Any way to customize the columns in details view?

[tomgoodell]

Hi, I'm new to XnView and am using XnView MP—very happy to have found it!

I spent a fair amount of time reading what I could find and using Gemini to configure XnView. Gemini was helpful but after quite a bit of time trying various methods I could not find a way to change the columns shown in Details view. When I right click on a column header there is no option to customize columns and I cannot find such an option anywhere in the Settings menu. I'm wondering if it's possible to configure the columns.

Also wondering if there's any way to add or change keyboard shortcuts to menu items.

I'm on Windows 11 Pro.

Any guidance on this would be much appreciated!

[jkm]

Welcome to the forums...

When I right click on a column header there is no option to customize columns and I cannot find such an option anywhere in the Settings menu.

Perhaps you need to uninstall, reboot, and reinstall the application. Because the columns CAN be customized, and you are right about how to do it.

When you right click on one of the column headers, like Name, a menu will appear under your pointer, and the rest is obvious: put a check by what you want and uncheck what you don't. If the menu does not appear, then your installation of the app is broken or some other application running on your PC (like some sort of UI customizer or mouse button customizer or antivirus) is preventing the menu from appearing.

I've also seen situations where a keyboard had a stuck control or alt key, or some macro software was artificially asserting a control, shift or alt key, and this had the effect of inhibiting what the user thought were normal right-clicks. "Intelligent" keyboards can be especially prone to this. If you cannot get the right click menu anywhere (like on an image in the browser window, or in Windows Explorer), that's probably your problem.

The columns can also be dragged to be reordered.

Also wondering if there's any way to add or change keyboard shortcuts to menu items.

Of course there is. Go to Tools->Settings:Interface:Shortcuts
There you will see all the various commands available in the app (separated into Browser and Viewer modes by a menu selection at the top).
Everything you see listed can have its keyboard shortcut changed using the options at the bottom of the dialog. The operation is straightforward.
There are some menu items that exist that are not listed in this dialog of course, and those cannot have keyboard shortcuts added or modified.

Hopefully this helps...

[tomgoodell]

@jkm—thanks so much for those tips! I do see all the columns listed when I right click, what I was looking for was something that would enable me to add a column for exif data that isn't already in the menu. I use about 6 exif fields in Photoshop and Lightroom to indicate stage of a project and other things. For project stage I use the "job ID" field. In Photoshop there's the Metadata Plugin for Photoshop that enables this and Lightroom has it natively. It would be really handy to be able to see those fields in XnView MP.

Knowing where to find the keyboard shortcuts is great. I automate my workflow extensively with Autohotkey and Streamdecks so knowing where to find those and add shortcuts will be super helpful.

[jkm]

...what I was looking for was something that would enable me to add a column for exif data that isn't already in the menu. I use about 6 exif fields in Photoshop and Lightroom to indicate stage of a project and other things. For project stage I use the "job ID" field. In Photoshop there's the Metadata Plugin for Photoshop that enables this and Lightroom has it natively. It would be really handy to be able to see those fields in XnView MP.

Be patient ; adding custom EXIF fields (actually ExifTool fields) in Details view is on the roadmap.

However, your expectations may need to be reconciled against terminology and what's feasible. If you're using Adobe products, you may be using some proprietary tags, thinking they are EXIF. JobID, for example, is not actually an EXIF field, as you called it. It's actually an IPTC field. And Adobe products often store their tags in sidecar XMP files instead of in the actual image file.

XnViewMP will read tags that ExifTool can understand. This includes EXIF tags, as well as Makernotes, IPTC, XMP, and others. If you want to know if the specific tags you use are parsed by Exiftool, check the ExifTool site: https://exiftool.org/TagNames/
If ExifTool doesn't read it, plan on XnViewMP not supporting it. If there's a tag you need that ExifTool does not currently understand, ask for it on the ExifTool forums, and if you can provide example files, Phil will probably add it. Supposedly ExifTool can extract arbitrary string information from XMP structures as long as it is in proper XMP format, but honestly I have not pushed that to see how far it goes. If Adobe is putting proprietary stuff politely into XMP format, then perhaps ExifTool can already handle it, but Phil (the author of ExifTool) would have to pass judgement. A list of proprietary Photoshop tags that ExifTool can definitely read is listed here. The same page lists a total of 3 proprietary Lightroom tags.

Although at this time you cannot add arbitrary fields to the XnViewMP's Details view, you can currently add such fields to the Thumbnails View using Labels. In Settings, go to Thumbnail:Labels There you will see a list of predefined fields you can add, and you can also add any arbitrary field Exiftool can read by inserting the {ExifTool:tagname} parameter. Arbitrary tags are also searchable in the Search dialog.

You can learn more about using the new features like the Exiftool support in my documentation post here:
viewtopic.php?t=49948

[tomgoodell]

Thank you so much for such a thorough explanation. About a year ago I began really digging into metadata as my artwork was getting much more complex and I needed to track project status and image notes more fully. Metadata is still a confusing world to me but getting clearer. And until I discovered XnView (2 days ago) I was trying to shoehorn the ability to view my image library and metadata into Directory Opus. DOpus is a fabulous tool but not designed for any DAM features.

XnView MP will become a new powerhouse in my toolbox. And you're right—I've been using IPTC fields, not EXIF fields, for tracking my project. I'm hoping that the fields I use will map to EXIF fields and be viewable there. I believe I've been able to view all of them in EXIFtool (e.g., JobID maps to "Original Transmission Reference"). If that doesn't work out I may rethink what fields I'm using to accommodate XnView MP. The challenge will be finding fields that Photoshop, Lightroom, and XnView MP will all display.

I will spend some time studying your references—super helpful, I'm gradually learning ... again, much gratitude for your explanation.