a photo cataloging program that can export with catagories?

Hi all,

I've just finished having a play with adobe photoshop album 2.0 and
paintshop pro photo album v5. But unfortunatley neither of them do
what i'm looking for.

I'm after an application which, like the above will let me organise
all my photos into categories and/or dates. That's great, they both do
that very well, however what i'd also like is an ability to export my
catagloue to a folder/disk and still mainting the date or category
structure.

for example, say i've setup categories for family, holidays, scenery
and cars and setup 100's of pictures in each. What i want is an option
to "Export catalogue to disk.." option which lets me specify a
destination and it would then export my photos' retaining the
catalogue structure as folders

c:\photos
+ c:\photos\family\
img1.jpg... imgx..jpg
+ c:\photos\holidays\
img1.jpg... imgx.jpg
+ c:\photos\scenery\
img1.jpg... imgx.jpg
+ c:\photos\cars\
img1.jpg... imgx.jpg

Does anyone know of an application which allows me to do this? Seems
the 2 i've tested above seem to want to insist that their app is the
only one you use so dont offer this feature (

Thanks in advance

// Carl Jones

 

It's not clear to me what you want to do. Do you want to:

1) export the catalog as a a text file.

2) copy (or move?) the image files themselves into a new directory
structure, reorganized by categories.

3) Something else...

I *think* you mean (2), because you talk about exporting to a
folder/disk, not to a file.

My first question would be -- why do you want to do this? If you have
an image that is in 5 different categories, you will end up with 5
copies of your image. Could be a huge waste of space. (For example, in
your example, you seem to have img1 through imgx in every category...)

As for an application, IMatch can do any of the above, though
depending on exactly what you want to do, it might take writing a
simple script, or you might have to do each category one at a time
(all the images in one category can easily be copied with one
command).

Could you clarify exactly what you're trying to do? And perhaps why
you want to do it? There may be a better solution to your problem.

Terry

 

There are many ways to do what you are after.

1 - use a database, spreadsheet or word document
2 - have a look around (like what you are doing) for a dedicated program

FWIW here is a sure fire way to a DIY solution
1 - Open a new Word document

2 - create a table

3 - paste a thumnail JPEG into 1 cell of the table

4 - in the same row paste a link to the file (include path details in the
link)

5 - in the same row enter key word eg beach San Tropez 2003 summer Europe
boats coast mountins (watch your spelling!

There - that's about it!

Fill in the table for every and boy do I mean E-V-E-R-Y image you want to
list

How to use it?
Open up the Word document
do a find on mountains
look at each thumnail one at a time that the keyword search brings up
if the thumbnail looks good - click on the link

do that for each occurence found by Find

switch to image viewer and you have your shortlisted images open for viewing


You can do a version of the above in a speardsheet (sp!) or database

You may also be able to use Office CAG (Computer Art Gallery) but I can't be
bothered going into the details about if, how why at the mo'

let us know how you get on

db

FWIW doing it yourself actually gets you reacquainted with every image you
wish to catalogue

 

[posted and mailed]

(Carl Jones) wrote in @posting.google.com:

I use a program called ThumbsPlus <www.cerious.com> and while there is no
export function it will certainly let you arrange your files this way. I
currently have a my images arranged in a similar structure. T+ is simply a
thumbnail program with a database and it will let you organize your images
pretty well any way you want with the ability to add keywords and a lot of
other things. They have a fully functional trial version available for
download.

 

Hi Terry,

Essentially instead of currently having all my images in different
DCIM_1.._x folders on my drive I would like them to be sorted I
categories. I appreciate there'd be duplicate photos as some photo's
are in more than 1 category but i'm really not that bothered about
that (storage is so cheap these days anyway) it's more the convenience
of being able to get to the pictures I want without having to load up
an application each time, especially if i'm on a different PC or
somewhere where i dont have the pictures but could still ftp to my
machine to get the pictures.

Thanks

 

In that case, for simplicity, why not just use windows explorer.
Create the directory structure to match your categories, and drag and
drop the pictures into the right directories. That way you don't ever
have to bother about a separate application. It seems to me this is as
easy or easier as using another application to assign the categories,
then using that application to copy the files into a new directory
structure.

I guess it depends on your OS. In windows XP you've got thumnail view,
while in earlier versions of windows you don't, so it's a little less
convenient.

Another option would be to use Irfanview. Irfanview lets you easily
view your images, large or thumbnail size. It also has easy to use
copy and move commands, and you can set up directories in the move and
copy dialogs. So it's just two keystrokes to move or copy a file from
where it is to one of several different directories. (Freeware,
http://www.irfanview.com/)

Actually, I would expect that adobe photoshop album and paintshop pro
photo album both have easy to use move and copy commands, as well, but
I don't use them so can't verify this.

Terry

 

Yup IrfanView = good, very very good (free too = excellent!)

Carl - I reckon IrfanView with a Table in Word is a sure fire quick n easy
way to get started

You may always print out pages from Word too

das B

 

ooops ! I forgot!

Try www.cerious.com

I knew there was something about 'thumbs' at the back of my memory

das B

 

If you're using a Mac, I'd suggest iPhoto - not the improved (and expensive)
new version in iLife but the old one. This will organize Slideshow lists.
Simply click and drag pictures from the main Library into different
categories of 'slideshow'. You can re-order and even drag from slideshow to
slideshow. As you're just creating 'aliases' of an original picture,
processing time is reduced. and saviving each category to disk if the
library starts getting 'klunky' after 800 or 900 pictures - the newapp has
apparently solved this 'klunk'.