Table of Contents
A brief overview of the user interface
This topic gives you an overview of the key elements in the FotoStation program window.
04. April 2025
Table of Contents
Elements in the main window
Main menu
The main menu is located beneath the Title bar (above the Title bar on the Mac). The main menu and its submenus contain all functions used in FotoStation.
Main toolbar
In the Main toolbar, you find buttons for quick access to some of the most commonly used functions. Hover over one of the buttons to display the tooltip for the button.
When no files are selected, almost all buttons in the Main toolbar are disabled. Select a file to enable buttons.
Image window toolbar
The Image window toolbar contains different ways to view and sort the content of the Image window. Using this toolbar, you can view images as thumbnails or as detailed lists, change the sort order, change the number of thumbnails, and so on.
Image window
The Image window displays the content of the current source. When the images are shown as thumbnails, this part of FotoStation looks very much like a light table.
Text panel
The Text Panel is under the Image window. In the Text Panel, you find information that is saved together with the file (the file's metadata) and other types of information, such as the file’s name and size. The information here is read-only.
The content in Description, Properties, and Camera can be configured according to your needs, and you can display any available information. History and Versions content cannot be configured.
- Description displays the selected file's title, category, and other common metadata.
- Properties displays file name, size, and more.
- Camera displays EXIF camera information such as camera model, exposure time, aperture, ISO ratings, and other information from the capture.
- History displays information about what has been done with the file in FotoStation.
- Versions displays a list of all versions of the selected asset.
Left and right side panels
The two side panels can be configured in almost any way you want. You can have as many or as few tabs as you like, and you can have one side panel, two side panels, or none at all. A side panel can contain any number and combinations of the five types of tabs.
The five tab types are:
Desktop
The Desktop tab gives you access to the file explorer (a Finder-like window on the Mac). You can view any folder on your machine and network from here.
When you right-click on a folder, a context menu appears where you can choose from available options.
See also: Creating an archive.
Archives
This tab displays archives. You can create and display new archives on this tab by right-clicking on the archive’s group heading. See the Creating archives topic for more information regarding archives.
Jobs
This tab lists all acquired jobs. You can create a job manually or automatically when you acquire images from a camera or memory card.
Projects
A Project tab contains projects that can combine images from several different folders. Only links are created, so the image files are not moved or copied to other locations. This means that one physical file can exist in many projects.
Actions
This tab contains actions that can be performed on the images, for example copying the image or changing the image’s size. See the Actions guide for more information.
Status bar
You will find the status bar at the bottom of the FotoStation window. Here, you see information regarding the application’s status. For example, the name of the selected source (folder, archive, or project) is displayed on the left-hand side of the status bar.
The right-most part of the status bar displays the range of files currently shown, together with the total number of files in the selected source.
When FotoStation performs time-consuming processes, such as scanning a folder for images, a progress bar appears in the middle of the status bar. To abort the process, press the Esc key.