I think the TouchSmart interface is the best computer UI ever.  I especially enjoy the fan view of the photos application.  The grouping of photos by folder, date, disk drive, etc. is terrific.  However, I have 20,000+ photos in hundreds of folders.  And, using the fanning technique alone doesn't work due to the volume of folders and photos.

Is there a way to combine filtering and fanning?  For example, ideally I could say show me only folders that begin with the letters Par.  That would let me fan through folders about Parks, Parents, Particles, etc. while not showing me any folders with any other names.

If filtering isn't possible, is there another way to fan through a large volume of folders to quickly get to the photos you want to view using the fan?

Thanks.