XnView Software

So have an image directory where some images have been tagged with a keyword say : Date.
A common task is to find the images that have not yet been tagged.
How to go about it?

a) Go to folders tab in browser; select all files; go to Catalog filter tab; ALT click on Date --> Nothing.
Current image edit selection (images selected in browser) and image view selection (images on view in browser) don't seem to interact in a way one might imagine.

b) Go to catalog filter tab; a keyword is already selected so ALT click on Date does not give required result --> selected keyword AND ! Date.
There does not seem to be a way of clearing the current selected keyword ?

c) Goto catalog filter tab; select Date; ALT click on Date--> Nothing.
Probably shouldn't have thought this would work as would expect it to give Date AND ! Date.

d) Goto catalog filter tab; select Match Current Folder; select Date; click on Edit/Invert Selection --> looks like it inverts the image edit selection.

e) Brute force. Make a new keyword tag Selected; Goto Folder tab; select all files; set Selected tag on all files; goto Catalog filter; select Selected tag; ALT click Date -->Success! gives Select AND ! Date.



But a bit unnecessary to have to create a new tag for all files and then remove it. Suggest instead that change XnView so that :
goto Catalog filter; click on selected tag clears tag selection --> sets image view selection to everything (either global, current folder or current folder recursive) then ALT click on Date gives everything AND ! Date in the same way that click on Date gives everything AND date.

I agree

- Setting the category "photo" to all photos is a solution,
First select "photo" in categories filter
Then we can use alt to exclude a category : say alt-Bird to exclude birds

- The best way, I think would be to move the "Special > All" item to "Categories > All "
so that we could select "All" and "alt-Bird" , to exclude Birds

Even better if "All" item follows the "Match > current folder" setting

I had not tried using the Special Items folder in the Catalog Filter.

As you suggest 'Special Items > All' does not seem to follow the "Match > current folder" setting and I presume it affects what I was calling the 'image edit selection'.

I am not sure I like the idea of putting an ALL in the Categories Folder which affects the 'image view selection'. I already find it pretty confusing about where and when all the category tags come from (my photos when XnView looks in that folder) without having special system categories. But the basic idea is the right one and would be great if something like that could be implemented.

This is still a slightly annoying problem - especially because I insist in my work that the keywords are stored with the images and that is the definitive database - to the extent that I periodically delete the xnview database and restore it from the keyword information in the images (to avoid problems I still encounter with the xnview database not being written out properly).

The behaviour I would like to see is that the selection made in 'Folders' mode can be acted on in 'Catalog Filter' mode. So that I would select 'Folders'; select all files in a folder; select 'Catalog Filter'; select NOT Birds to give me all images in that folder that nod not have the Birds keyword set.

Using the quick search field (in toolbar) is perhaps a solution ?

First, check settings (drop down menu on the magnifier) to have categories enabled.
Quick search works only on displayed files, but, I think, not possible on selected files only. (and always on filenames. )
Can work on all displayed labels.
Can work with "View, view files in subfolders"

Use "regex syntax" to exclude birds : (^bird) or something like that...