Importing Media based on tags

ShadowsOfKnight

Newbie Joined: Jun 10, 2013 18:29 Messages: 23 Offline

Solved by

Aug 19, 2013 03:15

I haven't been able to find anything on this topic while searching. Using Windows Live Photo Gallery, I tagged my pictures and videos with several different tags. To be more specific and to provide example, I just returned from a trip to the coast of Maine. It was our 30th anniversary trip. So I have tagged a number of the items with the keyword "lighthouse", and a number more with the keyword "Anniversary" which are the ones that include both my wife and myself. Furthermore, I'm a dog lover, so for fun, I took many pics and vids of dogs we met along the way. So I have tagged those with the keyword "Dogs". Then, on one day, we took a whale watching trip in Campobello, and I tagged a number of those photos "Whale Watching". A picture might have more than one tag, so for example, if it's a picture of both my wife and myself standing in front of a lighthouse, I tagged the picture with both Anniversary and Lighthouse.

My idea was to create several PD projects and do a short video of lovey dovey anniversary stuff, dogs, lighthouses, and whale watching. So, deciding to start with the Lighthouses video, I go into PD11 and click Import Media. But I cannot find a way to use the tags I set to import just the media items dealing with lighthouses. Or dogs. Or whale watching. or anniversary.

I know I could use the tags from Windows Live Photo Gallery to copy the tagged files to a separate directory, and then import the directory into PD11. But I was trying to avoid that, because it just takes up a lot of extra space copying the files to another directory. I'm trying to keep just one copy of each item, and use the tags to pull the right ones into a project based on the subject of the project.

Any suggestions? Does PD11 not recognize media tags for this purpose?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Aug 19, 2013 03:32

Quote: I haven't been able to find anything on this topic while searching. Using Windows Live Photo Gallery, I tagged my pictures and videos with several different tags. To be more specific and to provide example, I just returned from a trip to the coast of Maine. It was our 30th anniversary trip. So I have tagged a number of the items with the keyword "lighthouse", and a number more with the keyword "Anniversary" which are the ones that include both my wife and myself. Furthermore, I'm a dog lover, so for fun, I took many pics and vids of dogs we met along the way. So I have tagged those with the keyword "Dogs". Then, on one day, we took a whale watching trip in Campobello, and I tagged a number of those photos "Whale Watching". A picture might have more than one tag, so for example, if it's a picture of both my wife and myself standing in front of a lighthouse, I tagged the picture with both Anniversary and Lighthouse.

My idea was to create several PD projects and do a short video of lovey dovey anniversary stuff, dogs, lighthouses, and whale watching. So, deciding to start with the Lighthouses video, I go into PD11 and click Import Media. But I cannot find a way to use the tags I set to import just the media items dealing with lighthouses. Or dogs. Or whale watching. or anniversary.

I know I could use the tags from Windows Live Photo Gallery to copy the tagged files to a separate directory, and then import the directory into PD11. But I was trying to avoid that, because it just takes up a lot of extra space copying the files to another directory. I'm trying to keep just one copy of each item, and use the tags to pull the right ones into a project based on the subject of the project.

Any suggestions? Does PD11 not recognize media tags for this purpose?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi,
Have you tried CyberLink's MediaShow? I prefer MS5 to 6 but 6 shows 3D mp4 whereas MS5 doesn't. I also prefer MS5's layout. In MediaShow one can tag images and video. You can then display all the tagged video in one group, select/play and drag the footage for your project into PDR11.
Just a suggestion.
Dafydd

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 19. 2013 03:32

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Aug 19, 2013 03:56

Hi -

To my knowledge PD, doesn't import tags assigned in other software, though I'm not familiar with MediaShow. For example, PD doesn't recognise tags assigned in PhotoDirector.

As well as the suggestion above, you can simply organise your Media Library in sub-folders (Whales, Anniversary etc) by opening Explorer View and setting up the folders there. Once you've dropped your videos & photos into the sub-folders, they can be displayed by media type.

That would probably help with your project workflow.

Cheers - Tony


Filename	ML_sub folders.png	Download
Description
Filesize	124 Kbytes
Downloaded:	202 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 19. 2013 03:56

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ShadowsOfKnight

Newbie Joined: Jun 10, 2013 18:29 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 21, 2013 00:31

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't really want to buy (or learn) a new tool. I was looking more for something I already had. I did take a look at the folder option, and actually started to use it. Then I realized I could do this and I think I like it better.

When you click on Import Media Files, and it brings up the browser window to select the files you want:
1) Change the browser to Details view. This will just list the files and metadata without thumbnails.
2) Right click on the column header bar, and you will get a popup to select what metadata fields you want displayed.
3) Tags will may not be immediately displayed, but if you select "More..." at the bottom of the popup, you will get a complete list
4) Scroll down in the list and you will find Tags. Click the checkbox to the left of Tags, and click OK.
5) Now your browser window will show the Tags field, and display the Tags you have specified.
6) If you then click on the Tags header, the browser window will sort the files by Tags, and you can get all of the Lighthouse pictures together, all of the Anniversary pictures together, etc. etc.
7) Now you can easily select just the list for a given tag value to be imported into the PD project.

I think for my purpose, that turns out to be the cleanest way to get what I want in the project, and nothing more. It also allows me to keep just one copy of each picture in one big folder.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Aug 21, 2013 01:17

Wow! That's impressive.

I started to follow the clear procedure you've outlined, but got stumped when I got to step 2!

2) Right click on the column header bar, and you will get a popup to select what metadata fields you want displayed.

I've right clicked in almost every conceivable spot in the media library and cannot trick the thing into giving me any further display options.

Moreover, I have no metadata displayed - just File name, Duration, Size, Date Type.

Can you give me any clues??? What am I missing?

Cheers - Tony
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ShadowsOfKnight

Newbie Joined: Jun 10, 2013 18:29 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 21, 2013 02:22

Sure. So I'm understanding you clicked the Import Media icon, and you are looking at a selection window to select the files you want to import. Next question, were you able to go to Details format? When I click Import Media, I get the window attached below named Tags 1. Now click the last icon to the right at the top of this window, and select Details. Your window should now look something like the second attachment, Tags 2.

No you are ready for the step you couldn't get to work. See the heading row that says Name, Date, Type, Size? You should be able to right-click anywhere in that bar, and get a dropdown box, like I showed in attachment 3 (Tags 3). The dropdown lets you select what metadata you want to see in the window. In Tags 2, I only had Name, Date, Type, and Size checked. But there are many other metadata fields you can select for display. The one you want is named Tags. If it doesn't show on the list, click "More..." at the bottom of this dropdown. When you find Tags, click the check box to the left to display it. Now your selection window should include another column named Tags, that will show the tagging you have done on your file.

I can't add any more attachments to this post. Let me know if you still can't get all the way through and I'll post some more.


Filename	Tags 3.PNG	Download
Description	Right-click dropdown box
Filesize	106 Kbytes
Downloaded:	58 time(s)


Filename	Tags 1.PNG	Download
Description	Browser window with medium thumbnails view
Filesize	162 Kbytes
Downloaded:	62 time(s)


Filename	Tags 2.PNG	Download
Description	Browser window with Details view
Filesize	71 Kbytes
Downloaded:	66 time(s)

ShadowsOfKnight

Newbie Joined: Jun 10, 2013 18:29 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 21, 2013 02:31

What the heck. I'll just keep going.

After selecting Tags on the dropdown, your selection window should look like the attachment named Tags 4. You now have a new column that displays your tagging. In mine, I can now see Anniversary, Dogs, Lighthouse, etc.

The last step is to right click on the Tags header, and the window will sort the entries by that column. So now it looks like attachments Tags 5. In my example, all of the Anniversary tags are sorted together, all of the Lighthouse tags are sorted together, etc. Makes it easy to just select a subset of the list to open in PD.

This works pretty good except for the cases where you have multiple tags selected for the same picture. Then the sorting thing doesn't work so good. But it's a whole lot better than nothing.

Let me know if you still have questions.


Filename	Tags 4.PNG	Download
Description	Selection window with Tags column
Filesize	71 Kbytes
Downloaded:	69 time(s)


Filename	Tags 5.PNG	Download
Description	Selection window sorted by Tags column
Filesize	50 Kbytes
Downloaded:	66 time(s)

ShadowsOfKnight

Newbie Joined: Jun 10, 2013 18:29 Messages: 23 Offline

Aug 21, 2013 02:33

I should also note just for clarity, that this is actually a Windows browser function, not any PD capability.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Aug 21, 2013 04:13

"I should also note just for clarity, that this is actually a Windows browser function, not any PD capability."

Haha - I've been poking holes in the Media Library screen, trying to get it to display tags!

Right - so you imported them in tag groups, then set up the sub-folders in your Media Library.

Thank you for taking the time to explain.

Cheers - Tony
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