the Tools menu is the report Image Manager will access. Use the Photograph Addenda drop-down at the top of the Report pane to view a list of the different photo addenda in your active report, and select one to display its contents in the lower section of the pane.
Empty photo areas in the addendum are represented by blank white squares; any existing photos in the report are displayed. Drag a photo from the Display pane to one of the photo tiles in the Report pane to copy it into your report. If there is an existing photo in the photo tile, it will be replaced. If the photo addenda doesn't have hardcoded descriptions (i.e. the Subject Photos page is always Front View, Rear View, and Street View), you can select a photo description from the drop-down below the thumbnail. You can also add your own description by typing it in the text field and clicking the + button; it will be added to the default list in alphabetical order.
Right-clicking on any image tile allows you to clear the tile's image, or paste a new image that you copied to your clipboard. You can also click the X in the upper right-hand corner of each tile to clear out the photo contained within that tile.
None of the work you perform in Image Manager is immediately transferred to the report itself. You can click the Refresh From Appraisal button to resync the Report pane with the contents of your active report, which will wipe out any changes you have made to the report, or click the Transfer To Appraisal button to permanently load your work into your active report.
Browsing
When Browse is selected on the sidebar, the Function pane displays a standard Windows tree view of your computer's drives and folders. Click the small plus sign icon (
) next to each drive or folder to expand the tree and view any folders stored within. Click on any folder to load thumbnails of any image files in that folder in the Display pane.
Once you've found your photos, click and drag each one to its correct place in the Report pane.
Your recent browsing history is stored in a drop-down at the top of the window. You can use this drop-down to quickly jump to commonly-used folders.
Searching
When Search is selected on the sidebar, the Function pane displays four possible search terms: Street Address, City, State, and ZIP code. Use these to narrow your search of existing report photos; if you don't specify any search terms, every subject, comp, and listing address ever used in any report will be listed.
When you click Search, a list of matching addresses are displayed below the search tiles. Select any address to see the photos associated with it in the Display pane. Check the Show Older Duplicate Addresses option to display all instances of an address's data stored in your database; leave it unchecked to display only the most recent data.
Once you've found your photos, click and drag each one to its correct place in the Report pane.
Settings
When Settings is selected on the sidebar, the Function pane displays the Image Manager's different options, most of which deal with the Display pane.
Thumbnail Size allows you to select between three different thumbnail sizes in the Display pane: Small, Medium, and Large. Small will allow you to view more photos without scrolling, while Large may make the photos easier to see.
Thumbnails Per Page allows you to change how many thumbnails are loaded into the Display pane at one time.
Thumbnail Sort By allows you to change the sort order of the thumbnails while you're browsing.
Use Shared Photograph Descriptions allows you to access custom photo descriptions added by others on your network; leaving it unchecked will keep your custom photo descriptions private.
Automatically Optimize Images is selected by default; with this option turned on, the Image Manager will resize your large images as you drag them into your report, which improves performance and keeps your report file size low. Your original image files are not modified.
Automatically Recycle Used Images will move images you have transferred into a report into the Windows Recycle Bin.
Clear Recent History erases your browsing history from the drop-down at the top of the window.
