CaptureOne 4.5 -- Shortcut keys to edit by color?

[MikeE]

Hi...  I would REALLY like any feedback possible on personalizing some of the features within the new CaptureOne 4.5 software.  The last version would allow you to check or numerically edit your picks.  My colleagues and I were used to the numerical system, it's universal and fast.  In the new CaptureOne they use a star rating or color, but the star system is the only one that responds to 'shortcut' keys ( 1 for 1 star, 2 for 2 stars, etc.)  The problem is that they've not only reversed the order of the rating 5-1 vs. 1-5 and have made the pics less visible.  When you shoot as much as we do it's not only a strain on the eye, but to me it's a entry level consumer targeted rating and feature.  The other option is editing by tagging the shot with a color, this would be fine and something that could work within our workflow, the problem is there isn't a 'shortcut key' so you have to remove your hand from the keyboard to use the mouse and click a color for each shot you think may make the cut.  Has anyone developed or discovered a way to shortcut key a color tag for a file?  I've written other shortcuts within Leopard and applied them to CaptureOne for moving to the edits folder and deleting but this shortcut key to tag a shot a color would really save the day.

Any thoughts?  

[Doug Peterson]

Hi...  I would REALLY like any feedback possible on personalizing some of the features within the new CaptureOne 4.5 software.  The last version would allow you to check or numerically edit your picks.  My colleagues and I were used to the numerical system, it's universal and fast.  In the new CaptureOne they use a star rating or color, but the star system is the only one that responds to 'shortcut' keys ( 1 for 1 star, 2 for 2 stars, etc.)  The problem is that they've not only reversed the order of the rating 5-1 vs. 1-5 and have made the pics less visible.  When you shoot as much as we do it's not only a strain on the eye, but to me it's a entry level consumer targeted rating and feature.  The other option is editing by tagging the shot with a color, this would be fine and something that could work within our workflow, the problem is there isn't a 'shortcut key' so you have to remove your hand from the keyboard to use the mouse and click a color for each shot you think may make the cut.  Has anyone developed or discovered a way to shortcut key a color tag for a file?  I've written other shortcuts within Leopard and applied them to CaptureOne for moving to the edits folder and deleting but this shortcut key to tag a shot a color would really save the day.

Any thoughts?

Correct. It's very disappointing to me, but there is currently no shortcut for assigning a color tag. I've spoken with development about this and I hope they will heed my (and many others') advice and add this soon.

The thing about it that irks me is that they didn't even include it in the shortcut-able actions. They provided a really great Edit-Keyboard-Shortcuts which is absolutely genius, but Color Tags are not on the list.

In our upcoming Web-Based Screen-Sharing C1 Training we'll cover a variety of shortcuts that have been missed by most users; everything from simple commands like Apple-Option-Delete for "delete selected" to setting your own obscure shortcuts like "Select By Rating" which by default does not have a keyboard shortcut. We even recommend a few shortcuts you should disable like Apple-Q for Quit and Apple-Control-Delete and Apple-Control-Option-Delete which "Delete Permanently" and "Delete Selected Permanently" because I don't care how hard it would be to accidentally push those shortcuts and then accidentally push "okay"; I don't see a reason in a pro workflow to allow the user to delete images without going through the trash first.

Doug Peterson,  Head of Technical Services
Capture Integration, Phase One & Canon Dealer  |  Personal Portfolio

[MikeE]

Correct. It's very disappointing to me, but there is currently no shortcut for assigning a color tag. I've spoken with development about this and I hope they will heed my (and many others') advice and add this soon.

The thing about it that irks me is that they didn't even include it in the shortcut-able actions. They provided a really great Edit-Keyboard-Shortcuts which is absolutely genius, but Color Tags are not on the list.

In our upcoming Web-Based Screen-Sharing C1 Training we'll cover a variety of shortcuts that have been missed by most users; everything from simple commands like Apple-Option-Delete for "delete selected" to setting your own obscure shortcuts like "Select By Rating" which by default does not have a keyboard shortcut. We even recommend a few shortcuts you should disable like Apple-Q for Quit and Apple-Control-Delete and Apple-Control-Option-Delete which "Delete Permanently" and "Delete Selected Permanently" because I don't care how hard it would be to accidentally push those shortcuts and then accidentally push "okay"; I don't see a reason in a pro workflow to allow the user to delete images without going through the trash first.

Doug Peterson,  Head of Technical Services
Capture Integration, Phase One & Canon Dealer  |  Personal Portfolio

I figured it out!  I just went through System Preferences on Mac OS and created my own shortcut keys INCLUDING THE NESTED MENUS!  It's depressingly simple due to the time I spent trying to figure it out, but here it is.  If the color tag is Green, type Green.  yep.  The software does have a few bugs I noticed.  For example you may create a shortcut key for Green but sometimes it won't recognize it.  To solve this just type        ...Green             You'll now have two shortcut keys named green so delete the one above the last and it will work.  I left the space around the example on the line up because when I was searching for a solution I noticed people used quotations a lot and when you're typing funny things to make a key work you don't need any more confusion on whether or not you should type something!  Happy Key Shortcutting!!

Mike

[MikeE]

  So here's how it works...  Basically start with the thought in mind that everything you see on screen is created with keystrokes and that includes menus.  So if you can edit how the software reads what the menu tells it to do you can control the software to perform in a more personalized workflow.  The company I work for has a photography studio and we shoot around three weeks a month.  We'd worked in the recent version of Capture one for quite some time and when you're editing folders in the double digits daily, it's easy to get used to the tagging the way it was (numerically).   The new version of Capture One 4.5.2 supports a 'rating' system (stars 5-1, 5 being highest... like spicy thai food) and second a color system ( I believe there are 7 ).  Unfortunately the stars fade into the abyss of information on the screen due to size and their color.  I'm a Mac guy and the only machines we use to capture and edit are Macs so the following may translate and it may not.  

To "Personalize" your workflow and add shortcut keys to edit on the fly, do the following:

1.  Open System Preferences

2.  Open the Keyboard and Mouse settings

3.  Open Keyboard Shortcuts

4.  Scroll to the bottom of the list and you will see a toggle for Applications

5.  Now it's time to add your shortcuts!  Choose the ( + ) button again and it will display a bar where you can choose your application.

6.  Filling out the Menu and Shortcut key starts to get a little tricky because it will require an action that is already within the application menu.  For Example:  We used to edit in the old Capture One with a 1, 2 ,3. ( 1 being the best )  Due to the size,  color and reverse nature of the star (5-1 instead of 1-5) we chose the color route.  We chose Green as 1, Yellow as 2 and Red as three (like a stop light, but also because the program will sort by color and works from bottom to top in the color list. The colors we chose would be sorted according to our 1-3 rating.  To  name the shortcut key for Green using the 1 key we had to do two things.  First off rename the One Star key with a different action (any will do) we chose (-).  To type the One Star key in the Menu name when naming a shortcut go to edit under any program for special characters find the black star and click it.  It will show up in the Menu section of the shortcut naming window.  Then Choose (-) ((no parenthesis)) for the Keystroke.  Now for the Green Key we typed Green (make sure to capitalize exactly as it is in the menu of software) and for the shortcut key we entered 1.  And so on and so forth for the other keys.  


  Hope that helps.. I've attached a couple sceen captures to show a couple of the keys we used.  If I can help in any other way feel free to email me at:   mike.eustis@yahoo.com

Thanks!!

Mike

[Doug Peterson]

Mike, unbelieavable teching work there!

I almost feel bad saying this now after all that wonderful work...

Capture One 4.6 (release very soon) will have color tags which can be assigned keyboard shortcuts using the Edit Keyboard Shorcuts command within Capture One. No hacks/system-preference changes required.

Doug

Doug Peterson,  Head of Technical Services
Capture Integration, Phase One & Canon Dealer  |  Personal Portfolio

So here's how it works...  Basically start with the thought in mind that everything you see on screen is created with keystrokes and that includes menus.  So if you can edit how the software reads what the menu tells it to do you can control the software to perform in a more personalized workflow.  The company I work for has a photography studio and we shoot around three weeks a month.  We'd worked in the recent version of Capture one for quite some time and when you're editing folders in the double digits daily, it's easy to get used to the tagging the way it was (numerically).   The new version of Capture One 4.5.2 supports a 'rating' system (stars 5-1, 5 being highest... like spicy thai food) and second a color system ( I believe there are 7 ).  Unfortunately the stars fade into the abyss of information on the screen due to size and their color.  I'm a Mac guy and the only machines we use to capture and edit are Macs so the following may translate and it may not.  

To "Personalize" your workflow and add shortcut keys to edit on the fly, do the following:

1.  Open System Preferences

2.  Open the Keyboard and Mouse settings

3.  Open Keyboard Shortcuts

4.  Scroll to the bottom of the list and you will see a toggle for Applications

5.  Now it's time to add your shortcuts!  Choose the ( + ) button again and it will display a bar where you can choose your application.

6.  Filling out the Menu and Shortcut key starts to get a little tricky because it will require an action that is already within the application menu.  For Example:  We used to edit in the old Capture One with a 1, 2 ,3. ( 1 being the best )  Due to the size,  color and reverse nature of the star (5-1 instead of 1-5) we chose the color route.  We chose Green as 1, Yellow as 2 and Red as three (like a stop light, but also because the program will sort by color and works from bottom to top in the color list. The colors we chose would be sorted according to our 1-3 rating.  To  name the shortcut key for Green using the 1 key we had to do two things.  First off rename the One Star key with a different action (any will do) we chose (-).  To type the One Star key in the Menu name when naming a shortcut go to edit under any program for special characters find the black star and click it.  It will show up in the Menu section of the shortcut naming window.  Then Choose (-) ((no parenthesis)) for the Keystroke.  Now for the Green Key we typed Green (make sure to capitalize exactly as it is in the menu of software) and for the shortcut key we entered 1.  And so on and so forth for the other keys.  


  Hope that helps.. I've attached a couple sceen captures to show a couple of the keys we used.  If I can help in any other way feel free to email me at:   mike.eustis@yahoo.com

Thanks!!

Mike

[MikeE]

Mike, unbelieavable teching work there!

I almost feel bad saying this now after all that wonderful work...

Capture One 4.6 (release very soon) will have color tags which can be assigned keyboard shortcuts using the Edit Keyboard Shorcuts command within Capture One. No hacks/system-preference changes required.

Doug

Doug Peterson,  Head of Technical Services
Capture Integration, Phase One & Canon Dealer  |  Personal Portfolio

  Devil!    

 That's good news though, thanks Doug!