> As an extra benefit can I have one instance addressing one database and the other instance addressing a 2nd database and drag files between windows? (My DB is reaching its practical limits!)
You can, but that would only copy the image files, not their thumbnails and the other information from their database records.
If you want to split your database in two:
[*]Make copies of your database file and its accompanying *.tdo settings file. Give the new set of .td4/.tdo a distinct first name (e.g.
thumbs_2.td4 and
thumbs_2.tdo).
[*]Load one database and delete one half of the thumbnails from it.
[*]Run
File | Database | Compact to physically remove the deleted thumbnails and free up a ton of space.
[*]Load the other database, delete the other half of the thumbnails from that, and run Compact on it.
[*] Now you have two databases, each containing one half of your images,
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(To delete thumbnails without deleting the corresponding image files, select them and press
Shift-Del. To select thumbnails from a folder and all of its subfolders, right-click on its name in the tree panel and select 'Show child folders' to make all files visible, and selectable. Or better still, to delete all thumbnails from a drive or folder branch, simply right-click on it in the tree panel and select 'Remove Thumbnails').