About Moments
Silent Sifter has a great feature called Moments, which will automatically group your imported photos/videos into a set of ‘Moments’ based on when the photos were taken and how long of a dividing gap there was between a set of photos/videos.
Moments allows you to automatically sift your photos into groups like ‘Jul-04 Morning Beach outing’, ‘Jul-04 Picnic at the park’, and ‘Jul-04 Fireworks’ instead of just ‘Jul 04’.
Each time you import new files with Silent Sifter, the non-duplicates will be grouped into chunks based on the length of time elapsed (Divider) between the shooting date of the files.
Next, the groups checked to ensure they are of the sufficient length of time from first shoot date to last shoot date (Minimum Length), and the number of files in the moment (Minimum files).
Last, a moment label is generated for the group based on your preferences (which may include asking you to enter a name for the moment), which is then inserted into your folder structure/filename using the Moment token.
That is the summary, but a great deal more information is included in the sections below.
Minimum Length
Every input location has it’s own setting for Minimum Moment Length, which by default is 1 Second.
Minimum Length is the amount of time that elapsed between the shooting date of the first file in the moment, and the last file in the moment.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each input.
If a set of files does not meet the minimum length, it will not be grouped into a moment.
This allows you to choose what constitutes a moment with more granularity. For example, you may decide that anything that look less than 5 minutes should not be considered a Moment, in which case those files would be treated as individual files without a specific Moment.
Minimum Files
Every input location has it’s own setting for Minimum Moment Files, which by default is 2 Files.
Minimum Files is the number of files that must be included in the moment for it to qualify as a moment.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each input.
If a set of files does not meet the minimum files count, it will not be grouped into a moment.
This allows you to choose what constitutes a moment with more granularity. For example, you may decide that anything with less than 20 files should not be considered a Moment, in which case those files would be treated as individual files without a specific Moment.
Divider Size
Every input location has it’s own setting for Moment Divider Size, which by default is 45 Minutes.
Divider Size is the number of minutes that must elapse without any files created (shooting/creation date) in order to signify the beginning of a new moment.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each input.
If the gap between file shoot/create date is less than the divider size, then the file will be added to the current moment. If the gap is greater than the divider size, the file will be added to a new moment.
This allows you to choose what constitutes a moment with more granularity. For example, you may decide that anything with less than a 1 hour gap between files should be considered as part of the same single moment.
Date Format
Every output location has it’s own setting for Moment Date Format, which by default is LLL-dd (Jan-07).
Date format is the text format for the start date portion of the moment label, which represents the shooting date of the first file within the moment.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each output.
This value is only used to format moment labels, if the Moment token is used in either the file renaming pattern, or the folder structure pattern settings.
Length Format
Every output location has it’s own setting for Moment Length Format, which by default is [1m 24s].
Length format is the text format for the duration of time between the shooting date of the first file, and the shooting date of the last file in the moment.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each output.
This value is only used to format moment labels, if the Moment token is used in either the file renaming pattern, or the folder structure pattern settings.
Time Format
Every output location has it’s own setting for Moment Time Format, which by default is ‘No Time’, meaning that no time format will be included in the moment label.
Time format is the text format for the start time portion of the moment label, which represents the shooting time of the first file within the moment.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each output.
This value is only used to format moment labels, if the Moment token is used in either the file renaming pattern, or the folder structure pattern settings.
About Naming
Every output location has it’s own setting for Moment Naming, which by default is ‘Ask me to enter names’, meaning that once the moments are found, you will be prompted to enter names for each moment detected, which will then be added as the naming component of the moment label.
Naming determines whether you are asked for names for each of the moments, or whether unique names are automatically generated for each of the moments.
This is a configurable value, which can be set individually on each output.
This value is only used to format moment labels, if the Moment token is used in either the file renaming pattern, or the folder structure pattern settings.
About Moments and AutoSift
When AutoSift is triggered on a given input, Moment names will always be automatically generated, instead of prompting the user.