Categories to Slideshow

[DeeGee]

I have around 40,000 photos on my computer which are organised with a file structure, so I know where to find photos.

Many of the photos have tags and I am adding more all the time. Examples of tags are people e.g. Susan, places e.g. Scotland and descriptors e.g. snow and food.

I want to be able to select all the photos, from my 40,000, that have specified tags, for example; Susan AND Scotland AND snow AND food. Having selected these photos I want to show them as a slideshow.

How do I do this? I am sure I am missing something simple here but despite exploring the menus I can’t find a way.

Thank you

[jkm]

Welcome to the forum.

There are a couple of ways you can do this:

A. Using Search
B. Using the Catalog filter

With both methods, you start by finding the files that match your criteria.

For search:
1. Select search from the Tools menu
2. Ensure your Folder field is filled out correctly. You can erase it and check "Search in catalog only" to search the entire catalog.
3. Under Conditions, ADD Categories, and select the categories you want to find. (For your example, ensure "Match All" is selected
4. Click Search; it will find your results
5. Click Browse; it will show you your results.

At this point, you can either select them all, and then select Tools->Slideshow to start a slideshow, or you could add all the images to an Album so that they're saved for later.

For the Catalog filter:
1. In the Match mode at the top of the Catalog Filter pane, ensure AND and GLOBAL are selected.
2. In the Categories tree at the bottom of the Catalog filter pane, Ctrl-Click on the multiple categories you want to use. This will select files that have all (AND, as specified in step 1) the categories you select. Results instantly display in the browser.

At this point, just like using Search, you've found your images. Select them and start a slideshow, or add them to an album to save the list for later.

Hopefully this helps...

[DeeGee]

Thank you for your guidance. There is some progress but not yet successful.

In the Search box
Folder field = E:\Photos (which is where all my photos are)
Search in catalog only – checked
Under Conditions I have added Categories and selected Campervan (I know there are 50 photos with this tag)
Match All is selected
But search does not return any results
See attached; Search 1 and 2


Using the Catalog filter:
AND and GLOBAL are selected.
Selecting category food. Only 4 photos are found but there are 18 with the food tag. The ones that are shown have no metadata but all 18 do have metadata.

See attached Category 1 and 2

Any further help will be appreciated.

[jkm]

Try turning off search in catalog only; it will be slower. If it finds the files then, your files were tagged externally and the database in XnViewMP has not been updated.

Turn on search in subfolders if your files are in subfolders.

If you've been tagging files in other software, go to Settings:Metadata and ensure the options are set correctly. Turn on the import options there, and the categories options.

You may then have to select the files and do an update metadata from files.