Scan-feature

[corex]

I have searched a long time for a tool that can help me manage all my pictures. The best I have seen yeat is XnView. I downloaded the 1.90 alpha and played arround a little. The feature I liked was the possibility to use "Defined keywords list". VERY nice feature. BUT........

I have my pictures on a share so both me and my wife can use the picture-storage. And therefore I really like IPTC. Of course, my picture-share is backed up in case of crash. But what about the "Defined keywords list". And here is my suggestion.

Make a command that can scan my picture-folder/share and all sub-folders to build all lists again (keywords, categories and more). I would also be acceptable for me if there was a little file following the picture at all time. AS LONG AS IT FOLLOWS THE PICTURE and can be a help to quickly build the database again.

(Seen with "simple" eyes.)

I hope you can use this suggestion.

[corex]

No one commenting on this one???? I would like to hear your comments.

[Troken]

Well, I'n not sure I understand your problem. If all your information is stored in IPTC, it is embedded inside the file, so there is no database for the IPTC-information, right?

I haven't tried the new "Defined keywords list" out yet, but can you not just make a backup of the list every now and then? The actual keywords of the image are saved in the file anyway.

Everybody, please correct me if I'm wrong about how IPTC and keywords work.

[corex]

I have all my pictures on a share. My wife and I are connected to this share. When I have added a keyword to my list, my wife do not have that keyword in her list, so a scan-feature would be very nice.

But, just a question I just got in mind that could solve the problem. What if I just copy XnView to the share and execute it there. Will the keywords be stored in the ini-file and in that way be stored on the share?

[Troken]

Yes, that sounds like it could work, but remember to enable the function to run many instances of XnView. I think its active by default.

Options -> General -> Operations -> Only one Instance (uncheck this if checked)

The problem with this solution is that you and your wife will have the exact same configuration of the program, there will be no room for personal configuration.

You could try this: make a simple textfile with all keywords – and save and share it. This will contain your shared keywords, and to access them, just open the IPTC-edit dialog and select button "Open text file...".

What the check-box "Add to list auto" does is still beyond me.

[GeorgD]

What the check-box "Add to list auto" does is still beyond me.

Same to me - does it have any impact?

Sorry for asking such a dumb question, but are those keywords (KW) in a certain way concurrent to XnViews categories (CAT)? The main difference is IMHO that KWs are saved inside the file whereas CATs are saved in a central place (a DB). Hence, for your application, the categories might be better as they can be stored on the share? Just a thought - I'm new to IPTC. /Georg

[corex]

I have tried to get "Add to list auto" to work, but I cannot see what it does. I could imagine that it is about adding keywords and categories from ITPC automatically to "Defined keyword list" everytime I click on a picture. If this is the case, it does not work.

[GeorgD]

I have tried to get "Add to list auto" to work, but I cannot see what it does. I could imagine that it is about adding keywords and categories from ITPC automatically to "Defined keyword list" everytime I click on a picture.

I played around a little. It works, open a TXT file, and then some or all (I did not find the exact rules for that) of those tags are persisted into the "Defined keyword list". I won't use it as I do not really understand its behaviour and fear to break thinks.