ACDSee Pro 2 and 2.5

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Search & Replace in Captions

(5 posts)

  • dheasebro
    Member

    I enter a lot of information into the database Caption and Notes fields, first in large batches, then going back repeatedly to add more or revise what was entered earlier in subsets of the previous batch. Often, I select a group of files, but find that the field content displays (Multiple Values) because one or more entries are no longer identical to the rest.

    Tools>Batch Set Information would let me add information at the beginning or end of the existing content (so seldom what I need that I forget to consider it), but a search-and-replace function would be much more flexible. I could then find a short text string common to all the selected images at the location I want to change, search for the string (within the specified field) and replace with part of the string plus the revision.

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    Posted On November 19, 2008 - 08:51 PM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Sam Dring
    Moderator

    Agree with your suggestion completely and that such an enhancement should include keywords etc both database and iptc (currently you cannot edit a keyword if it is allocated to an image!!)

    As a temporary stopgap, have you considered 'Details View' with dbase Caption and Notes fields visible (right click the header row in details view to choose fields) and then sort on Caption or Notes to give all identical entries together and, therefore, editable in the 'box'.  I suspect, however, that given your stated multi-use, this might not be an option.

     

     

    Posted On November 20, 2008 - 09:34 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • dheasebro
    Member

    Sam,

    You're right: while Details View might occasionally be useful, it's unlikely to be worth the effort to find out. In most cases, identical entries are close neighbors (shot in the same session) and easy enough to find in Thumbnails View, but widely scattered, similar entries are more to the point.

    Posted On November 21, 2008 - 04:24 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Sam Dring
    Moderator

    Still a bit clumsy but will do what you want is to export your database (Database>Export>Database) and select text file and check Include dbase info for selected items.  Try it on a small folder to start with and, of course, select all images first.

    The resultant file can be opened in notepad and using replace function should do most of what you want.  Import this file following the changes.

    Posted On November 22, 2008 - 09:45 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • dheasebro
    Member

    Ought to work for a very rare, truly massive edit, but for the typical 10 to 30 or so records, it isn't worth the time it would cost. I'm not talking about solving an otherwise insurmountable problem, but just making my routine work more efficient. I could list probably a couple of dozen time-saving tweaks to ACDSee that would improve the efficiency of my workflow, saving me a good deal of time overall. Most of my suggestions to date have been of that general nature.

    Posted On November 23, 2008 - 03:47 AM (11 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

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