From the ZIP website, navigate to the Products page, then click on the ZIP Classifier Installer (currently ZIP-Classifier-Installer-1.8.0.72).

Click on the three dots on the right-hand side to specify where you want the app to be installed on your machine.

Click the tick box to agree to the License terms and conditions.

Click ‘Install’.

In the pop up User Account Control box, click ‘Yes’ to allow ZIP Classifier to make changes.

Click ‘Run’ to continue the set-up, or ‘Finish’ to come back to it later. You can resume the set-up any time by opening the app from where it is stored on your computer. NB: If you cannot remember where you stored the app, you can locate it by opening your computer’s filing system and typing ‘Classifier’ into the search bar.

To select where the Working and Export Folders will be stored on your system, enter the ‘Settings’ menu from the ZIP Classifier Home Screen, and select ‘Folders…’

Click the folder icon on the right-hand side and navigate to where you want the Working Folder to be stored. Repeat for the Export Folder. Click ‘OK’.

Enter the ‘Settings’ menu from the ZIP Classifier Home Screen, and select ‘Species Settings…’ 

A warning message will pop up. Click ‘OK’.

This will bring up the Species table with default Keystrokes and Species list.

Spend some time with your team deciding on the species list and keystrokes for your site (see 1.4 above).

To add a keystroke

To add a new species keystroke, click on the green plus (+) key on the bottom left-hand side of the screen. To save the change, close the screen, or click on the green tick (✓).

To change a keystroke

To change a keystroke, click on the box with the keystroke and type the new letter(s) you wish to use. To save your changes, click out of the box. If you do not wish to save your changes, click the Esc key on your keyboard.

You may see an error pop-up (see image below) if you try to change the keystroke to a letter that is already used by another species, or if the letter is a prefix of other keystrokes that are already in use. In this case you will need to create a placeholder keystroke before you can create the new keystroke.

Please note that the Classifier will not allow you to change a single character keystroke to a multiple character keystroke using the same first letter. Before you make this change, you will need to first create a placeholder keystroke using a different character.

In the example here the user attempted to create a new keystroke for ferret (FE). Because the keystroke F was already in use for Fantail, the Fantail keystroke needed to be changed to a multiple character keystroke (FT). The user first needed to change keystroke F to a placeholder (X). They then added FE for ferret and changed Fantail from X to FT. 

To remove a keystroke, click anywhere on the row for that species, then click the red minus (–) key on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. A pop-up box will appear, asking you to confirm. Click ‘Yes’. 

In the example here, the user has decided to classify robins within the ‘NNT – Native non-target’ category, and therefore to remove ‘RB – Robin’ as a separate category.

The Sort Order function gives you the ability to display the species list in the most efficient way for your site by allowing you to sort species from most to least frequently seen on camera. Species with a sort number of ‘1’ will appear at the top of the list, ‘2’ will appear further down, and so on: the larger the number, the further down the list the species will appear.

To update the Sort Order, click on the sort number for each species and enter the updated sort number. To save your change, click out of the row.

In this example, the most frequently sighted species have been labelled ‘1’ in the Sort Order, and less frequently sighted species have been labelled ‘2’. 

This enables the user to view an alphabetical list of the most frequently sited species and their keystrokes (1) at the top of the screen.

An alphabetical list of less frequently sighted species and their keystrokes (2) will appear below.

The Comments field gives you the ability to tag an image with a noteworthy observation. For example, you may want to record whether an animal has been seen on or interacting with a trap, the sex of the animal or other distinguishing features, whether a transmitter is visible, or if the animal is banded. To edit a comment, click on the comment line and enter your text. To add a new comment, click on the green plus (+) key below the Comments field. Ideally, you should populate the Comments field as a team, so that the available comments are consistent across all users.