Metadata editing: Batch correction of incorrect separator characters in multi tags?

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1

I have a large collection of photos. While adding additional tags in the last months, I have by habit wrongly used commas (,) instead of semicolons (;)) to separate multiple tags for quite a few of them.

The DOpus manual says, to specify multiple tags, separate then with a semi-colon.

File Operations » Editing Metadata » Extended Properties
https://docs.dopus.com/doku.php?id=file_operations:editing_metadata:extended_properties

ChatGPT: In Directory Opus, the proper separator for image metadata tags is the semicolon (;). While you might see or use commas (,), the semicolon is the standard and recommended separator for ensuring that tags are correctly recognized and parsed by the software.

I'd like to correct the mistakes I made but going through all images one by one would take way too long. Is there a clever way to batch check/correct the metadata in the Extended Properties Tags field (i.e. find all commas (,) in Tags field and replace them with a semicolon (;)?

Extended Properties

From
Tags: Tag1, Tag2, Tag3

To
Tags: Tag1; Tag2; Tag3

PS: Wouldn't it make sense to disable the use of commas altogether (or have them automatically turned into semicolons) in this field, to prevent user mistakes like mine? :thinking:

Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

2

Yes of course, why didn't I think of that before? Found this can obviously easily be done in bulk manually by making the Tags column visible in the lister and filter/select the corresponding files that need correction and edit their tags in the metadata pane.

Undoubtedly not the best/fastest way but no scripting needed, so excellent for me :slight_smile:

3

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4

That looks very interesting, I will definitely dive into that. Thanks for the tip @lxp !