PIMP detects when it is being run for the very first time, and drops you straight into the preferences dialog, where various settings must be configured to make the program work properly.

You can come back to this dialog at any time by clicking the preferences button on the main screen. All of the buttons have tooltip text associated with them, so you can (hopefully) figure out which button does what without too much difficulty.

Clicking the "?" buttons next to each preferences option gives a brief explanation of what that particular option is for. Clicking on the Advanced... button brings up a second dialog, where some of the more esoteric PIMP configuration options can be changed. Again, the help buttons against each field explain what each is for:

Images can be imported into the database either from your digital camera or from a directory on the local hard drive. The main difference between the two is that, when importing from the camera, you are able to specify in PIMPs preferences that images should be deleted from the camera as they are imported. If this option is set, PIMP will display a warning dialog every time you import images from the camera, just in case you forget that you've set it...

The screenshot below shows a bunch of images being imported into the database from a local directory - this option puts up a dialog to allow you to select the directory where the pictures can be found. Importing from the camera works almost the same, except that you don't get to choose the path where the camera appears in your file system, as this is set in the preferences.

Once the images have been imported, PIMP gives you the option to see the imported images straight away. See the section on image filters for more information.

With the image import complete, the thumbnails are now shown in the main window. The fields at the bottom of the main window are used to display pertinent information about the image currently selected. This information is pulled from the EXIF tags embedded in the image, as far as possible.

The 'comments' field is editable, and any text that you enter here will be saved in the database - in this way, a caption can be saved against each picture in the database for later use in a digital album.

The toolbar buttons along the top of the main display allow several different operations to be carried out on the images in the database. Some of these are able to operate on more than one image at a time. For example, it is quite common to have a series of photographs showing the same group of people in different poses. PIMP allows you to select all of the applicable images, then annotate them all with a list of people in just a couple of mouse clicks.

Multiple selections are created in the way you would expect, by holding down the 'Control' key on your keyboard as you click on an image. The status bar at the bottom of the main window will then change to remind you that you have more than one image selected:

The padlock icon on the toolbar togles a privacy flag for the currently selected image or images. When set, the thumbnail in the main window will be replaced with a large key icon, as shown in the screenshot below.

Thereafter, any attempt to preview the image, or to edit the people/locations associated with it, results in a password prompt being presented.

If you get the password wrong, you are refused access to the image.

In order to be able to remember where a photograph was taken, and/or who the people are in the picture, PIMP allows you to maintain a list of people and locations in the database, and associate one or more of each with an image

This picture shows the people list - the location list is identical, except for the text in the window title bar...:-)

People and location information for each image is shown in the information fields at the bottom of the main window, as shown below:

An image management package wouldn't be very much use if all you could look at were thumbnails, so PIMP provides a means of previewing a single image. Clicking the preview button gets you a small sized image to begin with.

You can then double-click the preview to expand it to something approaching a full screen view.

To allow a series of images to be viewed consecutively, a slide show feature is provided. Slide shows can be driven either by image selection filters, or by simply selecting the images you are interested in to create an ad-hoc list. The slide show window appears as shown below:

The slide show controls use the VCR metaphor (play, stop, rewind and fast forward buttons) familiar to most people. The delay between individual slides is taken from PIMP's preferences, but can be adjusted from within the slide show window itself. A button on the far right hand side of the window allows the slide show to be toggled in and out of full screen mode as desired.

One of the more powerful of the PIMP database management functions is the concept of image selection filters. These basically allow the user to define and save a set of selection criteria in the database. These criteria can then be used to restrict the images displayed in the main window to a subset of those actually held in the database.

The image filter list is accessed by clicking the funnel icon on the toolbar:

From this window, you have the usual range of options allowing you to create, modify, amend and delete individual image filters. Filters are applied to the database by simply clicking the 'Apply' button on this window. Clicking the 'Reset' button returns you to the normal unfiltered view.

Please note the 'Images imported on...' filter which is shown in the screenshot. Every time a series of images are imported to PIMP, one of these filters gets automatically added to the list. This is so that, when your database starts to get larger, you don't have to scroll through all the thumbnails searching for the 5 pictures you just imported. The filters dialog also offers a 'Last import' button which allows access to the set of images that were most recently imported.

Clicking the filters icon with multiple images selected brings up an additional dialog, as shown below:

Selecting the 'Display them' option simply filters the main window based on the images you have selected, effectively allowing for the creation of ad-hoc image filters. The other option allows you to quickly add a series of selected images to an existing filter.

The example below shows a filter being created based on the date the picture was taken, in this case we are filtering the database for all pictures taken in the year 2001. Note that filtering can also be done on the basis of the people and locations we have associated with the pictures as well as on specific words entered into the comments field of the image information window.

One advanced feature that this screenshot shows is that selection criteria within a filter can be combined using AND/OR logic. I've enhanced the filter shown above to select pictures taken between January 1st and December 31st 2001 OR containing the keyword 'starfish' in the comments field.

This next picture shows the result of selecting the 'Pictures taken during 2001' filter from the list on the main window, and clicking the 'Apply' button. Note how the starfish picture has been included - even though this picture was not taken during 2001, it has the word 'starfish' in the comments field and thus matches the filter criteria.

Notice how the total number of images shown in the status bar has dropped from 15 in the previous view to 4 after the filter is applied. This could just as easily have been 4 images picked out of a total database of 1500...You can restore the previous view by clicking the 'Reset' button.

Virtual 'photo albums' can be created and edited by clicking on the albums button on the toolbar in the main window. The album editor appears as shown below:

Various aspects of the HTML code generated can be controlled by changing the settings on this screen. The images which get included in the album are based on an image filter, and there is also an option to add further pictures, simply by selecting them in the main window and clicking the 'Add' button in the album editor window.

When you're happy with the list of images, clicking on the HTML icon in the album editor window will cause the HTML code for the album to be generated, together with directories for the images and thumbnails.

You can then view the pages in your favourite web browser.

There will inevitably be times when you feel the need to either remove images from the PIMP database, or simply take some copies of them, maybe to put on a CD to send to family and friends. Clcking the export button on the toolbar brings up a small dialog box:

If the export toolbar button is clicked when you have multiple images selected on the main screen, PIMP assumes that it is these images which you wish to export, and modifies the dialog accordingly:

From here it is possible to select options that will simply copy images elsewhere on your computer and/or remove them from the PIMP database and/or remove them permanently from your hard drive.

This screenshot shows a selection of images being exported from the database:

This is for the screenshots that didn't seem to fit into any of the above categories.

A database statistics box (above) is provided, which allows you to see how much data is being hurled around your system by PIMP.

The last screenshot shows the Help --> About function. One day this will be transformed into a proper online manual...That's actually a picture of my digicam being used as the icon on the right hand side.