F-Spot

Browse

You can use the slider widget to browse your photos by month or by directory. To change this setting, go to View » Arranged By.

By default, F-Spot orders your photos in reverse-chronological order, so you always see your newest photos at the top. You can order your photos in chronological order or reverse-alphabetical order with View » Reverse Order.

Search

F-Spot uses search search filters to help you better define search criteria.

Tags

You can start a search by double clicking or activating a tag from the tag list. Alternatively, you can show the find bar with Find » Show Find Bar. With the find bar shown, you can drag tags from the tag view to the find bar.

To find photos that are tagged with both of two tags, activate the first in the tag view or drag it onto the find bar, then drag the second tag and drop it on top of the first. You can also right click on the second tag in the tag view, or use the Find menu, and choose Find With... and select the first tag (or group of tags).

You can drag a tag icon around on the find bar to change from finding it and another tag to finding it or another tag.

You can search for photos that do not have a particular tag by double-clicking on a tag in the find bar. Alternatively, you can right-click a tag in the find bar and select Exclude.

To remove a tag from the search, drag it away from the find bar, or right click and select Remove.

By default, photos tagged Hidden will not be shown. You must explicitly include the Hidden tag in your search to show such photos.

Import Rolls

F-Spot remembers what pictures were imported every now and then. Use Find » Import Roll » Last import roll to limit search to last importing session or use Find » Import Roll » Select Import Rolls... to make a finer selection of imported photos:

• At — to selection photos from a particular importing session
• After — to select all photos imported begining with a particular importing session
• Between — to select all photos imported between two particular importing sessions

Every time you change settings of the filter, amount of selected photos will appear in the bottom part of the dialog.

When you apply Import Roll filter, in the Find bar you will see Find: Import Roll. Now you can add some other filter to finetune your selection.

If you don't need the Import Roll filter anymore, choose Find » Import Roll » Clear roll filter to remove Import Roll from search criteria. You can also click the close button (X) of the search bar to discard all the current search options.

Expert tip: the number of displayed rolls in the dialog is defined by the gconf key 
/apps/f-spot/import/gui_roll_history. Default value is 10.

Type-to-find

There is also a type-to-find entry. Press / to open it. It cannot be used at the same time as the find bar. You can type queries such as "TagA and (TagB or (TagC and TagD))". At any point, if F-Spot recognizes what you've typed as a valid query, it will update your search. The not operator is not yet supported. This function will also search for the typed text into photos comments and filename.

Old Style Searching (F-Spot < 0.2.1)

You can choose to view only photos from a particular tag by checking the box next to a tag. Selecting multiple tags shows you photos having at least one of the tags.

Fullscreen Mode and Slideshows

For fewer distractions and larger display, you can view your photos in full screen mode. You control when to show the next photo or to return to the previous. Enter fullscreen mode by pressing F11 at any time or by pressing the button in the toolbar.

In slideshow mode, you can sit back and view your photos as they are presented to you. You can start a slideshow by pressing the button on the toolbar.