File (spotlight) comments

I am knocking up a internal Perl script to describe individual files within a directory (OK, cgi-bin/). It seemed more natural to use the Spotlight Comments sections to help convey this information, but I am unable to figure out the best way to do this.
It does seem a way through is via Applescript, but again, I am unable to make heads nor tails from that script language. Any help / guidance would be much appreciated.
David
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.9) Works nicely.

After much research, I have finally found "mdls" -- a Apple shell program which outputs metadata.
I suspect the mdls routine is far simpler and (possibly) more robust.
I shall also follow a link which may show how to update comments from the shell -- if I wish too:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1259996&#1259996

Similar Messages

How to copy a files spotlight comments for an entire folder and place them in a different file with that same name

I have the same question in a different discussion but I already marked it as solved because one of the questions was answered. Here's the linke to the other discussion if your interested https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5970421
I have movie covers saved as a jpeg for every movie my family and I own. There is about 700 and they each have a comment of the main actors, release dates, and descriptions. This makes it easy to find what to watch.Is there an applescript, automator, program I can download, or program code supported in xcode that will do the following set of inscructions?
Take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it to a movie file's comments to a file with the same name but obviously has different extention. For an example
In a Pictures folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.jpeg       Comment: (2008) Genre: Action...             <- copy comment
In a Movie Folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.m4v       Comment:                                               <- paste
and do this for all 700 files

Clendenen02 wrote:
where should I run the code? in the terminal, or an applescript, or should put it in xcode and run it from there or the terminal.
What MrHoffman said.
But if it's easier, you can wrap it in Automator and have Automator ask for the Folders: (Test on a sample of your files before running on all 700 files)
(do you really own 700 movies??)
The Workflow is:
Put this in the Run Shell Script Action (and pass input as arguments":
PicDir=$1
MovDir=$2
for f in $PicDir/*
do
     if [ ! -d "$f" -a "${f##*.}" = "jpeg" ]; then
          comment=$(mdls -raw -name kMDItemFinderComment "$f")
          if [[ $comment != "(null)" ]]; then
               picname=${f##*/}
               movname=${picname%.*}.m4v
               if [[ -e "$MovDir"/$movname ]]; then
osascript <<-EOF
tell application "Finder"
set comment of file (POSIX file "$MovDir/$movname") to "$comment"
end tell
EOF
               fi
          fi
     fi
done
(BTW, I know that this is a bit of sloppy scripting (wraping an osascript in a Bash Script wrapped in Automator, but it does what you need)

Find all Spotlight commented files

Hi,
so I'm trying to figure out what comments I have been using in my files' Spotlight comments field. I tag my files this way and I'd like a list of all the comments I have inserted there. Any way to squeeze this out of Finder?

In the Finder window, right click on the title bar and select comments. They will be listed and can be sorted.
Another idea is to create a smart folder listing all files with non blank comment fields.
Regards,
Captfred

How to copy a files name and spotlight comments to a text file for an entire folder

I have movie covers saved as a jpeg for every movie my family and I own. There is about 700 and they each have a comment of the main actors, release dates, and descriptions. This makes it easy to find what to watch. I want my parents to have all of this info but they have a windows laptop so the comments don't transfer with the file and can't be searched like you can on a mac. Is there an applescript, automator, program I can download, or program code supported in xcode that will do at least one of the following things?
1)Take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it into a text document like word that looks like this...
File Name1- Spotlight Comment for file 1
File Name 2- Spotlight Comment for file 2
. for all 700 files in a folder
2) It would be equally helpful if there was something that would take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it to a movie file's comments with the same name but obviously has different extention. For an example
In a Pictures folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.jpeg       Comment: (2008) Genre: Action...             <- copy comment
In a Movie Folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.m4v       Comment:                                               <- paste
and do this for all 700 files
3) Is there a free photo program that works on mac and windows that I can put all my movie pictures in and have a description like I did with the comments? It would also need a place that to search the description for keywords. So Basically an itunes for pictures that works on both mac and windows. If so I still need a way to get the spotlight comments to the description.
4) I feel like this would make things more difficult, but if not I can put all of the .m4v files in itunes so instead of pasting all the comments back into a file in finder paste them in a description in itunes
5) At the very least a code that I can run one by one for every file that will paste the comments into the same document
Note: When I say spotlight comments I mean the comment box that is available when you click on get info of a file. The pictures are in the pictures section of finder in a folder called Movie Pictures. The movie files are on an external hard-drive in a file called Movies. Also I am slightly familiar with applescript and automater in that I have used both to create keyboard shortcuts and simple voice commands. I have programmed in c++ and C too. So If you give me a code for applescript I do know what to do with it.
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read all of this and extra thanks to anyone who tries to help.

Clendenen02 wrote:
2) It would be equally helpful if there was something that would take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it to a movie file's comments with the same name but obviously has different extention. For an example
In a Pictures folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.jpeg       Comment: (2008) Genre: Action...             <- copy comment
In a Movie Folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.m4v       Comment:                                               <- paste
and do this for all 700 files
This Bash script will do it.
Edit "PicDir" and "MovDir" to the location of your Folders
(Note: The comment is written to the m4v file using xattr, so the Spotlight comment field appears blank in Finder, but the comment metadata is still indexed by Spotlight (If you add a Spotlight comment from Finder, it is stored both as an extended attribute and in a .DS_Store file)
#!/bin/bash
PicDir=$HOME/Desktop/Pictures
MovDir=$HOME/Desktop/Movies
for f in $PicDir/*
do
     if [ ! -d "$f" -a "${f##*.}" == "jpeg" ]; then
          comment=$(mdls -raw -name kMDItemFinderComment "$f")
          if [[ $comment != "(null)" ]]; then
               picname=${f##*/}
               movname=${picname%.*}.m4v
               if [ -e "$MovDir"/$movname ]; then
                     xattr -w com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment "\"$comment\"" "$MovDir"/$movname
               fi
          fi
     fi
done

Need help modifying Applescript to copy "Spotlight Comments" into file

Hello all,
I have a very large batch of images of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. I used the "Spotlight Comments" field of each file to save information about the notebook page depicted in each image:
Well, I had to modify each image in Photoshop and when I saved the files, Photoshop of course didn't retain the Spotlight Comments. Now, before I modified the images, I duplicated the directory, so I have a copy of all of the images that retain their Spotlight Comments field with each image's information. What I want to do is copy the text from the Spotlight Comments field of the original files and either paste this text into the Spotlight Comments field of the modified files (which are in a different directory, but retain the same filenames as the originals), or at least copy the text from the Spotlight Comments field of the original files and paste each block of text into a txt file with a couple of blank lines in between each entry, so that I can manually copy/paste the citations into the modified image's Spotlight Comments fields.
I successfully used this Applescript: https://discussions.apple.com/message/6741062#6741062
to get the Spotlight Comments from the original files, but it displays them one by one in pop-up dialog boxes and because I have almost a thousand images it is extraordinarily wearisome to copy the text from each pop-up, paste it into a text file, make two blank lines, click "OK" in the pop-up to get the next one...
Can anyone suggest how I can modify the code I have to tell the Finder to copy the contents of each pop-up and paste them into a single text file with a couple of blank lines between each entry?
I have the barest, most rudimentary knowledge of Applescript, which is why I'm asking if one of the wizards here can help me modify or write an Applescript to do what I need to do.
Thank you so much!
BTW, here is the code from the aforementioned discussion that gets the Spotlight Comments from files. I made into an Applescript application using Automator:
tell application "Finder"
repeat with tItem in input
set (comment of tItem) to (text returned) of (display dialog "Spotlight Comment: " default answer (comment of tItem as string))
end repeat
end tell

Hi,
Evan Izer wrote:
Now, before I modified the images, I duplicated the directory, so I have a copy of all of the images that retain their Spotlight Comments field with each image's information. What I want to do is copy the text from the Spotlight Comments field of the original files and either paste this text into the Spotlight Comments field of the modified files (which are in a different directory, but retain the same filenames as the originals)
This script does exactly that:
set sFolder to (choose folder "Select folder wich contains original images.") as string
set dFolder to choose folder "Select folder wich contains modified images."
tell application "Finder"
      repeat with tItem in (get document files of dFolder)
            set origFile to sFolder & (get name of tItem)
            if file origFile exists then
                  set origComment to comment of file origFile
                  set comment of tItem to origComment
            end if
      end repeat
end tell

Paste clipboard's contents to selected file's Get Info (Spotlight) comments

Hi,
Could someone please help me in building an AppleScript that would paste the clipboard's current contents to the currently selected (in the Finder) file's Get Info (Spotlight) comments?
I know this can be done with an Automator workflow or Folder Action, but prefer an AppleScript.
Many thanks!

The following script will add (a space and then the clipboard) to the comments of the currently selected file. In case there are several items selected it only deals with the first one, and there is also a dialog to edit the final content:
<pre title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor" style="font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: 10px; padding: 5px; width: 720px; color: #000000; background-color: #E0E0E0; overflow: auto">set TheClipboard to (get the clipboard)
tell application "Finder" to try
set TheFIle to the first item of (get the selection)
set TheComment to the comment of TheFIle
set TheName to text ((length of (path to home folder as text)) + 1) thru -1 of (TheFIle as text)
if TheName ends with ":" then
set TheType to " folder "
else
set TheType to " file "
end if
display dialog ("Change the comment for the" & TheType & return & quoted form of TheName & "?") with title "Edit Spotlight Comment" default answer (TheComment & space & TheClipboard)
set comment of TheFIle to text returned of the result
end try
</pre>

File Info window and Spotlight comments

I typed somme comments in File Info Window, box titled Spotlight comments.
All these comments are gone after System restart (Snow Leopard 10.6.8) and I am unable to read them again. But STRANGE... when I do a Spotlight research with one word I typed in Spotlight comments, the file name is displayed and I can open its Info Window, but no luck the Spotlight comments are still empty.
The chain I typed are still there in the file info but hidden to my eyes, is there a mean to retrieve these comments?
Best regards and thanks, please excuse me language as I'm wrting from France.
JfS

I typed somme comments in File Info Window, box titled Spotlight comments.
All these comments are gone after System restart (Snow Leopard 10.6.8) and I am unable to read them again. But STRANGE... when I do a Spotlight research with one word I typed in Spotlight comments, the file name is displayed and I can open its Info Window, but no luck the Spotlight comments are still empty.
The chain I typed are still there in the file info but hidden to my eyes, is there a mean to retrieve these comments?
Best regards and thanks, please excuse me language as I'm wrting from France.
JfS

Spotlight Comments - are they attached to the file?

Just wondering, if I were to add some comments to a document under the "Spotlight Comments" box which comes up when you "Get Info" on the file...are those comments appended to the file or do they only appear when the file is on my computer.
Basically, if I send the file to someone else, I don't want the "comments" I added through Spotlight to be in any way attached to the file I send?

i believe the comments are only attached to the spotlight database. they should not travel with the file.

Find files that has no Spotlight Comments!

Hi,
Is there a way to create a Smart Folder to collect all the files that have no Spotlight Comments attached to them?
Do Comments get copied when backing up to an external device? If not, is there a best practice?
Regards,
Nawaf
MacBook 13" 2Ghz 2GB Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Thanks Steve
This is the disadvantage of storing your files as referenced. Importing all referenced files is not the best solution for me, since I have a lot (100.000+) files.
However, I just realized that you have to open all stacks in order to have Aperture show the right number of photos in the database. I found that I only missed 3 files and I did find them.
Problem solved. Advise to others: be very structured when you store your files as referenced files.
In future releases of Aperture there could be a function that would allow you to import files from folders that are not already inported.
Aperture rocks.... sorting and filtering is great. Metadata management is sweet and makes things so much more easy.
Karsten

Using spotlight comments to find files

Hello
I am new to this forum so please be patience with me. I would like to use keywords in the spotlight comment area to find files on our shared network. However, I am having problems with this. I can find files by name, but not by contents or spotlight comments on our shared network. Can anyone help me with this problem.
Thanks Heather
Message was edited by: Heather316

To Apple Discussions!
Check out the Article: Using Spotlight to search for items
+"To organize your files so you can find them more easily, use the Spotlight Comments field in the Get Info dialog. For example, you could mark all the files for the same project with the project name, tag all your urgent files with the word "urgent," or enter a description that will help you find the file later.+
+If you want to limit your search to specific locations and attributes, open Finder and choose File > Find."+
There may be other info you can use from the Article.

How to add spotlight comment on more than one file simultaneously?

Hi
how can I add spotlight comment on some files in mountain lion ?
it's very useful and necessary specially when I want to add some comments on many files or photos that newly importet.
is there any way in OS X for that?
Thank you!
Safa

Automator workflow of the month: Add Spotlight comments

Automator Folder Action: File Name = Spotlight Comment?

Hey guys,
I'm trying to have automator add the original filename of a file as spotlight comment when it is added to a certain folder. I can only use the "Set Spotlight Comments for Finder Items" in folder actions to add a specified comment, but nothing else. Is it possible to grab the file name via applescript?
The idea behind this is to preserve the original file names of all downloaded files before they get renamed.
Thanks,
V

Thanks for your reply, I now have your action installed and it does get the filenames, but I still can't add them to the spotlight comment text box. Looks like I didn't think this through properly.

Add Spotlight Comment from file?

As I understand the way the *Add Spotlight Comments* works, the input is the file (or set of files) to be modified, and the added comments can either come statically from the workflow, or as user input if the workflow permits *Show Action When Run*.
I have a moderately ugly shell script that downloads and examines a succession of files and builds a description (just a few dozen words) that I want to add automatically to those comments. At the end of my script, I've downloaded the file, and stored the comments I want in a separate temp file.
As far as I can see, Automator can't do this: I can't specify a file as the incoming source of those new Spotlight Comments, can I?
Assuming the answer is negative, two quick non-Automator followups:
1) Is there any shell-script level Unix command that can manipulate the comments (without trying to hack into the .DS_Store files, that is).
2) Can Applescript do this? And, crucially, where's the best current help for Applescript for someone that hasn't touched it in many years?

Automator can do it, although some of the actions may not be obvious. Text (for example, the results of your ugly shell script) can be placed into a variable for later use, but you can also get it from a file. If your description/comment is in a plain text file, you can use the Combine Text Files action to get the text, then place it in a variable that can be used with the Set Spotlight Comments for Finder Items action.
Example:
1) Get Specified Finder Items (add your description file) (ignore input)
2) Combine Text Files
3) Set Value of Variable {Variable: whatever}
4) Get Specified Finder Items (add the file you want to comment) (ignore input)
5) Set Spotlight Comments for Finder Items {drag variable whatever to the text field, Append to existing comments}

Importing Spotlight Comments

Hi Everyone,
I have around 700 historic photos that have been digitized. All the photo details (dates, etc.) were entered into the Spotlight Comments field under Get Info. Unfortunately, none of the comments appear when I open the photos in Adobe Bridge CS4. I will now start using Bridge to add the metadata tags. However, is there an easy solution (perhaps an Automator script) to export the Spotlight Comments and use them in Bridge? I really don't want to retype the information, and I would be extremely grateful for any advice.
Thank you,
Brian

You most probably require the help of script to do this. Better to ask your Question in that forum. Your Spotlight Comments belong to Finder both AppleScript & Shell can get access to these not too sure about JavaScript. JavaScript would be required to add this info to the correct files.

Automator for Exporting Spotlight Comments?

Hello,
I have around 700 historic photos that have been digitized. All the photo details (dates, etc.) were entered into the Spotlight Comments field under Get Info. Unfortunately, none of the comments appear when I open the photos in Adobe Bridge CS4. Is there an easy solution (perhaps an Automator script) to export the Spotlight Comments and use them elsewhere?
Thank you,
Brian

Brian
If I read you right, what you are trying to do is grab Finder metadata and convert it to photo metadata. Specifically, convert spotlight comments to Exif and IPTC - which is what a Photo app will need.
You can't do this with Automator. The Automator dictionary has ways to set Spotlight Comments but I can see no way to get them. Further the dictionary has the ability to write to the IPTC data only of images in Aperture, not in the Finder or iPhoto.
You might do better with that question on the Automator forum here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1261
Have you tried the Applescript that was suggested when you posted the query last?
As your target are file managed by Bridge, give the Adobe forums a go too.
However, you may run into another issue here and that is that most scanners (as I presume this is how the photos were digitised) do not create Exif and IPTC data for scanned images. It may not be possible to do what you want to do.
Regards
TD

File (spotlight) comments

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