Stacking and Variants

Stacking

Autostacking

Variants

Stacking

The Stacking feature is offered in the Browser mode and in the Filmstrip. The controls for this feature are offered in the Organize | Stacking section of the top menu, in the top toolbar under the icon, and in the menu shown upon selecting multiple files and then right-clicking a file. Stacking is only available when multiple files are selected at once.

Stacking lets you group pictures into logical units that are then shown in the program as a single item. This makes it easier to navigate through folders and speeds up the process of organizing them. To stack photo files, select them and then click Include in Stack.

Once the files have been stacked, the Browser will show only one photo out of the stack. A number at the top left shows the number of pictures in the stack. Click this number to display all the files in the stack. Click the number at the top left corner again to re-stack the stack.

Stacks can be unstacked by clicking Unstack. To remove individual photos from a stack, use the Exclude from Stack option. To visually represent the stack using a different photo than the first one in the list, select the desired photo and use Set as Main File in Stack.

Autostacking

Besides manual stacking, you can also make the program stack files automatically using an AI-based analysis of their contents. The Autostack function is available from the toolbars for the Browser and Filmstrip and in the Manager’s top menu under Organize | Stacking.

This function can be used without selecting any files first. When you click the function’s icon, the Autostack Options window is displayed. Use this window to fine-tune how the autostacking is done.

This function can automatically stack files based on four categories: Similar Pictures, Burst, Exposure Bracketing, and Panorama. To automatically get rid of any existing stacks before the process starts, turn on Unstack Existing Stacks. Use “Run on these files:” to set whether the analysis and the autostacking will cover just the files in the current folder, or also all the files in its subfolders.

Variants

The Variants feature, available from the Browser and the Filmstrip, is used for creating a virtual duplicate of a file with all the current adjustments from the Develop module. The controls for this feature are offered in the Organize | Stacking section of the top menu, in the top toolbar under the icon, and in the menu shown upon right-clicking a file.

You can create any number of Variants for a photo. All of a photo’s Variants are stored in a .data-zps auxiliary file. Variants cannot be moved, because each variant is tied to the original copy of a photo file. But other than this restriction, each Variant behaves like an independent file, and you can make standard edits to them and export them.

Creating a Variant automatically also creates a stack, which contains the original photo and all of its Variants. This stack can be unstacked, and you can then work with all the Variants separately. Materialize Variant creates a non-virtual copy of the original file and a new auxiliary file containing your changes from the Develop module. If the Variant was in a stack, that copy will stay in the stack. The option named Overwrite Source File With Variant is only available for Variants. Using it applies your changes from the Develop module to the original photo and deletes the Variant.