<b><font size="14">BatchTouch - Help</font></b>

<b>Contents</b>
- Overview
- Quick Start
- User Options
- A Word of Caution


<b>Overview</b>

BatchTouch provides an easy-to-use way to change the creation and/or modification date of multiple files and folders all at once. It offers enough flexibility to the user to choose which type of items to change, whether or not to process the contents of folders, and whether to change the creation date, the modification date, or both. Furthermore, it is possible to change just the time, just the date, or both. It is possible to apply both absolute values as well as offsets to both date and time. I.e. it is possible to add/subtract a specified number of days, hours, minutes or seconds to/from the creation and modification date of any item.

NOTE: It is not recommended to set the modification date of a file such that it predates the creation date. The behavior of different operating systems in such situations is not consistent. While some systems may allow modification dates that predate creation dates, other systems do not, and there may be unforseen issues if such files are transferred to systems that don't support them. Where possible and applicable, BatchTouch attempts to avoid such situations by making adjustments to dates of individual files. E.g. if it is attempted to change the creation date of a file such that it postdates the current modification date, the modification date of the file is also changed to be equal to the new creation date. Similarly, if it is attempted to change the modification date of a file such that it predates the current creation date, the creation date is also changed to be equal to the new modification date.
File dates can not be set to a date earlier than Jan 1st 1904. Any date earlier than that will be set to Jan 1 1904 before being applied a file. 


<b>Quick Start</b>

- Select from the <i>List Filter</i> options the types of items for which you wish to change the creation or modification date. 
- Drag and drop any items (files or folders) for which you want to change the creation or modification date onto the <i>File List</i> on the left side of the window. Alternatively, use the "File/Add Files..." or "File/Add Folder..." menu items to add files and folders to the list. Items will be added to the list according to the settings in the <i>List Filter</i> box. Items can be deleted from this list by selecting them and clicking the <i>Delete</i> icon at the bottom left corner of the list.
- Select which dates (Modification Date, Creation Dates, or both) hould be changed.
- Select how these dates should be change by selecting options for time and date.
- Click the <i>Go</i> button. The selection options will be applied to all the items in the list.
- To save the current settings, choose "File/Save Settings...".
- To load saved settings, choose "File/Load Settings...".

It is possible to define the default settings that are applied each time BatchTouch is started. To create customized default settings, use "File/Save As Default" to save the current settings to a 'default.bts' file which will be placed in the application data directory, which is as follows:
          Mac: /Users/UserName/Library/Application/BatchTouch/default.bts
          Win: \Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\BatchTouch\default.bts
The settings in this file will be applied as default each time BatchTouch starts. However, a default.bts file placed in the same location as the BatchTouch executable will take precedence over the one in the application data location.


<b>User Options</b>

<i>File List</i>
Files and folders are added to this list via drag and drop, by using the <i>File/Add Files...</i> or <i>Add Folder...</i> menu items, or by using the corresponding icons in the bottom left corner of the BatchTouch window. Use the settings under <i>List Filter</i> to determine which items should be added and which ones should be ignored.
Items in this list can be removed by selecting them and clicking the "Delete" icon at the bottom of the list.

<i>List Filter</i>
The settings in this group are applied to items dropped onto the <i>File List</i>. Uncheck any of these type to prevent them from being added to the list.
<i>- Files:</i> If checked, files will be added to the list.
<i>- Folders / Containers:</i> If checked, folders and containers will be added to the list.
<i>- Aliases / Shortcuts:</i> If checked, aliases and shortcuts will be added to the list. NOTE: Changes to the creation or modification date only affect the aliases and shortcuts and will NOT affect the original items.
<i>- Hidden Items:</i> If checked, hidden items will be added to the list.
<i>- Folder Contents:</i> If checked, the contents of folders and containers will be added to the list recursively. All the above filters will be applied to these contents.

<i>Date(s) to change</i>
This specifies which dates should be changed, creation date, modification date, or both. At least one of these dates must be checked.

<i>New Date</i>
These settings are used to specify whether changes should be applied to date, time, or both.

For both the date and the time it is possible to either specify the <i>Current System Date and/or Time</i>, <i>Absolute</i> values, or an <i>Offset</i>. By using offsets it is possible to add/subtract a specified number of days, hours, minutes or seconds to/from the creation and modification date of any item. The offset in days is entered as positive or negative numbers. Use the up/down arrows to adjust the offset in hours, minutes, and seconds. When using <i>Current System Date</i> or <i>Current System Time</i> the date and/or time of the system at the moment in time when the <i>Go</i> button is pressed will be applied.

As an alternative option, a file or folder can be dropped onto this group box. When a file or folder is dropped onto this box, the time and date values are automatically set to the modification date of the dropped file. This option is useful for easily matching dates of files and folders to the date of an existing file or folder.


<b>Preferences</b>

<i>Show Date Columns</i>
Shows or hides the creation and modification date columns in the file list.

<i>Show Warning before changing dates</i>
If unchecked, warnings to the user before applying any date changes are disabled. <b>Use this with Caution!</b>. 

<i>Check for updates at startup</i>
If checked, BatchTouch will automatically check for updates at startup. 


<b>Special Functions</b>

Special functions are accessible via the </>Special</i> menu. These functions apply to the items in the file list, but settings for <i>Date(s) to change</i> and <i>New Date</i> are disregarded. Each one of the special functions defines these settings separately.

<i>Set Folder Dates to most recent content</i>
Only the modification dates of folders in the list will be changed. Files will not be touched. The contents of each folder will be examined for its contents and the modification date of the folder will be set to the modification date of the most recent item inside it. This action is performed for all folders in the list recursively in reverse order, i.e. from the bottom to the top. Since folder structures are added to the list in a recursive, top to bottom, manner, processing these folder from bottom to top will ensure that, even if the most recent item is at the lowest level of hierarchy, the top most folder will reflect the modification date of the most recent item in the hierarchy. This functionality is useful for e.g. software projects with many files on many different hierarchical levels. Even if only one file was updated somewhere inside the project, the top folder will always reflect the date of the newest file.

<i>Backdate all to oldest item</i>
The modification date of all items in the list will be backdated to the modification date of the oldest item in the list. If a creation date of an item is more recent than the modification date of the oldest item, both the creation date and modification date are backdated to avoid having a creation date that is more recent than the modification date.

<i>Update all to newest item</i>
The modification date of all items in the list will be updated to the modification date of the newest item in the list.

<i>Set modification dates  to creation dates</i>
The modification dates of all items in the list will be made the same as their creation dates.

<i>Set creation dates  to modification dates</i>
The creation dates of all items in the list will be made the same as their modification dates.

<i>Sequential modification dates</i>
The the modification dates of all items in the list will be applied sequentially, with 1 second differences between items, using the modification date of the first item as start date.


<b>A Word of Caution</b>

<b>The operations performed by this application can not be undone unless the files and folders being manipulated are backed up before using this application.</b>

<b><font size="14">USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!</font></b>