Image Titles To Excel (1 Viewer)

birder · Jul 14, 2005

Hello

I want to export all the titles of my digital images to Microsoft Excel, in order that I can locat the images as and when I need them. I use .jpg andNEF (Nikon RAW) formats.

Does anyone know of a software programme which will allow extraction of the image title (which I have given it) and export into Excel?

Thanks,

Kevin

RAH · Jul 15, 2005

How did you give the jpg files a "title"? Do you mean you modified the filenames to be nice titles? Or do you mean you modified something internal to the files like the IPTC data (an area of a jpg file that can be modified to contain things like captions, keywords)?

Reader · Jul 15, 2005

birder said:
Hello

I want to export all the titles of my digital images to Microsoft Excel, in order that I can locat the images as and when I need them. I use .jpg andNEF (Nikon RAW) formats.

Does anyone know of a software programme which will allow extraction of the image title (which I have given it) and export into Excel?

Thanks,

Kevin

I run a photo data base on Excel and the only way I know of doing it is to type down each name and with the cursor clicked onto that name hyperlink to that particulars photo's file.

When you next click onto that name it will open up to that photo.

If you happen to take a better photo later on you can replace it by hyperlinking to the new photo.

If someone knows an easier way I would like to know it.

BTW within the same file I have tabs for Birds, Butterflies, Moths & Bugs. I will probably add an animal tab as well soon. You could make it a data base to cover every type of photo.

birder · Jul 15, 2005

RAH said:
How did you give the jpg files a "title"? Do you mean you modified the filenames to be nice titles? Or do you mean you modified something internal to the files like the IPTC data (an area of a jpg file that can be modified to contain things like captions, keywords)?

Hi RAH

I just clicked on the image title, eg. 000001.jpg and changed it to a title I wanted, eg. American Bald Eagle and saved it as that. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kevin

robinm · Jul 15, 2005

So, to clarify, do you want to get the list of names that you see in Explorer into Excel?

birder · Jul 15, 2005

Hi Robin.
The titles are the ones I have put in myself, when I have changed the title of the image, for example from the default DSCN00002 to one I want, eg Spotted Flycatcher.

As far as I can tell, I don't use explorer - certainly the name explorer does not feature anywhere in my page.

I can copy each individual title of the image, one by one, but I want a way of just copying all the titles of a file (not the EXIF data necessarily) and pasting into an excel file. I have tried doing this in list view and details view but to no avail.

Kevin

birder · Jul 15, 2005

Reader said:
I run a photo data base on Excel and the only way I know of doing it is to type down each name and with the cursor clicked onto that name hyperlink to that particulars photo's file.

When you next click onto that name it will open up to that photo.

If you happen to take a better photo later on you can replace it by hyperlinking to the new photo.

If someone knows an easier way I would like to know it.

BTW within the same file I have tabs for Birds, Butterflies, Moths & Bugs. I will probably add an animal tab as well soon. You could make it a data base to cover every type of photo.

Hi there. Thanks, but presumably this means having all the images somewhere where the link can go to? I'd like to know more about this method if you could tell me.

Kevin

RAH · Jul 15, 2005

utility to use

Kevin,
From your description of how you made these "titles," what you are really talking about is filenames. I think it would be less confusing to everyone to use the correct terminology.

The "explorer" spoken about earlier is the utility that comes free with Windows operating systems called Windows Explorer. It allows you to browse files and folders on your hard drive. It is found in Start/Programs/Accessories/Windows Explorer.

Anyway, there are utilities that allow you to capture all the filenames in a particular directory. For example, the freeware utility "Jr Directory Printer" will capture all the filenames in a directory and place them in a file named dirprint.txt. You could then import this file into Excel. To see a description and reviews, go to:

http://www.download.com/JR-Directory-Printer/3000-2248_4-10207368.html?tag=lst-4-24

You could browse around download.com for more such utilities, if this doesn't do the trick for you. But I think it will.

Reader · Jul 15, 2005

birder said:
Hi there. Thanks, but presumably this means having all the images somewhere where the link can go to? I'd like to know more about this method if you could tell me.

Kevin

Hi Kevin

I manage an Excel database covering all aspects of wildlife. This means I enter the name of a species I know I have a photo of on each line. i.e Mallard etc. I place my curser over that name and click on it. I then click on the hyperlink button (a picture of the world on the toolbar) (when you put the cursor over this button a label entitled insert hyperlink will appear). When you click on the hyperlink a box will appear with various things on it. You are looking for the FILE button on the right hand side. Click on that and all your files should appear. Select your way through them until you come to the relevant photo file you want linked to the data base and double click on it. That file will appear in the type of file box. Click ok and that file will be linked to that name on your Excel sheet.

Save the data base with a file name that is relevant to what you want (my title is Species Gallery). Once you have saved the file click onto the species name you have linked the photo to and if you have done everything okay the photo you want should open up.

As I said in my earlier reply. You can create tabs for Birds, Moths, Butterflies anything you want.

I hope that hasn't confused you.

RAH · Jul 15, 2005

Reader,
Your idea is a valuable one, but Keven made it sound like he has A LOT of image files that he wants to get into Excel. With a large volume, a wholesale import of the filenames seems more feasible. He could add the links you describe later, to the data already imported, I should think.

Reader · Jul 15, 2005

RAH said:
Reader,
Your idea is a valuable one, but Keven made it sound like he has A LOT of image files that he wants to get into Excel. With a large volume, a wholesale import of the filenames seems more feasible. He could add the links you describe later, to the data already imported, I should think.

So how would you do that.

My way, I must admit, is for single photos only per species. I pick the best photo of each species to hyperlink to and change them if ever I get a better one.

I leave my files of photos in their repective species folders which in turn are all contained with a main Bird Photos folder.

BTW I have a lot of photos also.

cuckooroller · Jul 15, 2005

It kind of depends on the projected scope of the Database. You may find as it grows, and they do have a tendency to grow, that you might have to formalize the Database itself on the HDD. I created an Avian Photodatabase years ago and from the start I had to program how to go about it. I wound up setting it up according to the Sibley-Monroe Classification (at that time the only one available in Excel, though I am halfway through encoding on Excel the Howard & Moore, 3° Ed.) and creating Family folders and within each Family, genus folders. Any photos are then renamed in Scientific binomina after ascertaining the correctness of the ID. I use PaintShop Pro as the main application to rename, view and move the image .jpgs around within the Database itself. A lot of work at the outset, but afterwards it is very easy for me to view and manage the Database which now has somewhere around 120,000 avian photos.

birder · Jul 15, 2005

RAH said:
Kevin,
From your description of how you made these "titles," what you are really talking about is filenames. I think it would be less confusing to everyone to use the correct terminology.

The "explorer" spoken about earlier is the utility that comes free with Windows operating systems called Windows Explorer. It allows you to browse files and folders on your hard drive. It is found in Start/Programs/Accessories/Windows Explorer.

Anyway, there are utilities that allow you to capture all the filenames in a particular directory. For example, the freeware utility "Jr Directory Printer" will capture all the filenames in a directory and place them in a file named dirprint.txt. You could then import this file into Excel. To see a description and reviews, go to:

http://www.download.com/JR-Directory-Printer/3000-2248_4-10207368.html?tag=lst-4-24

You could browse around download.com for more such utilities, if this doesn't do the trick for you. But I think it will.

Hi RAH and everyone else!

Firstly sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you re terminology.

Secondly THANKS A BUNCH!! This software, JR-Directory-Printer, is EXACTLY what I needed and has helped enormously. I am VERY grateful to all of you who have contributed. I do not particularly want to put hyperlinks to all my images (I have several thousand!) unless there is a way I can use the above software and attach hyperlinks automatically (i.e. in bulk)........ any ideas about this? If not, I will be very satisfied with the above, but it would be the icing on the cake!!!

Kevin

RAH · Jul 16, 2005

Kevin,
Very glad to hear that that utility worked so well for you! As far as bulk hyperlinks, you might be able to do it with some manipulation, although I'm not sure since I'm not much up on Excel. But one idea would be:
1) import all your records into Excel using Jr-Director
2) attach a hyperlink to ONE record in Xcel
3) export ALL the records to a comma or tab delimited file (this is what I'm unsure of - will it export the link data?)
4) Using a text editor (notepad, etc), examine that exported file and look at how the link is coded on the one record.
5) open thr exported file in a text editor and, using global changes, change all reocrds to match the link format of the one record you
6) reimport the comma-delimited file into Xcel as a new spreadsheet.

This may very well not be possible. And you probably would need a more powerful text editor. A good freeware one is Crimson editor. A good shareware is UltraEdit. ($35 I think). A good commercial editor is Vedit (about $75):

http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
http://www.ultraedit.com/
http://www.vedit.com/

Good luck!

John Fleet · Jul 16, 2005

Kevin,

I'm intrigued as to why you'd want to use Excel (or indeed any number crunching programme) to catalogue images? Why not use a program designed to do that. There are any number to choose from, from shareware upwards. Being a Mac user, I naturally use iPhoto which comes free with the computer. But any decent programme should allow you to tag images in the way that you want to do - allow previews of images etc etc

Just a thought...

John

RAH · Jul 16, 2005

I agree with John on that score. However, one thing I do not like about the current (large) crop of image catalogue programs is that I don't think any attach the info they gather to the files themselves (using IPTC). I believe that they all establish their own proprietary catalogue format and keep the info (like title, keywords, etc) separate. If you invest a lot of work in the catalogue and the software is discontinued, you can be badly burned. At least make sure the software has good EXPORT capabilities.

Note that this seems to be in marked contrast to the way most MP3 music cataloguing software works. Most of it attaches the info to the MP3 files themselves, using the ID tag area that is part of each file.

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