Deciding by key
Culling is mostly these few keys. They work in Single, in Frames (on the ringed frame), in Compare and in full screen. The keys here are the Vixlo preset; The three presets has the Lightroom and Photo Mechanic spellings.
The four decisions
| Key | Decision |
|---|---|
T | Take |
H | Hold |
R | Reject — to the bin |
U | Clear to undecided |
Each decision is written the instant you press the key, and a small message confirms it with its own Undo. Take, Hold and Reject are also buttons at the right of the pass line, each wearing its key, in the order Reject, Hold, Take; Clear has no button there. All four are in the Edit menu. What each state means is on Take, Hold, Reject.
⇧T is Additional Take — a second frame from an open stack, without losing the first. It works only while a stack is open in the Stack Resolver, where it does what T does: it marks the focused frame Take and moves on as any decision does. Anywhere else it does nothing at all; it does not fall back to a plain Take.
H has one extra meaning: while Compare is on screen with a proposed pair in it, it holds both frames of the pair. Everywhere else it holds the one frame you are on, including in the Space full screen over Compare and in Frames after C then G, where Compare waits behind the contact sheet. ⇧H is that same Hold both on a key of its own, and it does nothing outside Compare. See Keys in Compare.
Moving on after a decision
Press A to turn auto-advance on or off. With it on, every decision on the frame in front of you moves you to the next frame, the one → would go to. With it off, you stay on the frame you decided and move with → yourself. The ⋯ menu on the views line has the same switch, Auto-advance.
The star rating
| Key | Rating |
|---|---|
1 to 5 | That many stars on the frame you are on |
0 | No stars |
A rating is independent of the decision: rating a frame never changes its Take, Hold or Reject, and deciding never touches the stars. The digits rate in Single, in Frames and in Compare, and nowhere else; in the gallery 1 to 4 choose how it plays.
There is no key for the favourite heart or a colour label: the heart is a click in the header above the photograph, and the colour label is a small menu under it.
A note on this decision
Press N to open a small card on the frame you are on — a line of your own about why, and nine reasons as chips: Moment, Expression, Eyes, Focus, Light, Composition, Duplicate, Album, Client. It is also Note… in the Edit menu and A note on this decision… in the ⋯ menu.
While the card is open:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
⌘1 to ⌘9 | Turn a reason on or off — each chip shows its own digit |
↩ | Save the note |
Esc | Close the card and leave the frame exactly as it was |
The cull page's other keys do nothing while the card is open. N on a frame that already has a note opens it for editing. Nothing ever asks you for a note.
Undo and redo
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
⌘Z | Undo the last decision |
⇧⌘Z | Redo |
Undo and redo walk one history: every decision, rating, favourite, colour label and restore from the bin is one step in it, and so is an Accept of several proposals, which comes back all at once. The Edit menu's Undo and Redo are the same two.
Where the decision keys work
- Single — on the photograph in front of you.
- Frames — on the ringed frame.
- Full screen (
Space) — the four decisions, on the one photograph shown; the digits do nothing there. Over Compare it is still one photograph, soHnever holds the pair. See Keys in full screen and the gallery. - Compare — the four decisions, the digits and
Non the frame at the left;Hand↩have pair meanings on a proposed pair. See Keys in Compare. - The edit page — only
R; Take and Hold stay the cull's. See Keys on the edit page.
They do nothing while a sheet is open, the cursor is in a text field, or the gallery is playing.
When Vixlo is read-only
When your trial, subscription or complimentary access has ended, Vixlo is read-only and the decision keys write nothing. Press T, H, R, U or a digit and the frame stays exactly as it was, while a message says why: Vixlo is read-only until you subscribe, with Subscribe on your account page to keep culling and developing. under it. The decision buttons on the pass line are dimmed, and Take, Hold, Reject, Clear and Note… in the Edit menu are greyed out. N still opens the note card, but saving it is refused with the same message. Moving, zooming and full screen work as usual. See What read-only means.
⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z are not paused. On the cull page they still work while Vixlo is read-only, from the keys and from Edit ▸ Undo and Edit ▸ Redo, and what they reverse is real: the library's last change in the history above, a decision, rating, favourite or colour label, even one from an earlier session, with the message Last culling decision restored. Do not press ⌘Z to see what it does. If it has run, ⇧⌘Z puts the change back, with Undone decision reapplied.
One case says the opposite of what happened. In Compare with a proposed pair on screen, H and ⇧H hold nothing while Vixlo is read-only, but the read-only message is replaced at once by Both held, with Neither proposal was written · one ⌘Z puts both back under it. With auto-advance on, that line ends · advanced to next frame and you are moved past the pair. Do not trust the message or the move, and do not press ⌘Z: both frames keep the state they had, which each card shows, and ⌘Z would undo your last earlier change instead, as above. ↩ and ⇧↩ on a pair refuse properly and leave the read-only message on screen.