Skip to main content

Organize photos and videos with Diffractor

Diffractor is a free program for devices running Microsoft Windows operating systems that assists you in the organization of photos and videos.

You can use it to add tags, locations or other attributes quickly to media files for instance, or rate media using the program's slideshow functionality.

Diffractor will scan default Windows locations such as the Pictures, Videos or Download folder by default but you can add custom locations to the program in the settings.

Please note that custom locations are limited to one unless you become a sponsor for $9.99. You may however point the program to any location on your system directly using the address bar.

Diffractor

The program displays the scanned folders and files in its interface afterwards. Media is shown as thumbnails usually, and a click on any of the thumbnails displays a larger version of the file in the interface.

diffractor

There you find direct options to rate it or edit tags, but the real beauty of the program is its slideshow mode which goes through the files one by one giving you options to add tags or ratings to them without having to switch files manually.

A right-click on the thumbnails listing opens a huge menu with additional options that include the following:

  • Batch Edit - Edit information, such as genre, artist, or album for all selected items at once.
  • Convert - Convert selected images to jpg format.
  • Combine to PDF - Create a PDF document and add all selected files to it.
  • Locate - Add a location quickly to the selected media files.
  • Rotate - Rotates the selection.
  • Rate - Adds a star rating.
  • Resize - Resizes the selection
  • Tag / Remove Tag - Add or remove tags.
  • Print Photos
  • Share: Email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr
  • Move, Copy, Delete, Rename

Some of the tools provided are rather limited when it comes to options. The photo converter supports only conversions to jpg for instance, and the resize operations only supports the setting of a maximum photo dimension but no options to use percentage values or absolute values for height and width.

Diffractor is a handy program if you want to go quickly through a collection of media, to rate images or video files, or to delete them if you don't want to keep them.

It is a big like Fast Picture Viewer in this regard, only more limited when it comes to the process but with support for video formats.

The program supports keyboard shortcuts to speed up operations significantly. You can use Ctrl-5 to rate a photo or video immediately, Ctrl-T to tag it, or Ctrl-Shift-C to copy the selected items to a folder.

Search is another area where the program offers more than you may realize. You find common search options in the options, created:7 for instance which displays only media that has been created in the past 7 days, or rating:5 to only display items rated with five stars.

You can also open an overview page that provides you with a to-do list and information about all the folders and items that you have added to the program's database.

diffractor todo

You can make use of the listing to go through all unrated or untagged items quickly for instance, or open a specific selection of items, for instance from a specific year or sort items by duration.

Closing Words

Diffractor is a handy program when it comes to organizing a collection of media files quickly. Especially the rating, tagging, deleting, and file operation options are handy in this regard.

The program would benefit from improvements to the tools it ships with though, for instance to add percentage options to the resize tool.

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

HOME