Help Contents
What applications are compatible with iTag and where is my data stored?
How to register iTag
How to open files
How to view files
How to zoom
How to tag files
How to save files
How to geoocode files
How to view geoocoded photos in Google Earth
How to build a search index
How to search
How to delete or copy files
How to import, export & reuse tags
How to replace a misspelled tag
How to adjust timestamps?
What are all the keyboard shortcuts?
How to select iTag's language
Note Throughout these instructions the term photo is used when describing file handling. It should be noted that music, movie and audio files work in the same way.
What applications are compatible with iTag and where is my data stored?
All information added via iTag is added directly to the file using industry standard headers - absolutely no data is stored in iTag proprietary locations.
Click to view the list of compatible applications and the storage locations for your data.
How to register iTag
To obtain the premium version of iTag:
- Download the free version
- Purchase a licence where you will be supplied with a link to a personalised licence file
- Download the licence file to your local computer
- In iTag, click Help, Register iTag...
- Browse for the licence file you just downloaded and iTag will be activated
- Please ensure you make a backup of the licence after your purchase
How to open files
Photos can be loaded into the panel in several different ways
- Drag and drop files or folders from Windows Explorer
- On the toolbar, click the Load Files icon
. This option lets you select specific files that you wish to tag. - On the toolbar, click the Load Folder icon
. This lets you load a whole folder or the whole folder and all of its subdirectories
Tip: It is difficult to add meaningful tags across a large set of photos. Try working with a small batch of 30 or so related photos at one time.
How to view files
Once you have loaded some images into iTag, you may want to resize, zoom or sort them.
- Drag the slider on the toolbar to ajust the size of the thumbnails.
- Drag the slider all the way to zero to see the photos in a grid.
Photos can be sorted by right clicking and selecting sort or group in both thumbnail and grid views.
How to Zoom
Sometimes it is difficult to see the detail in a small thumbnail and you need to quickly pop a photo to full screen to see an object of interest before resuming tagging.
- Select the photo you are interested in
- Press Alt-Z to see the photo fullscreen. or
- Click and hold the middle mouse button for a temporary zoom
Tip: Use Alt-Z to enter zoom and use the arrow keys to move between photos. Use the number keys to assign a rating out of 5 to a photo. Use zero to erase a rating.
How to tag files
Tagging is very straight forward.
- First, select one or more photos.
- Where possible select multiple photos that have a common feature that you wish to tag
- Add a title and/or description
- Type a tag into the textbox in the tag bucket and hit enter
- If there is already a tag in the bucket, select it and click the green (+) button to add it to the selected photo
- When a new tag is added, it will appear in the Common Tags list for the selected photos
If you were taking photos in the backyard and a few of them had photos of your pet dog then you should highlight all of those photos and then add the tag Rover once. You could of course do this for each photo - it is just more efficient to do it once for all photos.
The common tags list shows all tags that are in common between the selected photos. If you select all photos of Rover, then you should see the Rover tag is common. If you select a photo of rover and also a picuture of a bronze statue of a horse, there is very little common between these photos so you may expect to see zero common tags.
Tip: Move between photos using the Alt-Left Arrow and Alt-Right Arrow keys. These keys will work even if your cursor is in a tagging textbox.
How to Save files
iTag does not automatically save photos, you must manually do this by clicking the save icon
If you are closing iTag or unloading photos that have not been saved, iTag will always prompt you to save before exit.
How to unload files
If you have completed tagging a set of photos and are satisified with the results, prepare to load new photos by unloading the current set.
- Select the photos to unload
- Right click and select Remove
Tip: Use shortcut combination Alt-A, Alt-R (select all, remove selected) to unload all photos quickly.
How to geoocode files
If you have a GPS tracklog and wish to geotag photos, then a tool such as GeoSetter should be used.
If you dont have a GPS tracklog, then iTag supports using Google Earth to quickly geocode a single or multiple files.
- Open Google Earth and find the place that you took the photo.
- Add or drop a placemark and then right click and select Copy
- Your clipboard now contains KML detailing the place of interest
- Switch back to iTag and select the photos you wish to geocode.
-
Click the Geocode button
- iTag will detect the KML in the clipboard and prompt you to use it. Select OK
- Your photos will now be geocoded with a latitude and longitude.
- Geocoded photos will appear with a small globe
in the bottom corner
How to view geoocoded photos in Google Earth
A small globe in the bottom corner of a photo indicates a geocoded photo.
Geocoded photos can be loaded into Google Earth.
- Select one or more geocoded photos
- Click the View in Google Earth toolbar button.
Tip: For more advanced control over the export, use the File menu and select Export to Google Earth. A dialog will appear where more detailed aspects of the export can be controlled.
How to build a search index
Before you can perform a search, you need to build an index.
This scans all of your photos for metadata and saves it into a small database to make the searches super fast.
Build the index by
- Clicking Edit, Options and then Search
- Pick the folder that contains all of your photos and then click Rebuild Index
It will take a few minutes for the index to build, but you need only perform this once. As you edit your photos, the index will be automatically updated when the photos are saved.
(Note that your metadata is still always saved to the IPTC headers of the photo file - so your metadata remains portable)
How to search
Once you have constructed the search index (see above), you are ready to search.
- Switch iTag into search mode by pressing the Search Mode button on the toolbar
- Enter your search terms into the textbox and click Search
For more powerful searching, click Advanced and use the Query Builder to:
- Add negative/anti words
- Search by a rating
- Search geocoded photos via an address
A third search method is to click words in the tag cloud. Words in the tag cloud appear larger the more frequently they occur. This scaling of word size can be adjusted by right clicking inside a blank area of the cloud and changing the scaling and maximum font size.
If you modify a file outside of iTag - in Adobe Photoshop for example - then iTag won't recognise the new metadata until you rebuild the index. A fast way of checking for changes is to use the quickscan icon on the toolbar.
How to Delete or Copy files
By design, iTag's photo panel does not mirror the Windows Explorer layout and directory browsing functions. There are however a small set of file manipulation commands available.
- Delete one or several files by selecting them and pressing the delete key. You will be prompted to continue and the file will be moved to the Recycle Bin.
- Copy files by dragging them out of iTag and into Windows Explorer. This is useful to copy a set of files found after a search result where you will compress them for emailing and don't want the originals touched.
What are all the keyboard shortcuts?
iTag has a number of keyboard shortcuts to help you keep your hands on the keyboard rather than moving on and off the mouse.
Click for here for the complete list of shortcuts
How to import, export & reuse tags
The tag manager helps allow you to control your vocabulary and to import and export tag lists. Open the tag manager
by clicking the red heart on the tool bar
.
The tag manager is split into two sides, source and destination. To transfer tags from one point to another:
- Select the desired source (for example: clipboard)
- Select the desired destination (for example: tag bucket)
- Select the a tag in the source
- Click the green (+) button to move a tag into the destination
Tip: Use the clipboard source and destinations to export and import tag lists that are external to iTag.
How to replace a misspelled tag
Sometimes you want to replace a particular tag against a set of photos. Some reasons might be
- A tag was not spelled correctly
- A tag was not applied consistently (eg: wedding vs weddings)
To replace a tag do the following
- Ensure a search index is built - see here
- Search for the tag you want to replace
- Switch back to edit mode
- Press Alt-a to select all photos
- Remove the offending tag from the Common tag list
- Add the desired tag
- Save the photos
How to adjust timestamps?
If you travel to a different timezone and forget to adjust the time on your camera then iTag can be used
to retrospectively alter the EXIF time on the photos.
To adjust the time on a set of photos:
- Select the photos you wish to adjust the time for
- While in edit mode, click Advanced to expose the Date Taken textbox
- Double click the Date Taken textbox
- The Adjust Date Taken dialog willl appear
The dialog will let you adjust the time of the photos in three ways. You can set an absolute time or you can adjust each photos existing time by a
relative amount.
To adjust be a relative amount, enter the timespan of the slide as per the suggeste format. For example to adjust time forard on the
selected photos by 13 hours, enter 13:00:00 .
Tip: if you are in a different timezone and have realised that you have not set your camera time then don't adjust your camera but instead:
- Take a photo of a device showing the correct time eg: your phone.
- When you get home, use the adjust Date Taken dialog to enter the time of the photo in the Current Time textbox
- Enter the time as is displayed in the photo in the Desired Time
- Click Set action based on these values to automatically select the desired time shift
- Apply this time shift to all of your photos that have the wrong time
How to select iTag's language
The language in iTag is automatically selected at startup based on your Windows settings. If you wish to override this, click for instructions to override your system's default language