Catalogue hierarchy

[Mike Buckley]

I agree with you about writing out catalog change data. But what is the counter argument? (just for completeness sake).

If that auto setting is not enabled, you have to remember to manually synch to write the changed catalog data to the image files. If you're not comfortable that you'll consistently do that, you might prefer enabling the auto setting even in the beginning stages of learning how Supreme works.

[PhilBurton]

I agree with you about writing out catalog change data. But what is the counter argument? (just for completeness sake).

If that auto setting is not enabled, you have to remember to manually synch to write the changed catalog data to the image files. If you're not comfortable that you'll consistently do that, you might prefer enabling the auto setting even in the beginning stages of learning how Supreme works.

Mike,

To me, writing the changed catalog data back to the image files is a form of backup. So why would I NOT want to do that. If I'm still experimenting with PS, then perhaps I should work with a copy of my image files, and leave the "originals" in a separate folder.

Phil

[SteveF48]

Most important, even if you disagree with the reasoning to use hierarchical keywords instead of delimited keywords, there is no reason I can think of to use both. There is a good possibility that the duplication of catalog labels Steve mentioned is caused by using both.

Even if you do decide to read and write delimited keywords, it's absolutely imperative that you use the same delimiter when reading and writing. Steve is currently using different delimiters. That could also cause duplication of catalog labels.

I don't use delimited, but some software has used them to recreate my hierarchy. I wanted to cover all bases, which was probably a mistake.
Sometimes when I synchronise data a delimited keyword reappears. My guess is that although I have told Lightroom to write everything to xmp, it occasionally finds an photos that haven't been updated in a long while.

My biggest beef is still the inability to promote any category to the top level. Insects are my major specialisation and it would be nice to be able to enable quicker access to some of the genuses by moving straight to the top (Like Lepidoptera has been).

I tried to speed up Kevin's suggestion of creating all top categories, by making a text file. PS imported it, but not at the top level - it introduced a 'Vocabulary' top category, so I had to do it the hard way.

Thanks again for everybody's help, tomorrow is crunch time - my free trial expires and I'm still not 100% convinced I should buy. Stupid UK referendum has just put price up $119.99 now = £96.64 times 2 so that I can run it on my laptop and desktop.

[PhilBurton]

Thanks again for everybody's help, tomorrow is crunch time - my free trial expires and I'm still not 100% convinced I should buy. Stupid UK referendum has just put price up $119.99 now = £96.64 times 2 so that I can run it on my laptop and desktop.

I run PS on both my desktop and laptop with one license. My sympathies about Brexit.

Phil

[Mike Buckley]

As Phil alluded, you can use the software on multiple computers so long as only one computer is being used at a time. In fact, I wonder if you are aware that the software is explicitly designed so you can leave all of your image files on your desktop and continue to easily catalog them on your laptop while away.

I also wonder if you are aware that there is a Darwin Core XMP scheme that has been added to the public beta not yet officially released beyond the beta stage. That scheme might be helpful for the cataloging of your specialisation of insects.

There really is no need to have any particular node at the highest level. That's because you can click in a vacant area of the Catalog Panel and type the name of the node. The software will automatically display the node you have typed, which allows you to then automatically select that node. My point is that doing so eliminates the need to drill down through a long series of nodes in the hierarchy. The same process works when using the Folder mode.

Whatever you decide, I hope your decisions work out well for you.

[fbungarz]

Hi Steve,

I also wonder if you are aware that there is a Darwin Core XMP scheme that has been added to the public beta not yet officially released beyond the beta stage. That scheme might be helpful for the cataloging of your specialization of insects.

FYI - I am using the DarwinCore extensively and have been pushing it quite a bit
Once the beta will be released I was planning on posting how some recommendations. PSu is extremely powerful when it comes to filling in XMP fields using mapped labels. You can easily set up your catalog tree to fill in whole set of XMP fields with assigning just one single label.

Have a look at this screenshot composite (my rough attempt to illustrate what I am talking about; only works with the beta):

DarwinCoreMapping.jpg (498.43 KiB) Viewed 5412 times

Cheers,
Frank

[SteveF48]

As Phil alluded, you can use the software on multiple computers so long as only one computer is being used at a time. In fact, I wonder if you are aware that the software is explicitly designed so you can leave all of your image files on your desktop and continue to easily catalog them on your laptop while away.

I also wonder if you are aware that there is a Darwin Core XMP scheme that has been added to the public beta not yet officially released beyond the beta stage. That scheme might be helpful for the cataloging of your specialisation of insects.

There really is no need to have any particular node at the highest level. That's because you can click in a vacant area of the Catalog Panel and type the name of the node. The software will automatically display the node you have typed, which allows you to then automatically select that node. My point is that doing so eliminates the need to drill down through a long series of nodes in the hierarchy. The same process works when using the Folder mode.

Whatever you decide, I hope your decisions work out well for you.

Sorry being thick, I don't understand.
If I have images on my desktop do I just copy the catalogue to my laptop? Won't I then just have access to previews?

I don't know what a 'Darwin Core', so I'll look into it.

What is meant by 'Catalog Panel'? I've tried clicking on various areas of the screen, but haven't found anywhere I can type a name (yet).
Thanks once more,
Steve

[Mike Buckley]

About using the laptop: In the Help menu, open the Quick Start - Cataloging manual and refer to Travel Mode on page 21. You are correct that you'll only have access to your previews in Travel Mode but that's all you would need to continue cataloging the images. Once you have returned to your desktop, you can synch your changed catalog with your physical image files.

About the Catalog Panel (and the Folders Panel): One of those panels is always displayed on the left side of the window. When using the Folders mode, the hierarchy of physical folders is displayed. When using the Catalog mode, there are many choices of which type of mode to use. If you use the Catalog dropdown menu to select By Category, the hierarchy of catalog labels is displayed in the panel. As an example, if you are using the Catalog By Category panel, click a vacant area of that panel (to activate it) and begin typing the catalog label you want to automatically find. Once you begin typing, a text field will automatically open. As you continue to type, a list of terms that matches what you have partially typed will automatically populate a dropdown menu. Simply select the menu item that meets your needs and the software will automatically go to that node in the hierarchy.

[snowman1]

I didn't know that trick! Thank you!

[Hert]

In addition to Mike's great tip:
1. Click CATALOG
2. Select "All" (the last entry)
3. Now use Mike's search trick and you'll search all possible items. The icon in front of the search result indicates the type of match; e.g. a folder, a catalog label, a portfolio)

[Mike Buckley]

By the way, if you don't want to click the vacant part of the panel, you can instead use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F to automatically display the text field with the cursor already automatically placed in the field. At that point you are ready to begin typing.

[fbungarz]

Hi Steve,

I don't know what a 'Darwin Core', so I'll look into it.

Yes, I know it is a bit cryptic if you are not working with biological collection data...

The Darwin Core is an international Standard for managing metadata on biological specimens defined by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). Here their website: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/

Big Natural History collections around the world (Museums, Herbaria) and online information repositories (GBIF, Encyclopedia of Life, etc.) now manage their specimen data using the Darwin Core as their metadata standard.

The Darwin Core definitions have been transcribed into eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
The previous version of Photo Supreme (PSu), called IDimager (IDI v5) allowed setting up/designing eXtensible Metadata Platform (XMP) templates. XMP is essentially a derivative/variant of XML invented by Adobe to manage metadata inside digital image files.

I used that functionality in IDI to set up an XMP template that could be used to write Darwin Core XMP data (DwC XMP) into image files. Photo Supreme no longer supports designing XMP templates, but is still capable of reading (and writing) the data, see my post here:
http://forum.idimager.com/viewtopic.php ... arwin+core

However, please do NOT follow the instructions outlined there how to use DwC XMP !!!
When I migrated my own database from IDI v5 to PSu it turned out that although PSU v3 reads all DwC metadata correctly, it no longer writes/re-writes these tags in the correct format. Hert (the PSu programmer) kindly agreed to fix that and the PSu 3.3 beta version (http://forum.idimager.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=24186) now fully supports reading and writing DwC metadata.

Even if you only took pictures of your birds and unlike some scientists do not actually collect reference specimens for Natural History Collections I still do believe using PSu to manage your taxonomic metadata for the photos using the Darwin Core is a great way to keep track of that data in your photo collection.

Cheers,
Frank

[PhilBurton]

@steve48,

This is one of the longer-running threads in the forum. As the OP of this thread, have your questions been addressed?

Phil