Image Editor

The Image Editor is where images are imported into PrimeExam and maintained.

Images can be associated with questions to illustrate concepts, provide diagrams, display photographs, or present any other visual information needed by an exam question.

A question may be associated with zero or more images.

Importing Images

To import images:

1. Open the Image Editor window.
2. Select the Import tab.
3. Click Open File.
4. Browse to the folder containing your images.
5. Select one or more image files.
6. Click Open.

PrimeExam displays the selected images for review before they are imported.

You may then:

• Click Import All to import every image.
• Select individual images and click Import Selected.

During import, PrimeExam automatically creates a thumbnail for each image. These thumbnails are used throughout the application to improve browsing performance.

Browsing Images

Imported images are displayed in the main image grid.

Images can be filtered by:

• Entering text into the search box.
• Using the Topic Tree.

Topic Filtering

Enable the Topic Filter checkbox above the image grid to filter images by topic.

When enabled, only images associated with topics in the currently selected branch of the Topic Tree are displayed.

This is especially useful when working with large image collections.

For more information about using the Image Editor Topic Tree, see Image Editor Topic Tree

Associating Images with Topics

Assigning topics to images is strongly recommended.

Topics make it much easier to locate images later when assigning them to questions.

To assign topics:

1. Select an image.
2. Open the Topics tab.
3. Move one or more topics from the available list to the assigned list.

Whenever possible, assign every topic that accurately describes the image.

For information about assigning images to questions, see the Question Editor.

Assigning Topics to Multiple Images

The Image Editor allows topics to be assigned to multiple images at the same time.

To assign a topic to multiple images:

1. Select two or more images in the image grid.
2. Open the Topics tab.
3. Select one or more topics from the available list.
4. Assign the selected topics.

The selected topics are added to every selected image.

Common Assigned Topics

When multiple images are selected, the Assigned Topics list displays only those topics that are already assigned to all selected images.

This makes it easy to identify topics that the selected images have in common.

For example:

• If every selected image is assigned the topic Biology, that topic appears in the Assigned Topics list.
• If only some of the selected images are assigned the topic Plants, that topic does not appear in the Assigned Topics list until it has been assigned to every selected image.

This behavior helps prevent confusion when editing multiple images and makes it easier to add or remove common topic assignments.

Filtering Available Topics

The available topic list can be filtered in two ways:

• Enter text into the topic search box.
• Enable the Topic Filter checkbox to display only topics belonging to the currently selected branch of the Topic Tree.

Using both filtering methods together makes it easy to locate the correct topics.

Editing Image Information

Each image can contain descriptive information.

The following properties may be edited:

• Title (defaults to the imported filename)
• Description

Providing meaningful titles and descriptions makes images easier to identify and search.

Deleting Images

Images can be deleted from the Image Editor.

Deleted images are not immediately removed from the database. Instead, they are moved to the Deleted tab, where they may be restored if necessary.

This helps prevent accidental loss of data.

Import Clashes

Occasionally an image being imported already exists in PrimeExam, or only part of the previously imported image remains.

PrimeExam detects these situations automatically and presents appropriate options.

Possible situations include:

• The image has already been imported.
• The database entry exists, but the image file is missing.
• The image file exists, but the database entry is missing.
• The image exists in the database but has previously been deleted.

Depending on the situation, you may be offered one or more of the following actions:

• Keep the existing image.
• Replace the existing image with the incoming image.
• Restore (undelete) the existing image.
• Cancel the import of the current image.

These options help maintain consistency between the database and the stored image files while giving you control over how duplicate or incomplete image imports are handled.

Best Practices

To get the most benefit from the Image Editor:

• Assign descriptive titles and descriptions.
• Associate each image with all applicable topics.
• Use the Topic Tree to organize large image collections.
• Reuse existing images whenever possible instead of importing duplicates.

Well-organized images make it much easier to locate appropriate illustrations when creating and editing questions.