Hello !
I don't see in the new version how to modify IPTC (and EXIF, XMP) simply as in version 4.27, in the right panel ?
it was very easy with ^ in the right panel.
Thanks
Hi,
I see you didn't read manual... so, in short:
In previous versions, it was me, who decided about what tag you should edit in Exif, Xmp and Iptc. And if you didn't agree with my decission, well.. bad luck.
In GUIv5, you decide what tag you wish to edit: every tag listed in Workspace, can be directly edited. When you start new GUI the first time, few default tags are listed there -so you have at least something to start with. However, it is expected that user customizes Workspace content; that is, remove some tags there and add another.
I recommend you to visit GUI download page again and read manual, where I tried to describe how to adapt Workspace according to your needs. And there's also a short video, showing "real" workflow.
Bogdan
Hello,
thanks, Bodgan,
I had "read" the manual, and also the video ! But effectly very bad (I understand english, but french is my native language) ! in fact, change old habits is sometimes difficult...
But effectly the new is also very simple... shame...
don't answer if it is in manual, but I have also not see this problem, is it also possible to modify in same time for example 3 or 10 images ? in the same directory (not in different folder I think) ?
Sorry and thanks.
Charles-André
Hi Charles-André,
Yes, you can modify more than one file at once: in Filelist, just select files you wish to modify. When you do that, metadata of first selected file in Filelist will be shown in Workspace. Now you can start editing tags in Workspace and every modifyied tag will be shown on yellow background. When you are done with editing, click on Save button -and that's all.
In short, in Filelist, you can select as many files as you wish to edit.
Bogdan
Thanks Bodgan,
I thought it was not the good process, I have before exactly doing that !
But the problem was only finally - on my PC - that ... I must "refresh" after the process ... to see the result !!!!
For me Exiftoolgui for the dummy....
Is this possible - generally - in exiftoolgui to work recursively with directory ?
Have a good day.
Charles-André
Hi,
You can modify files recursively (in subdirectiries) only in ExifTool direct panel. In this case you select NO file in Filelist and then specify directory in command. For example:
-Exif:Artist="my name" -r -ext jpg d:\photos
Tryout on some test files first!
Bogdan
Quote from: BogdanH on February 15, 2012, 11:59:16 AM
Hi,
I see you didn't read manual... so, in short:
In previous versions, it was me, who decided about what tag you should edit in Exif, Xmp and Iptc. And if you didn't agree with my decission, well.. bad luck.
In GUIv5, you decide what tag you wish to edit: every tag listed in Workspace, can be directly edited. When you start new GUI the first time, few default tags are listed there -so you have at least something to start with. However, it is expected that user customizes Workspace content; that is, remove some tags there and add another.
I recommend you to visit GUI download page again and read manual, where I tried to describe how to adapt Workspace according to your needs. And there's also a short video, showing "real" workflow.
Bogdan
In defense of chcoste, I am a native English speaker and I also did not see from reading the manual how to modify IPTC values. Upon rereading the manual in light of the comments in this thread, I still find that it is far from clear how to modify IPTC values. However, I also note that Bogdan is not a native English speaker, so we can ascribe some lack of clarity to language issues.
As best as I can understand the manual, you need to know what exiftool is going to call the tag to add the ability to modify it in your "workspace." In my opinion, this is a step backward from the idea of a user-friendly gui, because I will now have to look up in the voluminous exiftool documentation what the exact name of some tag is. If I have to do all that, I may as well just run exiftool myself.
A better choice, imho, and consider this a feature request, is to make the set of default fields presented in the workspace be the same ones that you had selected for modifiability in older versions of gui. This appeared to be a rich and useful set.
Of course, if you really wanted to do more work, you could provide the user with the set of all known tag names to select from in order to add them to the workspace. This would be a more typical approach for a menu-driven system.
--peter
There are currently 5826 unique tag names recognized by ExifTool.
But I also vote for default set of tags in the Workspace that is equivalent to what was used in version 4. It is easier to delete tags from the workspace than to add them.
- Phil
Hi Peter, Phil
I admit being wrong with my reasoning. As it seems, there's only minority of users, which think about using metadata the way I am thinking. I always felt, how limiting those fixed metadata editing panels were in pre-five versions. Maybe they were comfortable to some degree, but limited nontheless. Especially, because from time to time, there were requests from users, who also need to populate "other" tag instead of "that" tag.
What I wasn't aware of was, that most users actually don't wish to spend time by learning metadata tags, groups, sections, specifications, etc. They just expect (fool proof) predefined fields, ready to be populated...
In that sense, I will prepare additional Workspace ini file, which will contain all tags from v4 and maybe some additional, which might be of use. As Phil said: it's easy to delete some of them later :)
Bogdan
Thanks Bogdan,
Are you going to use this new .ini as the default for future releases?
- Phil
Thanks, Bogdan and Phil.
Of those ~6000 tags, how many pertain to the subset of files handled by exiftoolgui, though?
--peter
Hi Phil, Peter
Good question. Yes, actually I had in mind to create only one companion ini file, which would be inside every zip package. I expect some will then ask for advice "which of those two tags should I use?", but that's ok. Anyway, I don't like the idea to "hardcode" all those tags. Especially because, sometimes I experiment with existing hardcoded tags, and it can easy happen I forget to put Workspace in previous state.
This ini file won't be loaded by default. However, if user loads it once (and change tags as necessary), it can be automatically used as default Workspace -I mean, Workspace already works that way.
How many tags will I put in there? No, I don't plan to put some "exotic" tags in there. GUI v4 had about 60 editable tags in three panels... thinking fast, I expect there will be about 20 additional tags -so, about 80 (most used) tags in total. 5826, huh? :)
Bogdan
Sounds good, but is there any way for the application to load the default .ini if it doesn't find one in the system directory? Say, look for it in the current directory? It would be nice if this was somehow automatic. Otherwise I think you'll probably still get people who ask questions because they didn't read enough to know they should load it themselves.
Yes, 5826 tags. But many of these are not writable. My stats program doesn't count the writable tags separately, but I did it just now by hand. Of these, only 3256 are writable.
- Phil
Quote from: Phil Harvey on April 12, 2012, 07:35:38 PM
Yes, 5826 tags. But many of these are not writable. My stats program doesn't count the writable tags separately, but I did it just now by hand. Of these, only 3256 are writable.
- Phil
Assuming you were responding to my question, my point was that exiftoolGUI is primarily concerned with still image files, though I now see that apparently it will happily run exiftool on any file you point it to. So, I was thinking that the number of tags that have to do with still image files is probably smaller than 5826.
But, I think Bogdan has the situation well under control, and we'll be seeing an improved UI soon.
Of course, I guess someone could write some code that operates on exiftool's repository of existing tags to generate a workspace.ini file containing all existing tags, which could be run on each new version of exiftool, so nothing would have to be done by hand. I'm not requesting that, but probably it could be done, perhaps by adapting your stats code.
--peter
Quote from: BogdanH on April 12, 2012, 01:15:29 PM
Hi Peter, Phil
I admit being wrong with my reasoning. As it seems, there's only minority of users, which think about using metadata the way I am thinking. I always felt, how limiting those fixed metadata editing panels were in pre-five versions. Maybe they were comfortable to some degree, but limited nontheless. Especially, because from time to time, there were requests from users, who also need to populate "other" tag instead of "that" tag.
What I wasn't aware of was, that most users actually don't wish to spend time by learning metadata tags, groups, sections, specifications, etc. They just expect (fool proof) predefined fields, ready to be populated...
In that sense, I will prepare additional Workspace ini file, which will contain all tags from v4 and maybe some additional, which might be of use. As Phil said: it's easy to delete some of them later :)
Bogdan
BTW, I think it's very useful to be able to specify any obscure tag you like in the Workspace feature. This makes the program totally general, which is a plus. My complaint just had to do with what was preloaded by default.
--peter
Quote from: pb on April 12, 2012, 08:42:11 PM
So, I was thinking that the number of tags that have to do with still image files is probably smaller than 5826.
True, but the writable tags are all for image files, since ExifTool only writes XMP to non-image files anyway.
QuoteI guess someone could write some code that operates on exiftool's repository of existing tags to generate a workspace.ini file containing all existing tags, which could be run on each new version of exiftool, so nothing would have to be done by hand.
This is exactly the purpose of the exiftool
-list option. :)
- Phil
Oh, somehow I was thinking that -list only pertained to a file arg. Well, so much the better. Now I can hack it to generate a workspace.ini file and see if I can make gui crash with a giant workspace. Uh, just kidding.
Hmm, actually, looking into doing just that, it appears that GUI wants to know what group each tag belongs to in the form group:tag. However, I don't see any direct way to get exiftool to output all tag names along with their groups. It seems that first I need to ask for all the groups, then for each group ask for all its tags, using various variations of -list*. Is there a way to get exiftool to output all tag names, ideally in the form group:tag, but in any way that a single exiftool command's output indicates both the group and what tags belong to it? (Hmmm, maybe this now needs to go to the exiftool forum.)
(BTW, I may be abusing the word "group." I'm using it to mean one of the things like EXIF, XMP, IPTC, Vorbis, MPEG, etc. Also, I don't fully understand how the family number works, so the answer to my question is probably complex.)
--peter
Hi,
Yes, it can happen one gets addicted with metadata (did I use correct terms for what I'm trying to say?)... I relate that to import all 3500 (or so) tags into Workspace. Yes, that is silly :) I mean, is there someone who regulary populates i.e Exif:TransferFunction tag?
As promised, I will create a bit more "universal" Workspace file, which should serve as a basis. The rest is up to the user: if neded, he really should take some time and read documentation provided by Phil.
About metadata terminology (what is group, section, family group,..).. I have a problem many times as well :)
Yes, one should use "common" terminology as much as possible, to avoid confusion. So I really don't mind if someone corrects me in this regard -it's welcomed actually.
Thus, to be clear, I usually describe what I mean, i.e.: "..this tag is written into
Exif section.." or "..it is inside
Xmp-photoshop group..", etc. -this is the best I can.
To Phil
Quote.. but is there any way for the application to load the default .ini if it doesn't find one in the system directory? Say, look for it in the current directory? It would be nice if this was somehow automatic. Otherwise I think you'll probably still get people who ask questions because they didn't read enough to know they should load it themselves.
I understand. As it is now, it goes like this:
When GUI is started for the very first time, only hardcoded (minimal) Workspace is loaded/shown. Now, whatever user is changing here, on GUI's exit, it is automatically saved into ExifToolGUIv5.ini. Next time GUI is starting, Workspace content is automatically loaded from previously saved ExifToolGUIv5.ini file.
That is, user can modify Workspace manually, or...
Load predefined Workspace immediately and make further changes as necessary. Btw. when menu Workspace Load is executed, dialog always opens in ExifToolGUI's directory (that's where ini files are expected to be). In both cases (manually or loaded), on GUI's exit, current Workspace is automatically saved as default Workspace, which again, is automatically loaded next time GUI starts.
IMO, it can't be simpler and I'm very sure GUI users can manage this :)
Added:
I forgot to mention: without workaround, it's impossible to load that much (Workspace) tags from ini file, because there's size limit for ini. If I remember correctly, when reading, only 8kb of data is "allowed" per group inside ini file -it's Windows related.
To overcome this, I would need to either "tweak" reading ini file, or create separate (say, mini database) file.
Bogdan
Quote from: pb on April 13, 2012, 12:54:23 PM
It seems that first I need to ask for all the groups, then for each group ask for all its tags, using various variations of -list*. Is there a way to get exiftool to output all tag names, ideally in the form group:tag, but in any way that a single exiftool command's output indicates both the group and what tags belong to it? (Hmmm, maybe this now needs to go to the exiftool forum.)
(BTW, I may be abusing the word "group." I'm using it to mean one of the things like EXIF, XMP, IPTC, Vorbis, MPEG, etc. Also, I don't fully understand how the family number works, so the answer to my question is probably complex.)
The different families are each just different ways of grouping the tags. The general metadata locations you have specified are the family 1 set of groups. You can list all family 0 groups with
-listg0, then use options like
-list -GROUP:all to list all tags in each group. Or, you can output the entire ExifTool tag database in XML format with
-listx -- this contains the group names for all families for each tag.
(I tell you this, but I don't expect you to actually use this output. This is designed for a software developer rather than a user.)- Phil
Quote from: Phil Harvey on April 13, 2012, 03:09:12 PM
Quote from: pb on April 13, 2012, 12:54:23 PM
It seems that first I need to ask for all the groups, then for each group ask for all its tags, using various variations of -list*. Is there a way to get exiftool to output all tag names, ideally in the form group:tag, but in any way that a single exiftool command's output indicates both the group and what tags belong to it? (Hmmm, maybe this now needs to go to the exiftool forum.)
(BTW, I may be abusing the word "group." I'm using it to mean one of the things like EXIF, XMP, IPTC, Vorbis, MPEG, etc. Also, I don't fully understand how the family number works, so the answer to my question is probably complex.)
The different families are each just different ways of grouping the tags. The general metadata locations you have specified are the family 1 set of groups. You can list all family 0 groups with -listg0, then use options like -list -GROUP:all to list all tags in each group. Or, you can output the entire ExifTool tag database in XML format with -listx -- this contains the group names for all families for each tag. (I tell you this, but I don't expect you to actually use this output. This is designed for a software developer rather than a user.)
- Phil
Thanks.
Ah, but I'm a hacker in addition to a user.
I did discover
-listg*,
-GROUP:all, and
-listx. I was looking for something somewhere in between, which apparently you haven't implemented. I did now take a look at
-listx output. Using it to get something in Workspace format would obviously require some parsing, probably more work than I want to do. In fact, it's probably easier to just go through the groups I'm interested in with a script or by hand than to write stuff to parse the xml. And, I'm a pretty naive perl programmer, so that would not save me time either, alas. Well, something I may do for amusement in a more bored moment.
--peter
I'm glad I searched out this thread first, because I was so confused; for a while I thought you had completely removed all editing capability from the program. I don't think that calling it "Workspace" and leaving it at that is particularly good usability; really, it should be called Editor or something else that makes it obvious that you can change tags, and by default allow editing EVERYTHING. Just IMHO. Even just having a preferences item along the lines of "Edit all known tags in Workspace" would be enough.