When is the catalogue updated?

[mkc73]

If I have a category which is set in half my images and then select all the images the category appears as greyed out (rather than ticked or empty) in the categories panel. If I select the grey-out category it changes to ticked in the category panel.

Has the catalogue already been updated?
Is there anyway to revert to the previous category selection?

If XMP output setting for categories has been chosen has the category data been written out yet to the image files? (presumably not since XMP data written out when image selection changes).

How can I avoid it being written out?

i.e At what point are category changes committed to the catalogue/XMP data and how to stop them being committed?

[xnview]

Has the catalogue already been updated?
Is there anyway to revert to the previous category selection?

categories are updated when you change the selection

How can I avoid it being written out?

currently now way

[mkc73]

Presumably a sledgehammer approach of killing the XnView process and deleting the catalogue and then reconstructing the catalogue from teh image files XMP data works for the 2nd case?

[user0]

Is there anyway to revert to the previous category selection?

Categories - shortcut - add unassign functionality
'complex' part of suggestion (managing 'assigned' state of multiple files), which should apply to Categories pane as well

[mkc73]

yes -- add my vote for implementation of the complex 2nd case functionality