Comments on: The Dark Side of Tagging in Windows Vista http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/ Musings on the craft and business of software development Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:59:10 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Thorsten http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-2105 Thorsten Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:10:15 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/#comment-2105 Thanks Barry, that worked fine - just as you said it took some time, and only the tags were done, all changed and edited images are still there. I'll do this every now and then :) Thanks Barry, that worked fine – just as you said it took some time, and only the tags were done, all changed and edited images are still there. I’ll do this every now and then :)

]]> By: Barry http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-2012 Barry Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:13:36 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/#comment-2012 One way of getting Vista/Photo Gallery to recognise the tag changes is to delete or rename the database file which forces it to re-read all photo information... It not quick and it's not something that you could do regularly, but it does work. The database file is at C:\Users\UserName\appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery and is called pictured.pd4 Substitute the user's name for "UserName" in the above path. Barry One way of getting Vista/Photo Gallery to recognise the tag changes is to delete or rename the database file which forces it to re-read all photo information… It not quick and it’s not something that you could do regularly, but it does work.

The database file is at C:\Users\UserName\appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery and is called pictured.pd4

Substitute the user’s name for “UserName” in the above path.

Barry

]]> By: Patrick Murphy http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-1941 Patrick Murphy Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:14:22 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/#comment-1941 There are many limitations to current tagging implementations. Some observations/suggestions... Tags should be part of the image file (WPG got that right), and in a standard format so they are readable by many applications. Also, so they are not written over by potentially incompatible applications ("my tags are better than yours"). Tags should be hierarchical (again, WPG got it right); for example, Animals.Air.Raptors.Falcon. Tags should be importable/exportable as simple text database files. This way, if I develop a tag system which works for my organization, I can easily give it to others. Also, I could work on the tag categories "offline" using a text editor, instead of within the photo application which generally has multiple steps to create a tag. Just as there are image format conversion utilities, there should also be tagging conversion utilities that go from one system (e.g., iMatch or Picasa) to another (e.g., WPG). This way, the 10,000 images I tagged using iMatch or Picasa or whatever would retain their tags if I switch to another system (or if a univeral tagging standard format is developed). A tagging system should have a way to have a LOT of tags visible at once. I currently have over 500 tags. A single photo may get 5-10 different tags. It is very inefficient to scroll down a single vertical list to find 5-10 tags out of 500, per photo. Much better to have multiple columns of relatively small type, so many more tags are visible at once. Even better would be an intelligent system where the most recently used tags are collected at the top of the columns. I currently use an application (Pixort) whose sole purpose is grading and culling photos. I'd love to have a similar app whose sole purpose is tagging photos, so the process could be streamlined and made easier than picking from a humongous unorganized alphabetical list. Is anyone listening? <em>Bob responds: I would pay good money for the kind of functionality you are talking about here.</em> There are many limitations to current tagging implementations. Some observations/suggestions…

Tags should be part of the image file (WPG got that right), and in a standard format so they are readable by many applications. Also, so they are not written over by potentially incompatible applications (”my tags are better than yours”).

Tags should be hierarchical (again, WPG got it right); for example, Animals.Air.Raptors.Falcon.

Tags should be importable/exportable as simple text database files. This way, if I develop a tag system which works for my organization, I can easily give it to others. Also, I could work on the tag categories “offline” using a text editor, instead of within the photo application which generally has multiple steps to create a tag.

Just as there are image format conversion utilities, there should also be tagging conversion utilities that go from one system (e.g., iMatch or Picasa) to another (e.g., WPG). This way, the 10,000 images I tagged using iMatch or Picasa or whatever would retain their tags if I switch to another system (or if a univeral tagging standard format is developed).

A tagging system should have a way to have a LOT of tags visible at once. I currently have over 500 tags. A single photo may get 5-10 different tags. It is very inefficient to scroll down a single vertical list to find 5-10 tags out of 500, per photo. Much better to have multiple columns of relatively small type, so many more tags are visible at once. Even better would be an intelligent system where the most recently used tags are collected at the top of the columns.

I currently use an application (Pixort) whose sole purpose is grading and culling photos. I’d love to have a similar app whose sole purpose is tagging photos, so the process could be streamlined and made easier than picking from a humongous unorganized alphabetical list. Is anyone listening?

Bob responds: I would pay good money for the kind of functionality you are talking about here.

]]> By: Elja Trum http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-1249 Elja Trum Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:15:13 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/#comment-1249 Thanks for your response, Bob. I've changed the indexing options to index properties and file content. This seems to work a bit. I can find some images that are tagged with their tags. Most tags I've assigned don't seem to work. Perhaps the indexer needs more indexing time, but it claims 'indexing complete'. Thanks for your response, Bob.
I’ve changed the indexing options to index properties and file content. This seems to work a bit. I can find some images that are tagged with their tags. Most tags I’ve assigned don’t seem to work. Perhaps the indexer needs more indexing time, but it claims ‘indexing complete’.

]]> By: Elja Trum http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/comment-page-1/#comment-1228 Elja Trum Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:04:35 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/04/10/the-dark-side-of-tagging-in-windows-vista/#comment-1228 Interesting observations. I noticed the normal Windows Vista search doesn't find the tags I added in the Photo Gallery. Do you think this could be because of the same problem? Do I need to keep Windows Photo Gallery running for some time before it has written all the tags to the files and has indexed the files with tags in the normal Vista Search? <em>Bob responds: I haven't had time to assess Vista Search yet, especially in relation to tags, but if I recall correctly, it is configured "out of the box" to just search file names, not contents. My guess is, you will have to configure Vista search to look at tags; but it should be capable of it. If I get a chance to delve into this, I'll update this response. Regarding Gallery's background tag writing -- If you shut Gallery down before it's finished updating files, it's supposed to resume any unfinished file updates the next time you fire it up.</em> Interesting observations.
I noticed the normal Windows Vista search doesn’t find the tags I added in the Photo Gallery. Do you think this could be because of the same problem? Do I need to keep Windows Photo Gallery running for some time before it has written all the tags to the files and has indexed the files with tags in the normal Vista Search?

Bob responds: I haven’t had time to assess Vista Search yet, especially in relation to tags, but if I recall correctly, it is configured “out of the box” to just search file names, not contents. My guess is, you will have to configure Vista search to look at tags; but it should be capable of it. If I get a chance to delve into this, I’ll update this response. Regarding Gallery’s background tag writing — If you shut Gallery down before it’s finished updating files, it’s supposed to resume any unfinished file updates the next time you fire it up.

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