Does Directory Opus work with the program, "File Meta"? I have been trying to get them to work together but I have been failing.
"File Meta" allows you to modify the metadata of a file. You can add additional properties, labels, groups, etc. It's a pretty awesome software since you can tailor a file's metadata to anything you want.
For example, if you want to add info about the Title, Genre, Ranking, etc. to your movie files, you open "File Meta" and alter the metadata information stored by that file extension. These changes are reflected in Windows File Explorer. You can see all this new additional information in the details panel in Windows File Explorer. You aren't bound by what Microsoft OS allows you to display/change any more.
I would love it if Directory Opus was able to also show these changes in its windows.
I was wondering if Windows File Explorer displays these metadata changes, why can't Directory Opus? Is there something that I can do to enable the integration of these two programs?
Opus has that kind of thing built in (although exactly which fields are available can depend on the type of file, for some of the fields).
I don't know anything about the other program you mention so I don't know if it stores the data in a custom way, and adds custom columns to Explorer, or if it stores them in a standard way.
If they're custom columns, any column Explorer displays can usually be imported into Opus with a few lines in a config file (technically it's a script, but you don't need to do any actual scripting).
If it stores them using the same standard fields that Explorer itself uses, then they should already work in Opus, at least generally.
With File Meta, you can add as many additional fields as you want for any file type. It's the only program that I've found that does this. It creates property handlers that are "added" to File Explorer handlers. This is great because you can add and remove any field you want. And, you can change the contents of any of the fields you want. You can change these in the Preview Panel, Details Panel, Details in Properties or the Info Tip. You can put the additional fields anywhere you want.
File Meta then allows you to add these additional fields as custom columns in Explorer.
If Directory Opus can work with File Meta's changes, can you tell me how. I have been fiddling around with it for a while now and I can't figure it out.
For example, for ahk script files, I'd like to add fields like Title, Subject, Category, etc. in the details panel in Directory Opus windows. I can't figure out how to do this. It seems like you can only change the fields that are already there.
It contains all the metadata I am interested in and all the important EXIF data, too.
To achieve this,just paste the contents of the attached file into the infotips panel of of the Images group in the File Types Settings.
You can edit it in any way to suit your needs. There are comprehensive instructions in the help files.
The only other way is to create your own bespoke metadata entry panel for Opus using JScript or VBA. That way you get exactly what you need. It's a sizeable project though.
Thanks for the awesome workaround! It's not as good as having a pretty metadata panel to the right of the file that shows up immediately but this is pretty good!
Now, finding a Search Engine program that searches the words and tags within the Infotip. That would be awesome...
Everything in the infotip is using Opus's built-in columns for things like JPEG/EXIF metadata. A lot of tools (including Opus) will search that data.
If you want what you originally asked for, which was to use custom metadata fields provided by a 3rd party tool, see the details in my post above for how to import those fields from Explorer into Opus.
This will give you an idea of what you can achieve with Opus. This is the metadata panel I use to add and change metadata. It is, of course, bespoke and built to exactly what I require for my imaging needs. When you select a picture this panel pops up to allow editing or entry of metadata. It is totally compatible with Photoshop's metadata, thanks to the work the Opus guys have done over the last couple of years.
There is a metadata panel in Opus and I think it shows all of the data in the infotip (which is generated by Opus, after all). At least all or most of the editable data.
If you're missing particular data, please specify the file type(s) and fields/tags/etc. so we know what you're talking about. The thread started off being about proprietary/bespoke metadata specific to a certain tool but now seems to be about generic EXIF-style metadata, which Opus supports.
Leo, thank you for the links. I spent a couple of hours today trying to make it work but I'm not very computer savvy and I couldn't figure it out.
It's ok. Thanks though for the help.
Can I ask you a few questions though?
Is it possible to remove property fields that currently exist for a specific single file or entire file types? It looks like that's not possible right now and if the property field exists, it will always show up in the metadata panel. There is no way to get rid of them.
For example, I noticed that for most files in Directory Opus, the metadata panel will display only two groups of property fields: Extended Properties and Standard Properties. The Extended Properties contain 3 fields: Comment, Rating, and Tags. The Standard Properties contain 3 fields: Attributes, Date Created, Date Modified.
You can edit these fields with different information but it doesn't appear that you can remove them.
Can you also customize and add property fields to file types and can you subsequently edit them?
For example, it would be awesome to be able to have a folder display a list of files with simple file names (like just the date) and the parent folder is labeled with the category. And, then when you select one of the files, the metadata panel would display the Title (a true and more descriptive name of the file) and the Description (a detailed statement that contains what the file contains or is used for). Not only can you search through these files with the metadata like the tags but also you can sort the files in the folder based upon a metadata property if you want.
But, there are some issues that I am wondering about.
As an InfoTip, there will be a delay when you hover over them. You can't just go through the files quickly, skimming for the info you need. I know you can change the delay on the InfoTips but wouldn't a metadata panel be easier as it won't get in the way of navigating the thumbnails? Why can't you simply add the metadata (that you programmed into your InfoTips) to the metadata panel in Directory Opus?
Also, you added a lot of great details in the InfoTips. But, that data already existed in the image. How do you add detailed info to the InfoTips for other file types? Most file types have very little metadata info and I would love to add some.
Set them to an empty string to remove them from the files.
They'll still appear in the metadata panel in case you want to define them as something.
Not in the metadata panel. You can add additional custom columns to the file display, which can also be shown in infotips, if you have a way of calculating and/or storing the data (e.g. via your own script, or by importing the data from a column that Explorer shows).
On my system there is a delay of about half a second for the infotips to appear on a selected image and I find it is not a problem. However if you use windows search to select images - as I do a lot - the situation changes, and you have to wait for the infotips initially to build in he search display lister.
Obviously the infotips are fired by the metadata in the image. No metadata, no infotip! Which is what brought me to write my script to add metadata to files.
Sure Opus has its own interface for adding this metadata, and for the odd image it is fine. But you try adding comprehensive metadata to 40 plus images on a daily basis, and its limitations soon become apparent. But, hey, Opus is not an image metadata editor.
I only offered a view of my metadata entry script solution as an encouragement. I would not advise anyone to copy it as it is truly bespoke for my needs and saves me hours of work every week.
As far as I can see you can add info tips to any file that contains metadata. They are particularly useful for music files, I find. Start hacking at the help files. Infotips in Opus is far,far, from rocket science.
What you created is great. If you could send over how you created it within InfoTips, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've been fooling around with it a little bit and I have no idea what I'm going.
Can you also search for tags or other metadata info via the search function, find function, or a 3rd party search program? I think this is something that's pretty important for me.
