Keywords and Spotlight

Is there a way to have the keywords you assign to photos show up in spotlight?
I know that the ones I create in Photoshop do, just not iPhoto.
Thanks,
"D"

Dana,
I can search in Spotlight for keywords I give my photos. Yours should be working too. You might have to close iPhoto after assigning the keywords to get it going. Spotlight can find my images by image name, title, keywords, and comments and even Albums (I put the album name in each images comment field)
Sometimes you have to force Spotlight to work by highlighting your library in the source column, select all, and give them a simple keyword (I use the checkmark) Wait till it is done assigning the keywords, then close iPhoto.
Open iPhoto, undo what you just did. Now see if Spotlight can search by keyword.

Similar Messages

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

Exporting keywords and comments?

Is there a way to export keywords, or comments?
Basically my iPhoto library is getting too big and running slow, so what I want to do is move all of the "older" photos onto an external drive and be able to find the pics using a spotlight search, but not keeping them in iPhoto.
Thanks,
"D"

Dana:
Spotlight can find keyworded images in an iPhoto library located on an external HD. One way to do what you want is what Lori suggested, copy your library to the external, open it and delete those photos you plan on keeping on the boot drive library. Then open your boot drive library and delete those that are in the external drive library. To make it easier you can create a new keyword for those destined to the external drive.
The paid version of iPhoto Library Manager will let you easily move between your multiple libraries and copy single or multiple files from one to another while keeping the keywords and other information intact. iPhoto Buddy is another application that lets you quickly change libraries but does not have the file copy capability. For best results turn off ownership on the external drive by selecting it, typing Command-I and then find the ownership part of the Info window where you can click on the "ignore ownership" checkbox.

How to search Photos by keyword from Spotlight ?

I there, I have iPhoto '09 (version 8.1.2) and MAC OS 10.5.8. I'm trying to search by keywords from Spotlight but it does not work for me.
What can I do to get it to work or is not possible ?
Thanks!
Adrian

Misio
Wow, your earlier post went quick!
No, no one missed the calendar tool like you do.
Why?
Because they use the Calendar tool.
Click on the magnifying glass in the search window (note the little up/down arrows beside it) and select the calendar tool...
Try it, you'll like it.
Regards
TD

Aperture Library and Spotlight

Should Spotlight be turned off on a hard drive that only has an Aperture library? Can Spotlight search within an Aperture Library?

No reason to turn Spotlight off, no.
Not 100% sure that Spotlight will search within the Aperture library. Note, though, that if it did it would pick up the RAW file information, and not the information in the Aperture database as Spotlight doesn't search the database (which is binary) itself.
I tried it with metadata keywords and got no Spotlight hits. So I tried the same thing with Lightroom and saved it to XMP metadata and also got nothing.
Now, when I exported a JPEG containing my keywords from both Aperture and Lightroom, the keyword search works... Spotlight picks that up lickety split.
:-/

IPhoto 7.1 and Spotlight in OS X 10.4.11

I've invested considerable time and energy in endowing photos in iPhoto 7.1 with keywords and comments, only to discover that Spotlight doesn't seem to be using all this information. I'm only able to find photos with names that contain the character string I specify in the Spotlight window.
I vaguely recall encountering a similar problem with an older version of iPhoto. I believe the solution was to select all the photos in the Library, add a keyword to them, then later remove it. I tried that, but it seems not to make any difference.
Can anybody shed any light on this problem?

Richard:
iPhoto doesn't write the keywords to the image file until it's exported out of iPhoto with the option to include the keyword selected. However, on a one time basis, you can run iView MediaPro in it's demo mode and, following the first part of Tutorial #1, write all of the keywords, comments and titles to the original image files in iPhoto. Then the spotlight search will find the files with those keywords.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Metadata, diacriticals, and spotlight

Sorry if this has already been addressed somewhere else in the forums. I wasn't able to find it using the search function but it seems like something someone may have already asked advice on.
I work for a publication whose name includes an "a" with a forward accent (á - not sure how that will show up when I post this, hence the explanation) and an "i" with a forward accent (it's called "The American Bahá'í" just so I don't seem all cloak and dagger). I've gotten into the habit of tagging photos in our archives with the issue that it appeared in which involves using both of the special characters described above. The idea here is that they will eventually end up in a pool of photos which will include photos used in other publications as well and if someone in the future would like the option of researching the context that the photo originally appeared in, this will make it a whole lot easier.
Anywho, I've noticed a bit of an idiosyncrasy which I'd like to understand more about. When I am writing this metadata to JPEG, TIFF, or PSD files, it comes across just fine when I do a spotlight search within OS X's Finder. However, if I write this to RAW camera files, it doesn't. Now, I understand that Lightroom doesn't save the metadata to the proprietary files but even when they are converted to DNG, any metadata that appears before an accented character is chopped off. This is verified when I do a Cmd-I on the file in finder (or attempt to search for it in Spotlight). As far as I can tell, lightroom is including those characters. I've been able to open the XMP sidecar files created for the proprietary raw files and the accented characters are in there in the fields where they ought to be. Why Spotlight, you ask? Well, because of storage constraints (which will hopefully be resolved soon) I've had to create several lightroom catalogs and the easiest way that I've come up with to search across all of those catalogs is via spotlight. This also makes it a lot easier to search photos along with other assets such as PDFs, text files, emails, etc.
Well, I hope that was clear to someone out there. I've been scratching my head trying to figure this out for a couple days now without luck.

Are you attaching keywords to raw camera files in lightroom? If that's the case, therein lies your problem. Lightroom does not alter proprietary raw camera files in any way. Instead it creates a sidecar XMP file which contains all of the metadata and changes that you've made in lightroom. However, if you convert your proprietary files (CR2 for Canon, NEF for Nikon, PEF for Pentax(?) to DNG, Lightroom will add that data into the file, therefore making that data searchable via Spotlight. Lightroom will also add that data into JPEGs, TIFFs, PSDs, etc. so that those will also be searchable via spotlight. This includes caption info, any keywords, and all of the exposure info including camera make and model, etc.
The problem I am having is that when I convert my files to DNG so that I can search their metadata in Spotlight, any part of the caption or keywords that comes *before* a character with a diacritical is truncated. It just doesn't show up except in lightroom. Incidentally, this is also true when I export these files in their original format from Lightroom as well (the metadata is there but it is truncated in the same way). When I tried this same thing in Aperture (I downloaded a trial version just cause I was curious) everything came across OK (no truncation) and I've been told that Photo Mechanic will also allow you to add that metadata directly to the proprietary files as well as DNGs (I haven't confirmed this).
Anyways, if anyone out there is having this same problem or witnessed it and knows what might be causing it, I'd certainly be interested in figuring out a way around it. I've got several thousand photos in lightroom catalogs and it would be nice to know what I'm getting myself into if I make any commitments to wide scale conversion for the sake of searchability.

What is the difference between Topic Keywords and Index File Keywords?

What is the difference between Topic Keywords and Index File Keywords? Any advantages to using one over the other? Do they appear differently in the generated index?
RH9.0.2.271
I'm using Webhelp

Hi there
When you create a RoboHelp project you end up with many different ancillary files that are used to store different bits of information. Many of these files bear the name you assigned to the project at the time you created it. The index file has the project name and it ends with a .HHK file extension. (HHK meaning HTML Help Keywords)
Generally, unless you change RoboHelp's settings, you add keywords to this file and associate topics to the keywords via the Index pod. At the time you compile a CHM or generate other types of output, the file is consulted and the index is built.
As I said earlier, the default is to add keywords to the Index file until you configure RoboHelp to add the keywords to the topics themselves. Once you change this, any keyword added will become a META tag in the topic code. If your keyword is BOFFO, the META tag would look like this:
<meta name="MS-HKWD" content="BOFFO" />
When the help is compiled or generated, the Index (.HHK) file is consulted as normal, but any topics containing keywords added in this manner are also added to the Index you end up with. From the appearance perspective, the end user woudn't know the difference or be able to tell. Heck, if all you ever did was interact with the Index pod, you, as an author wouldn't know either. Well, other than the fact that the icons appear differently.
Operationally, keywords added to the topics themselves may hold an advantage in that if you were to import these topics into other projects, the Index keywords would already be present.
Hopefully this helps... Rick

How do I sort by Keywords and Rating at the same time?

Hi guys,
I know this is probably basic, but I have put keywords to a recent trip to Argentina and star rated the ones I enjoyed the most. Now I want to see pictures from Argentina (keyword), in the mountains (another keyword) and that are rated with 5 stars .
Could someone please give me a hand?
Thank you very much!
Camy

file menu ==> new smart album
Meets all criteria
My rating is ★★★★★
Keyword is Argentina
keyword is mountains
LN

Lost all my built in apps on my Iphone3GS, i have checked restrictions and spotlight search and i do not have phone,imessage,or appstore apps anymore,please help me!

Lost my phone,imessage,and app store apps and when i try to restore it,its still showing up like this,i have checked restrictions and spotlight search but still no luck,please help!

Settings > General > Reset > Reset Home Screen Layout

I used to give my photo's keywords. Most of the time I have several photo's for the same keyword and it was possible to select all those photo's and give them the keyword in one move. Since of few weeks I can't do that anymore and I find it very annoying.

I used to give my photo's keywords. Most of the time I have several photo's for the same keyword and it was possible to select all those photo's and give them the keyword in one move. Since of few weeks I can't do that anymore and it's very annoying. What can I do to get back to the former situation?

. Since of few weeks I can't do that anymore and it's very annoying. What can I do to get back to the former situation?
Check, if you have the "Primary Only" option enabled. Then keywords will only be applied to the "Primary Image":
See: Keywords or ratings are applied only to one of the selected images - why?
Uncheck the little square button with the "1".

IPhoto 6 and Spotlight - the ANSWER

Hi,
I had some problems with iPhoto 6 and Spotlight indexing. After reading tons of posts and not finding answers that worked, I ended up learning about Spotlight myself.
The solution is as simple as it is embarrassing (for Apple). They simply forgot to add to iPhoto the information to connect the Spotlight importer to the spotlight file of the photo library.
The solution is here:
http://blog.grischameyer.de/2008/09/iphoto-6-and-spotlight-fixed/
Cheers

Sorry to hear that. I updated my blog and added a complete version of Info.plist that you can download.
Try again, if you like.
Cheers

How do I import Bridge keywords and metadata to CS6 from CS4 so that I don't lose them if CS4 is not

I have hundreds of keywords and metadata including Ratings and Labels using CS4 and Bridge CS4.
It is time to replace my PPC Mac with a new Intel Mac.
I am going to install CS6 on the new Intel Mac without installing CS4.
By default.... this eliminates ALL keywords and ratings and labels from my Bridge browser. The keywords will still be present on the files but Not present in Bridge keywords list and all ratings and labels will be lost.
Making a copy of Bridge CS4 metadata to another computer is quite simple.
Simply copy All of the Bridge CS4 application support folder to the other computer.
The question then becomes.... can I aslo do this with CS6 without introducing an incompatibility?
1. incompatible due to CS6 application support.
2. incompatible due to transfer from a PPC (APM) to Intel (GUID).
This concern results from an Bridge CS4 export problem I experienced.
Bridge CS4 will export all of your keywords and you can import them from a text file but it has some odd troubles. (try it and you will see)
This does Not mean that CS6 has the same troubles.
What do I require to preserve existing metedata and keywords that exist on a PPC using CS4 and import them into CS6 using Intel?
Sound simple?
I doubt it.
The points are.
1. CS4 not installed.
2. CS4 source is PPC not Intel.
3. Ratings and Labels are metadata that Are Not part of the file metadata and unique to Bridge only.
4. Keyword Search and keyword Use requires that Bridge have keyword list, otherwise Finder is the far more useful browser and the new version of Bridge will require hours of keyword listing.
I don't want to spends hours retyping keywords lists in Bridge.

Ratings are NOT placed into the file under CS4 Bridge and neither are
Labels.
That depends on your file type and settings voor Camera Raw.
Like Curt stated usually metadata is written in to the file itself. Only Raw files can't be written to and by default they create a XMP file, also called Sidecar XMP files (and do have the same filename, only a different extension called .xmp). These files are also by default hidden in Bridge but If you use Bridge to move files they travel along with the original.
If you move or copy them using finder you have to be sure these XMP files are also copied with the originals to the new location.
Using the menu View / show hidden files should reveal the XMP files.
An other option for the Camera Raw prefs is to set metadata to the Camera Raw database instead of written to sidecar XMP files ( to my knowledge using sidecar files has been the default since about CS3).
Now here it becomes a bit tricky and I only can tell you my findings, not to be confused with true facts. (and mind you, it is at least 5 years ago I was on a PPC and not even remember which OSX 10 was able to work on it, I just present the acting of CS6 on an intel Mac Pro with OSX 10.7, but I don't believe the difference in location is that much)
Having written the Metadata to the Camera Raw Database your image settings get written to a file in the user library preferences folder called logically "Adobe Camera Raw Database". But also some info gets added to the Camera Raw Cache folder (User library / Caches/ Adobe Camera Raw) in a file called index.dat.
Also not having set metadata to xmp sidecars stores the ACR settings in a new .dat file with a unique number (not to be traced as a corresponding filename. And also the default maximum is set to 1 GB of space and when full the oldest files are overwritten with the new ones.
Personally I use converted DNG files that are capable of writing metadata to so all info and settings are in the file itself and I don't need to bother about central storage that can get lost. The downside is that changes to a DNG need to save the whole file instead of a small xmp file and probably reading cache takes more time then getting info from central storage but I like to be on the safe side and speed is not really needed to be nailed down to split seconds in my workflow.
Keywords are stored as a file in the Bridge preferences but Like Curt already stated exporting the old list first and then via the same route import again to CS6 should solve your problem and they will be back as persistent, otherwise the files in the content window show as italic and sadly enough have to be made persistent one by one with right click mouse menu, so that is not really an option for you.
Exporting the list does create a text file that can also be altered manually with a simple text app and as said, again be imported in newer versions as Curt described earlier.
Making a copy of Bridge CS4 metadata to another computer is quite simple.
Simply copy All of the Bridge CS4 application support folder to the other computer.
Well, in fact it is true to call copying this folders a simple task but replacing the existing new CS6 would not be my method. The biggest change for Bridge CS6 was the transition to 64 bit and I lack the knowledge for this but also cache format for thumbs and previews has been different for every version.
But if you have located the CS4 folder for Bridge in your PPC user library / application support / Adobe / Bridge CS4 you should find a file called 'Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml' and it is fairly safe to replace this CS4 version with the new CS6 version.
Also custom settings for the output module can be copied (however to my memory the option for custom settings in Output where introduced in CS5) and collections can be copied.
So for your keywords the copy option might work, rating and labeling for Raw files they will be read in CS6 if they are stored as XMP. ACR settings idem but CS6 ACR has a new (2012) conversion mode that has different settings that do not work with previous settings (unless you first choose to use the 2010 conversion as default Raw setting.
If it is in the Central Data Base I would start trying to replace the CS4 with the CS6 edition (after back up of existing CS6 version) and see what happens. If it works your out of trouble.
You can also open the Camera raw Database as a text file but there is a lot of data in. Maybe scripting would be able to reveal those data and transfer to XMP but you have to visit the dedicated Scripting forum for this.
And while you state to have not installed CS4 anymore it might be wise to reinstall it (but first make a proper back up of the previous mentioned folders and files to be on the save side.
This gives you the opportunity to export keywords properly and if needed you can use Show Items from subfolders option with filter and set preferences to XMP sidecar to refresh the rating and labels to those XMP files. Just an escape route that might not be as painstakingly as it looks at first sight, just use the options for Bridge to filter.

Keywording and the endless spinning ball of death

Hi- I'm using 1.0 on a g4 ibook.
I enter keywords, hit either tab or return when finished, and lightroom hangs up. For a long time.
Lightroom is otherwise fast and smooth on my computer.
Any help would be appreciated.
Don

When I had my iBook 800 w/ 640Mb Ram I had no problem keywording and I tend to runn a number of apps together.
Don
Don Ricklin, MacBook 1.83Ghz Duo 2 Core, Pentax *ist D
http://donricklin.blogspot.com/

Acrobat X and XI - SharePoint Integration - Not Supporting SharePoint Fields Keywords and Comments

Hi there,
Only a limited number of our staff have access to Acrobat, but they all have access to Acrobat Reader X.
When users use ‘Save As’ to save PDF files directly to a SharePoint 2007 Document Library, they are correctly requested to complete SharePoint meta-data, following selecting the appropriate Content Type.
All of the required meta-data is present with the exception of SharePoint’s built-in Columns ‘Keywords’ and ‘Comments’ (both multi-line text Columns).
All of the Columns which we have defined are present, including multi-line text Columns.
‘Keywords’ is a required Column for all of our documents and hence users cannot check-in their PDF documents.
I know of others who have experienced this problem, and testing at home confirms that the problem also presents with SharePoint 2010.
I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Acrobat and Acrobat Reader XI. Alas, the issue remains.
Thank you,
[ email signature removed by forum host - do not post you personal details on these public forums ]

Hi mchagar <http://forums.adobe.com/people/mchagar> ,
Thanks for your reply!!
Because we have tens of thousands of existing items and documents which use SharePoint’s default Keywords, and many document libraries, we are keen to wait for an Adobe solution.
We are aware that we could create an additional column and copy Keywords to the new column. It is simply a large amount of work in a Corporate Environment, for no reason.
Hopefully Adobe will improve their products to include support for built-in SharePoint fields.
We’ll wait a bit longer.
Thank you,
Ian Hearnes
Information Management Coordinator
East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority
Phone : 03 5150-3503
Email : [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Web : www.egcma.com.au <htt://www.egcma.com.au/>
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Keywords and Spotlight

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