Better looking Thumbnails

This latest release has a new component called "Unified Thumbnail". One of its most prominent features is that it uses the color profile stored in the image to provide a better thumbnail quality. See for yourself:

SharePoint:	FC.MetadataExtractor:

Thumbnails everywhere

By default, SharePoint does not create thumbnails in any document library other than the Assets and the Pictures library. SharePoint also does not create thumbnails whenever a file does not have the windows filetype extension in the filename.

The Unified Thumbnail enables thumbnails in all kinds of document libraries. Even in the Assets and Pictures libraries it can add value by creating thumbnails for formats not supported by SharePoint.

Thumbnails and Metadata Extraction for RAW, PSD, or DNG files

SharePoint only creates thumbnails for a few formats, like jpg and png. Other formats, e.g. RAW formats like CR2 or NEF, or even PSD images are not supported by SharePoint.

The Unified Thumbnail provides thumbnails for all formats for which a WIC codec has been installed. Such codecs might be available from your camera vendor, but there are also low-cost codecs available from vendors like Ardfry (PSD, DNG) and FastPictureViewer (wide range of RAW codecs).

Keep in mind that 64-bit (x64) codecs are required for use with SharePoint 2010.

Metadata Extraction from images in folders and their subfolders

If you have a document library with images organized in folders, the images in this library can now be processed by the FC.MetadataExtractor in one simple step: Select the top-level folders and start the "Manual Extraction". The 3.2 release will automatically parse through all folders and sub-folders to extract the thumbnail and metadata from all images in that library.

Full Control over all metadata extraction processes running in the background

Extracting metadata and creating thumbnails for a large number of images can be a lengthy operation. This process is conducted in the background to allow the user to continue to work. Until now, whether any such process is active and what its progress is has been somewhat invisible. This is why we introduced the "Extraction Control", which provides transparency over any such process running in the site, and also enables the site collection administrator to cancel any of these processes.

Writing Metadata back to the image

SharePoint 2010 added the functionality to some SharePoint columns to write metadata back to the image. We've tested this functionality and have slightly modified our Default Mappings to include the following columns:

• Copyright (previously: CopyrightNotice was used)
• Keywords
• Author (previously: Photographer was used)
• Date Picture Taken
• Comments
• Subject

Note: The Comments and Subject metadata is written back to the image, but not to the typical location in the file, so it might not show in your image editing application.

The standard SharePoint columns "Title" and "Name" also write back to the image.

More and Improved Default Mappings

Several Field Mappings have been added and many of the previously existing mappings have been enhanced, e.g. by explicit access to png and gif fields. For a complete list of the current Default Mappings please see the product manual which is included with the demo download from our website.

New "Standard Mappings"

Metadata mappings configured for one library can now easily be copied to other libraries in the site collection using the new commands:

Adding and Editing a Field Mapping - Simplified!

Any existing Field Mapping can now be entirely modified later on. Gone are the days when this sometimes required creating a new field mapping. Plus, a link is now provided to create a missing column in the library and several checks are performed automatically to avoid creating an invalid mapping.

Go Get It!

The new release is already available as a download from our website. Go give it a spin and see if you like the new and improved features!