Getting started
When you start VVV you will see its main window. This window contains two panes: the left pane shows the volumes and their folder structure, the right pane shows the content on the selected folder.Create a catalog
First you need to create a catalog file: select the File/New menu or press the New button in the toolbar to create a new catalog. Catalogs have the "vvv" extension. If you have already created a catalog you can open it with the File/Open menu or with the Open toolbar button.Catalog volumes
Now you need to catalog some disks: select the Volumes/Catalog Volume menu or press the Catalog toolbar button to open the Catalog Volume window.Insert a disk, select or type the path of the CD/DVD drive and press the Get volume name button to see the disk name in the Volume name textbox. At the moment this button is only available in the Windows version.
You can edit the volume name: that name will be used to show the volume in the program.
Now press the Catalog button to read the disk content.
You can insert another disk and repeat these steps many times if you like, then press the Close button to return to the main window.
You will see the cataloged disks in the left pane and you will be able to browse their folders and look at the contained files. Now it's time to look at the virtual view.
Virtual view
Select the View/Virtual View menu or press the Virtual toolbar button: the left pane will change to show the virtual file system view. Now the view is empty so you need to create some folders: select the Edit/New Virtual Root Folder menu to add virtual folders. You can also right click an existing folder to show a context menu.The folders created by the user are shown in blue, while physical folders are shown in black.
Now it's time to put something in the virtual folders. Press the Physical button to return to the physical view, then select a volume or a folder. Right-click and select the Add To Virtual Folder menu to open the Choose virtual folder window. Choose a virtual folder an press OK to add the physical folder to the virtual folder and to close the window. Return to the virtual view and look at the virtual folder: it will contain the physical folder.
You can use the Add To Virtual Folder menu with both elements from the left or right pane of the program's window, but there is a difference: you can only select a single volume or folder from the left pane, while you can select many folders or files from the right pane and assign them all to a virtual folder in a single step.
You can add the same physical folder to many virtual folders, and you can add files from different disks to the same virtual folder. Virtual folders are a powerful tool that let you rearrange your data in a logical way and group related files even if they are stored on different disks.
Searching
The program has some powerful search features. Click here for a detailed description.These are the main VVV commands. After you have experimented with them you can look at the Edit menu that contains commands to rename and delete volumes and folders. It is also possible to add a description to files and folders.
Updating volumes
The physical volumes cataloged by VVV may change after some time. It is possible to add more sessions to a CD/DVD disk, and many people are using VVV to catalog the contents of removable hard disks.It is possible to update an already cataloged volume: VVV will compare the volume and the information already stored in the catalog. Any new file in the volume will be added to the catalog, files deleted from the volume will be removed from the catalog. Files in the volume with a changed size or date/time will be updated in the catalog.
To update a volume select it in the left pane and select the Volumes/Update Volume menu. You can also right-click the volume and select Update from the context menu.