help with Photo gallery please

[KRK]

Hello,

I use Windows Photo Gallery for all my digital photos. I use tags
extensivley. Many photos have 2, 3 or even 4 tags.

Sometimes I want to display all photos which do have tag1, but exclude those
which have tag2, i.e. (tag1 NOT tag2)

Sometimes I want to display photos which have (tag1 AND tag2), and sometimes
I want to show those with (tag1 OR tag2).

I'm struggling to understand how to use tags and the 'group' option to show
the files I need?

Thanks for any help / advice

KK

 

[H Brown]

Hi trebor
Open Windows Photo Gallery
Find a picture by tag
In the Navigation pane, under Tags, click a tag to see all of the
pictures and videos using that tag.


Find a picture by multiple tags
Press the CTRL key and click multiple tags to see all of the pictures
and videos that include any of those tags.



You can also use the search box at the top of Windows Photo Gallery for more
powerful control. By changing to Natural Language Search it could even be
simpler, particularly when a person has many photos or video.
You can make that change in Folder Options under the Search tab "How to
Search" and check the box next to "Use Natural Language Search" then click
Apply then the OK button.
This also lets you save a search string to your search folder for the next
time you want groups of photos with those same properties and values. As
the size of your Gallery grows your search strings may get more complex and
by saving you don't have to recreate that search string again.

H Brown

 

[Jon]

Hello,

I use Windows Photo Gallery for all my digital photos. I use tags
extensivley. Many photos have 2, 3 or even 4 tags.

Sometimes I want to display all photos which do have tag1, but exclude
those which have tag2, i.e. (tag1 NOT tag2)

Sometimes I want to display photos which have (tag1 AND tag2), and
sometimes I want to show those with (tag1 OR tag2).

I'm struggling to understand how to use tags and the 'group' option to
show the files I need?

Thanks for any help / advice

KK

I think you're better off using the main Vista search, rather than the one
within Photo Gallery. My impression is that the Photo Gallery search is more
primitive, by comparison.

So using standard search

kindhoto AND (tag:tag1 AND NOT tag:tag2)
kindhoto AND (tag:tag1 OR tag:tag2)

should reveal matching photos.

You can then 'save' particular searches to search folders. If you then open
one of these up in Photo Gallery you can then flick through the rest that
meet the criteria within the program.

 

[KRK]

Hello & thanks to H.Brown, and Jon, for the help.

A follow-up Q if I may.

Can I use the same method to search for photos with tag1only, ie excluding
all photos with tag1 + any other tags. I can see how it might be done using
boolean algebra, but as I have dozens of tags it could be somewhat messy ?

Thanks again for the help

KK

 

[H Brown]

Hi again, KRK/ trebor
Yes
You could however try the Group By tag or Sort By tag features in Gallery
(right click) or in you Picture folder using the heading columns for Sort or
Group.
After a search
for tag 1 using _natural language search._ Search perhaps using advanced
search, Windows logo key+F then tell search to Show Only: Pictures and
build a more complex search string that will return the results you are
looking
for. (Open Advanced search and on the tool menu select help, View Help.)
Then save that search in your Searches folder, give it a good name like
"Trebor chill'n" where Trebor is all the pictures of Trebor and chill'n is
the value of tag 1. You can even assign values for the properties of you
saved search. All your doing by saving a complex search is saving the
string. So the next time you need to bring up "Trebor chill'n" , not tags,
working, cooking, dancing etc.etc. Open your Search folder, open the
subfolder "Trebor chill'n" and you can get a new search for all the photos
that match your search string. This would include any photos that you have
tagged and added to your Picture folder of "Trebor chill'n" since the last
time you used this search.

All that being said, Tag is a custom file _property_ that you create to
help _find and organize_ your files. You supply the value of the property,
Tag. However don't over look using all the properties in these files that
you can set a value for. If your using dozens of tags on anyone photo it
seems to me you would want to make sure that the value you set is useful and
meaningful to you and easy to remember. Seems to me tags would be easier to
work with provided you use all the other properties at your disposal as
well. Using all properties could make some of your Tags redundant.
May be you have hundreds of pictures with same Subject or Title that you
use the same tag value for. Perhaps 15 or so of these photos stand out in
ways that the others don't now, you have to decide on a custom property by
putting another tag value, as long as that tag value was useful and
meaningful to each of the 15 only. Or you may use another property like the
Comments: property. At any rate the whole idea of using properties with
keyword(s) values for those properties is so its easier for you to find
things later, out of perhaps thousands.

Its important is to use your Pictures Folder for all photos and categorize
using subfolders. Many times you may create a subfolder that only contains
subfolders with actual files. E.g. in your pictures folder you may have a
subfolder named Sunsets, in your Sunsets folder you have other folders named
Utah, Arizona, Florida etc. In Utah folders are photos of sunsets taken in
Utah. You may add even more subfolders to Utah folder, like Winter, Spring,
Summer and Fall. This is of course is to further categorize and be able to
narrow down finding particular files. You store your pictures in Pictures
folder that is a special subfolder in your User folder and it is indexed for
fast results when searching.

Just design your strategy/ policy using properties and assigning Values and
categorizing using folder and subfolders in your user folder. Then learn as
much as you can about using search in Vista and practice. Then remember
practice dose not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

H Brown

 

[KRK]

Hello again & thanks for the help. Sorry to be a pain, but there is still
something I dont understand.

I have found out (with your help) how to build a search using the advanced
search window , and how to save the search to the searches folder. But I
cant seem to run the saved search from within Photo Gallery?

I'm sure I'm missing something simple.

KK

 

[H Brown]

Hi, KK
You should be saving a search to your Searches Folder. You would open
Searches folder find the search you saved and run it. Then if you find your
self needing something quicker, you can create shortcuts pin to quick launch
or a keyboard shortcuts.

The other thing is to understand that Photo
Gallery is used for working on photos that are stored in your Picture
folder. So when it comes to finding/searching, sorting , grouping stacking
categorizing and yes assigning Values to properties of those files, your
picture folder would be my first pick. I have under Favorite Links in the
navigation pane of Pictures folder shortcut/link to Searches folder,
I have besides Windows
Photo Gallery two other similar application/programs for working
with/editing photos/images. If I open any of these programs or all three at
the same time, I can view and work with any photo that is stored in the
Pictures Folder but none of the pictures are stored in those applications, I
still only have the originals and or copy 1... of an original that I want to
make changes to. Over time I have many photos that I removed from the
Pictures Folder that are stored on removable media. By placing that media in
the correct drive I can use search to find what I want to work with or
windows
exporler heading column to group or sort.
Put it an other way, your Pictures Folder is the Gateway for storing,
finding and
managing your photos/images collection, now and later, no matter the editing
program/tools you choose to use when you edit them.

A working example:
Just yesterday my wife handed me a little device used to store and view
digital pictures that one of the kids had given to her. She asked that I put
the most resent family photos on it. This device is about the size of a
credit card only thicker with a viewing screen that is 1 inch by 1 inch.
The device will hold 58 pictures. Using the USB cable I activated it and
its interface accessed the files and folders stored in the Pictures Folder.
However its interface for viewing and selecting the photos was producing
views that were just to small to work with, about a quarter inch by quarter
inch thumb nails with no way to zoom/enlarge the view. (Yes, it is cheap
jack
ware) I realized the best pictures to download to this device needed to be
close-ups. I opened Pictures Folder choose the our family photos folder.
Using the details view and columns heading displaying the properties I
needed to group or sort by date created. In the search bar of windows
explorer searched for "close-ups", that gave me a view of all the pictures
files that used the value "Close-ups" regardless of the property. I then was
able to sort these further using the heading columns in windows explorer.
From there using Large Icon View I quickly selected about 30 or so pictures.
Then by right clicking on one of the selected 30 photos clicking properties
selected the details tab using the comments: property I noted that these are
copies for xyz device. That way is a way to change or add a value to
properties of many files in batches. I then copied those to a new folder
(named it referencing the device). Now when my wife brings this device back
for more or different pictures to be loaded Ill know what's in and what's
not and where from. Using the interface of the device I opened the new
folder and down loaded those 30 pictures, with out having to strain my eyes
to see to pick out the pictures from the interface of the device. The devise
software did automatically down size the pictures to a resolution the device
could display in/handle. This was all done starting with the Pictures
folder. When I should open any one of my three editing apps like Windows
Photo Gallery, I will see this new folder in the folder navigation pane
should I need to work with or edit any of those pictures that were
downloaded to the device. Could I have done it using Windows Photo Gallery?
Yes, but IMO, just could not have been done as fast and conveniently as it
is for me using the pictures folder. All I wanted to do was copy and
organize some photos, I was not going to edit any of them.

One last note, I don't want to miss lead you when it comes to
working/editing using your Windows Photo Gallery. When I said your pictures
are stored in your pictures folder that's true. But be aware, in the
Gallery, you are not working with just copies of your pictures. So if you
delete a picture in the Gallery it will be deleted (sent to recycle bin) in
the Pictures Folder as well. Other photo editing software may/could work
differently.

H Brown