Complet newbie bogged down!

[steveplant123]

Hi there all
I'm quite new to all this meta data editing and wondered if there is a step-by-step guide to using this program as it took me an hour to figure out how to change the camera make from 'Nikon' to 'Canon'!!!!

Am I right in thinking you cannot edit anything when the exif tab is blue?

Only when the 'Workspace' tab is blue?

I have managed to add things from the exif to the workspace tab but then got stuck again when (as a 'test') I tried to change the flash from 'fired' to 'not fired'.

I got the edit box to go yellow but the 'hint text' of

• and [1] baffled me
  I  tried 1 and [1] (and every permutation in-between!) but with no luck.
  
  What SHOULD I be typing in this box.
  
  Also the 'save' box was sometimes active, sometimes greyed out, with no apparent rhyme or reason?
  
  It was a similar scenario with the orientation angle box.
  
  Regards a rather perplexed Newbie!
  
  

[BogdanH]

Hi,
Sorry for confusion... even GUI should make easier to edit metadata (compared to pure console window), one should be familiar with metadata stuff (the way ExifTool works with metadata. Ok, I'll try to help as good as I can...

One can edit metadata only if Workspace is selected (or anytime in ExifTool direct mode). All buttons above Workspace (Exif, Xmp,etc) are for viewing particular metadata section only. However, when you right-click on any metadata tag (while viewing), you can copy tags name into Workspace, where you can see and edit that tag. That is, Workspace content is your personal/custom metadata you're interested in most of the time.

By default, tag Flash is ending with # character in Workspace. That means, numeric value is expected when modifing this tag. You can get a list of possible Flash values here: http://www.exiftool.org/TagNames/EXIF.html#Flash -in Hint, there's just 0 and 1 shown (to set Flash to On/Off).
It's the same for Orientation tag (also see here: https://exiftool.org/gui/#m_workspace and here: https://exiftool.org/gui/scr/etgui_scr01.htm ).

Example for Flash:
In Workspace, select Flash tag and type 1 into edit field at bottom, then press enter key. Selected tag (Flash) becomes yellow and Save button becomes enabled. Press Save button now. Tag value Flash will become "Fired". If you put 0 instead of 1, the value will become "No Flash".
You can edit multiple tags in Workspace and when finished, press Save button.

Hope, this clarifies a bit
Bogdan

[steveplant123]

Many thanks for your very prompt and helpful response - wasn't expecting the author to reply!!!
Anyway I give it another go armed with this info' as I know it is the ideal software to do what I need. I just need to get my head around it!
Regards, Steve P

[BogdanH]

Yes, GUI is somewhere between "easy to use" and "ExifTool pure". Maybe kinda difficult to understand at beginning, but once you do, you'll be able to do almost everything what ExifTool can do. Just don't give up

Bogdan