Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

So after 6+ years, I've decided I need to use the search function to find files.  But I'm having problems with the following:

1.  Keyword search:  to search for a keyword, I would have to assign one or more to a job, for example.  Where do I do that?  And can a keyword be assigned to an album?

2.  File Name search:  I have various files with the word snow, for example.  I tried searching for "snow" and "*snow*", but that didn't work.  Is there a way to do such searches?  And what about multiple search words, such as "snow" and "home"?

I watched the video for Save and Recall again, but that didn't answer my question.  I also searched for "keyword" in the forum, but the answers didn't seem to pertain.

--George

Keyword searches operate on IPTC data.  The best way to do searches in Qimage is to add a description to folders (or images).  For example, go to a folder of interest and enter a description in the "D:" box above the thumbnails.  Qimage will record that description for the folder.  If you do a regular search (and not a file name or keyword search), it is searching those: the descriptions you enter in Qimage.

If you are searching file names, just be sure you set the preferred locations (folders).  When entering search terms, you can enter snow, add that term, and then enter home and add that term (don't use quotes unless you are searching for quotes).  Once both search terms have been added, check the box for "AND" or "OR".  If you choose "AND", search results will only return file names (or folder names) that have the word snow AND home in them.  So it'll find SnowAtHome.JPG but it won't find Snow.jpg.  If you check "OR", then you'll get files like Home.JPG and you'll also get Snow.JPG.

Regards,
Mike

I think I have to re-think how I name my print jobs.  Currently I include the last 4 digits of the filename, paper, print size, paper size, maybe camera, maybe raw processor, other info.  So one image might be printed on different papers, or similar images made with different cameras, etc.  I'll often add exclamation signs at the beginning to make certain images easier to find.

I'm guessing that IPTC data won't pertain to job names in the Job list.  And I don't see any way to edit/modify IPTC data in QU.

As my processing skills improve (oh! ever so slowly), and software improves, from time-to-time I go back and reprocess an old favorite to see if I can improve it much.  Maybe a lighthouse image from a Nikon digital camera might turn out better than one from my Olympus PEN-F.  But I keep the old print job just in case, maybe to print on a different paper.

On a slightly unrelated note:  I noticed that there are a few *.job files in C:\ProgramData\ddisoftware\Job_Save, with some overlap to *.job files in C:\ProgramData\ddisoftware\Qimage\Save.  I only do incremental backups of the 2nd folder.  Any reason to to include the 1st folder?

And thanks for the filename search info, that one I should have been able to figure out.  Forest and trees in this case, I think.

--George

C:\ProgramData\ddisoftware\Job_Save is not a Qimage location so you must have created that on your own.  There is a separate search in the job recall dialog that only searches jobs.  You can use that to search for images in jobs but don't forget that if you already know where the image is and you are looking at it in the thumbnails, you can also right click on the image thumbnail and use "Show printed jobs" to see all the jobs from the automated job log where that image was printed.  So there are multiple ways to find where an image was printed via the job log.

The keyword search is primarily for searching keywords from other programs.  For example, Lightroom saves keywords in image files in IPTC format so you could enter keywords in LR and then search them in QU.

QU does have IPTC view/edit.  If you right click on a thumbnail you can select "Edit IPTC Image Info".  IPTC is a pretty old standard though and it does modify your image files (although just the headers) so if you are only looking for ability to search something like a description or a creator in Qimage, I'd stick to Qimage's database since that won't alter the image files.

Regards,
Mike