Input area suddenly blank in long time database

Panorama X
1

Hi everyone,

My father-in-law is a great guy, loyal Panorama user for over ten years. He’s having some trouble. I haven’t used Panorama in a long time, but I’m here on his behalf. I’m hoping someone here can help us.

Over the years he’s built himself a database with over 29,000 photos in it, metadata, etc. Now while I can’t describe it exactly, according to him the large white empty window that says “dropimagesfromfinder” followed by some code is normally a place he drops in his photos, adds metadata, etc. He says it’s worked great for many, many years.

For some reason today it changed to this white screen. The data sheet his data is still there. I don’t see any kind of forms listed in the “View” menu. I don’t know if what he had was a “view” or something else, but he would just drag photos into this and then fill out text fields.

I assume worst case there’s a way to rebuild this, I’ve just been “out of the game” since about 2020 so it’s all looking Greek to me.

Again, I don’t speak “Panorama” as well as I used to and this is a very precious database to him - any ideas on how I can help him retrieve/revert back to however this was before would be amazing. Is this just some kind of weird view that needs to be undone, or a “back to graphic” view or something? Any help greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Now while I can’t describe it exactly, according to him the large white empty window that says “dropimagesfromfinder” followed by some code is normally a place he drops in his photos, adds metadata, etc.

No, what you are describing would have to be a form view. What your screen shot is showing is a procedure view. It would not be possible to set up Panorama so that you can drop images onto a procedure view. The procedure you are showing is designed to work with a form view. In normal operation the form view would be visible and the procedure window would not be visible.

I don’t see any kind of forms listed in the “View” menu.

That’s got to be wrong. The Drag and Drop operation you are describing definitely would need a form. He would also need a form to display images, which it definitely sounds like he was doing.

Based on your screenshots and description, it certainly seems like whatever forms were in this database have been deleted. Panorama doesn’t have a single “delete all the forms” command, though forms certainly can be deleted one at a time. Once that has been done, you can’t get them back – unless you have an older backup of the file. Note that Panorama will NEVER delete a form unless you have asked it to.

Is he using Time Machine? If he is, you should be able to get the form(s) from an older file and then combine them with the database that has the most recent data. (For sure, I would make a backup, or even more than one backup, of what you have now before doing anything.)

It sounds like the data is ok, which is good. I wish I had a “just one click” solution for you but I don’t really understand what has happened here. What you are describing should never “just happen”, it seems like this form (or forms) must have been deleted.

My father-in-law is a great guy

I had the same luck in father-in-laws, and got to spent 17 years knowing him. But it didn’t last forever, so don’t take it for granted (it doesn’t sound like you are, just saying).

1 Like
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Thanks Jim! Just replied in the other thread. Right clicking and “show package contents” showed that forms.archive was onlly 3kb. We found an older version, got it combined and sorted out. Stressful night but as always, probably an Apple/Tahoe thing. Thanks as always for being so helpful and responsive.

All the best,

Biagio