Keywords in ACDSee or IPTC

[bwest]

One problem follows the next
No, should be challenge

I have my image collection in various Categories.

They have been assigned keywords entered into ACDSee Metadata Keywords.

But I am starting to doubt if this is the best or correct place for keywords to reside, and am thinking they should actually be entered in the IPTC Keywords field, at least for mobility purpose.

I have Peter Krogh's excellent The Dam Book, but can't really figure out which method is the best or recommended.

If changing ACDSee keywords to the IPTC field, is there a batch commands to copy ACDSee keywords to IPTC ?

On another note - in Welcome to ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2022 opening screen, I browse to select the folder I want ACDSee to open at startup.

Then click Next I select Which Folder Would You Like ACDSee Ultimate to Keep Track Of ?, but it does not appear that the settings is saved, like the When Would you like ACDSee Ultimate to remind you to back up your database, where the chosen setting is displayed - or am I missing something ?

Thanks again help and support

[MrSteveVee]

Under the section "Adding Metadata to files and using presets" there is a helpful hint that I use to copy the keywords to the IPTC keywords:

• You can transfer the value of one metadata field to another using the Insert Metadata command. Click the Insert Metadata arrow next to each field to select and insert metadata place holders. For example, you can transfer your ACDSee Keywords to IPTC Keywords by inserting the <ACDSee Metadata:Keywords> placeholder into the IPTC Keywords field.

Steve

[Greyfox]

bwest


As MrSteveVee has said, you can use custom Metadata Presets to copy ACDSee metadata fields to IPTC fields, and vice versa, where there is an appropriate counterpart field.

Having added your ACDSee metadata individually to a bunch of images (or collectively as the case may be), you can then select all those images and click on the Preset to copy the ACDSee fields to the IPTC fields. Two clicks does all the selected images, one to action the preset, and the second to Apply (save) the IPTC metadata. .

Remember that IPTC metadata metadata is automatically embedded in the images as soon as you either click on Apply or simply press Enter, but you have to specifically choose to embed ACDSee metadata.

But some AACDSee metadata fields don't have direct IPTC counterparts, and vice versa.
ACDSee keywords can be copied to IPTC keywords, however you might elect to copy ACDSee:Caption to IPTC:Title. You might elect to copy ACDSee:Notes to IPTC Description, and ACDSee:Author to IPTC: Creator and/or to IPTC:CopyrightNotice.

The ACDSee Categories and IPTC:Category field are not compatible. The IPTC category field can only accept a single category from a list of specific categories as detailed in the IPTC standards, and that is actually stored as a three letter abbreviation. The ACDSee categories and collections are proprietary functions that can be embedded in XMP metadata, but have no direct counterpart in IPTC,

On your other question.
To set the folder your ACDSee 2022 opens on, go to Tools->Options->Manage Mode. In the top area of the dialog you can chose to either have it start on a specific folder each time, or have it start on the folder from the previous session.

In terms of the database backup reminder, go to Tools->Options->Database. You can then set to have reminders for either or both database backup and Embed ACDSee metadata reminders each with their own options.

Both those options appear to be saved and working properly here in Ultimate 2022.

[bwest]

Thanks MrSteveVee and Greyfox,

I have now successfully used the Adding Metadata to files with MetadatPresets.
Amazing what one can learn when knowing where to look :-)

With regards to my other question.

ACDSee opens with the Quick Start Guide and ask which folder to open at startup.

As I have several databases in different folders, I thought when opening "Database 1" in folder "1" this folder would show in the Quick Start Guide splash screen as "1".

Opening "Database 2" in folder "2" this folder would then show in the Quick Start Guide splash screen as "2".

But I have to manually change this to the different folders where my various images are in order to have ACDSee Ultimate keep track of the images.

I have also tried tick/untick Remember From Previous Session in Options but does not make any difference.

I am probably not understanding the concept, but hey - that wouldn't be first time

Thank you again for all help and support always greatly appreciated

[Greyfox]

...
ACDSee opens with the Quick Start Guide and ask which folder to open at startup.

The Quick Start Guide on the first screen simply sets the Tools->Options->Manage Mode->Home folder setting.

The first option on the 2nd screen adds the entered folder to the list of folders to monitor in Tools->Options->ACDSee Indexer. Note that it doesn't remove any other existing folders, and it doesn't enable the indexer if the tick bot for Auto Index has been unticked.

The second option on the 2nd screen sets the Display Backup reminder period found in Tools->Options->Database. Note that it doesn't enable the reminder if the box has been unticked.

AFAIK, none of the above settings are stored in the database so can not be changed simply by changing to an alternative database.

So I believe that takes us back here https://forum.acdsee.com/forum/main-...7007#post57007

The simplest way of achieving close to what you want would seem to be to have a bat file for each of the databases, so which database ACDSee opens with then depends on which bat file you use to start it.

Once open, have a set of shortcut presets in the short cut tab in the left hand manage mode pane to jump to the appropriate home folder for the particular database. Selecting a short cut would be quicker than going through the procedure of browsing to it in the Quick start guide..

And once you have done that, put the Quick start guide into hibernation.

[Mamiya2Nikon]

It seems like a lot of the problems that users report on our forum are related to using ACDSee's keyword system. ACDSee is terrific in a lot of ways, but aside from convenience, I'm don't completely grasp the advantages of using ACDSee's proprietary keyword system when the more universal IPTC fields are available to us. Will somone please explain why it's in my longterm advantage to use both the IPTC and ACDSee's keyword fields?

[Regor250]

IPTC keywords I presume require opening, reading, closing every image files for a given search, a time consuming process, whereas having keywords in a "hopefully indexed" database is immensely faster. Why having both? Having IPTC keywords gives a standard way of transfering data to other systems, and also a backup if need be. Now you don't have to enter both, you can copy ACDSee keywords to the IPTC keyword field. There is an ACDSee tutorial video on how to do that. You may not do the same with Categories to IPTC Category field, which is totally different. When to use Categories vs Keywords is another topic in and by itself that isn't particularly well documented however, and there are reasons to use one and not the other depending on how you manage your images.

[Greyfox]

It seems like a lot of the problems that users report on our forum are related to using ACDSee's keyword system. ACDSee is terrific in a lot of ways, but aside from convenience, I'm don't completely grasp the advantages of using ACDSee's proprietary keyword system when the more universal IPTC fields are available to us. Will somone please explain why it's in my longterm advantage to use both the IPTC and ACDSee's keyword fields?

I view IPTC and ACDSee metadata having somewhat different objectives, though with some limited overlap.

I see IPTC as a detailed standard for professional level classification of images. Arguably the large majority of the fields set out in the IPTC standards would probably not be used by the average amateur photographer, and are probably more relevant very large organizations. Because IPTC is an accepted standard, some see it offers a degree of portability that proprietary metadata doesn't (though that pre-supposes that all applications that use IPTC do so in the manner laid down in the standard, and I'm not sure that is the case)

I see ACDSee's metadata as more targeted to local organization of a users collection of images, and also to complement the some of the application's proprietary functionality.
For instance while the database entries for keywords might be able to be automatically rebuilt from either the IPTC or ACDSee embedded metadata, the structure of a users custom "Categories" arrangement can only be automatically rebuilt from the embedded ACDSee metadata.

In terms of functionality, the users Keyword listing in the Properties->Organize pane can have a hierarchical form (I hope that is the right word), which makes it much more convenient when selecting keywords to add to an image or images than the single level available in the IPTC keywords picker. I find it simpler to add keywords from my keywords list in Properties->Organize and then use the Metadata preset to copy them, along with the content of a few other fields from the ACDSee metadata to IPTC.

So in short
I use a Metadata preset to copy applicable ACDSee metadata fields to IPTC (where there is a suitable counterpart field)
I also use some IPTC fields that have no counterpart fields in ACDSee metadata.
I do embed the ACDSee metadata in my images, and IPTC metadata of course is automatically embedded Where the image format allows..

And on that last point.
When it comes to RAW images, ACDSee doesn't write either ACDSee or IPTC metadata into the actual RAW image file, and it also doesn't write changes to EXIF metadata made as the result of say doing a reverse geocode operation into the actual RAW image file. ACDSee writes those metadata changes to an xmp sidecar file.

It is easy to show that without that sidecar file, all the above metadata is lost. So for users with large collections of RAW images, the question might well be, "at some future stage, if one has the RAW files and the xmp files, but not ACDSee, will other DAM applications be able to correctly recover the information from the xmp files, or will it be a matter of having to manually extract the information and then enter it into the DAM" ?

My 2 cents worth.

[[email protected]]

Hello,
I'm using ACDSee Home 2021 and can't find the 'Metadata Presets'. Is this preset (or any presets) not available in the 'Home' edition?

[hectorsm]

I'm afraid not. https://www.acdsee.com/en/product-comparison/. See second line from bottom of the list in the "Manage section".

Hector