SwapNeat Metadata Studio Features

Task-based interface

SwapNeat Metadata Studio provides 16 dockable panes arranged to support various file tagging and management tasks.

Pick the most appropriate pane arrangement with a click of a button.

A new approach to tagging

SwapNeat Metadata Studio is designed to work with your other file editing and management tools, but it is not just an add-on to an image editor or music player: it is a dedicated tagging application designed from the ground up to make tagging easier.

SwapNeat Metadata Studio is different from other tagging software. Other software requires lots of typing and scrolling, and quite a bit of concentration and effort.

Using the innovative Tag Assignment Procedure interface (“TAP” for short) you simply click the keywords that apply to the file you’re tagging.

To add a new keyword, just type, then that keyword is available to reuse with a single click.

You make new tags by following the built-in suggestions that help you make tags that make sense, and stand the test of time. You don’t have to be a metadata expert to get expert results with SwapNeat.

Multiple metadata standards supported

SwapNeat Metadata Studio reads and writes many different metadata standards in addition to SwapNeat Structured Metadata, including:

• International Photographic Telecommunications Counsel (IPTC): used by many image editors and cataloguers for flat keywords)
• Special support for psuedo-structured IPTC tags: supported by photools.com iMatch and Windows^® Live Photo Gallery
• Dublin Core: a specific set of descriptive tags and standardized values, which is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) XML standard
• Adobe^® Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP): also based on the RDF; crossover compatibility with Dublin Core to some extent; supported by a variety of Adobe products and Windows Photo Gallery (included with some versions of the Windows Vista operating system)
• Tagged Image File Format (TIFF): primarily used in professional graphics
• Microsoft^® Digital Image Studio tags: an XML-based tag format unique to that product
• Windows Photo Gallery tags: both XMP and psuedo-structured IPTC
• Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), providing technical information about camera configuration; inserted by digital cameras
• ID3: SwapNeat offers industry-leading support for MP3 music file metadata
• MP3: technical details of MP3 files are presented for use in tagging

Tags are embedded right in the file

Unlike other tools that store tags in a database, SwapNeat Metadata Studio embeds tags in the file, so wherever the file goes, the metadata goes along with it.

Tags are cross-application and cross-platform compatible

Tags applied with SwapNeat Metadata Studio are compatible with popular applications like Microsoft^® Digital Image Studio, Windows^® Photo Gallery, Adobe^® Lightroom and Bridge, and other off-the-shelf tagging tools that support IPTC, XMP and EXIF metadata standards.

SwapNeat makes a free Windows add-on available so anyone running Windows XP or Vista can see the tags without having SwapNeat Metadata Studio installed.

Import files

SwapNeat Metadata Studio provides tools to help you retrieve your files off of memory cards, data CDs and data DVDs, and from file folders.

Importing files from memory cards doesn’t mean you have to move your files to a specific folder. You can put them wherever you want, and you can tag your files wherever they are.

Filename disambiguation

SwapNeat Metadata Studio catalogs all the files in your file library, so when you import files from your camera or memory card, they can be automatically renamed with unique file names.

This helps you avoid future problems, so you don’t accidentally overwrite a file named “PICT0001.JPG” by a completely different file with the same name.

Auto rotate photos

Most newer digital cameras have built in orientation detection, and when photos are taken, the camera records whether the photo was taken in “portrait” mode (top edge is shorter than the side edge) or in “landscape” mode (top edge is longer than the side edge).

SwapNeat Metadata Studio detects this information, and will offer to automatically rotate the photos so they’re right-side up.

Migrate tags

If you've tagged your files with other tools, you can bring your tags into SwapNeat Metadata Studio for a richer, more efficient tagging experience.

Reads many formats

SwapNeat supports industry standard tags for various files: for photos, EXIF, IPTC and XMP, are supported, but SwapNeat Metadata Studio also supports Microsoft^® Digital Image Studio, Windows^® Photo Gallery and Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements structured tags.

For Music, MP3 technical metadata and ID3 version 1 and version 2 tags are supported.

What's more, SwapNeat Metadata Studio is built to understand that file names and folder names are a type of metadata, and intelligently makes parts of folder and file names available along side other tags.

Import Tag Vocabularies

SwapNeat Metadata Studio allows you to import your tags from other tools for use with the innovative tagging interfaces.

You can import flat keywords or structured tag vocabularies, and any keywords or structured tags already embedded in your files will be discovered.

Add Structure Effortlessly

Using the revolutionary TAP Interface, every tag you create is part of your own tag vocabulary. Every tag is a category, and every category can be used as a tag.

Special tools help you migrate flat keywords into a hierarchical tag vocabulary framework.

Multi-language support

Tag vocabularies can be supplemented by distributed “lang packs” that overlay all the tags with other language translations.

This means that users can share a tag vocabulary, and tag their files, and perform searches, in their preferred language... but when they share files with friends or on the Internet, other users will see the tags in whichever language they prefer.

Integrated tools in SwapNeat Metadata Studio and the SwapNeat Community support all the tasks related to translating tags and sharing those translations.

Flexible tagging tools

SwapNeat Metadata Studio provides three distinct tagging modes:

• Batch: for applying certain tags to many files at once;
• Selective: where you want to apply certain tags to many, but not all, files, and;
• Single: where you want to tag a specific file in detail, with a combination of tags unique to that file.

Different groups of files benefit from different tagging methods. SwapNeat provides the tools to tag your files more efficiently, consistently, and completely than ever.

Batch tag

Batch Tag mode is useful for applying the same tag to all files in a set, like the place photos were taken, or the album that songs are from.

SwapNeat Metadata Studio will automatically skip over categories that don’t apply to all the files in the set.

Selective tag

Selective Tag mode is for files that share a lot of common characteristics, but first, specific files should be chosen.

Using standard CTRL- and SHIFT-CLICK actions to select files, Selective Tag mode is useful for indicating which specific people were in a number of photos all at once, or assigning genre information to a lot of music files in the same folder.

Single tag

Single Tag mode is for applying specific tags to a single file at a time.

In Single Tag mode, you can closely examine a photo to apply specific tags to a region, or tag certain points or ranges in an audio file with specific information.

File management

SwapNeat Metadata Studio helps you get the most value out of your tagging efforts, by helping you organize your file system and rename files, based on the tags.

The purpose of this functionality is to make it easy for you to find files on your computer intuitively, without having to rely on a search tool.

Multiple File List Views

In the Library pane, you can examine your files in three different views:

• List: every folder in a list, with statistics for each folder, including number of files, average number of tags per file, number of unique tags used in the folder, etc.
• Episodes: automatic organization of files from everywhere in your Library based on the embedded time code: files with time stamps very close together are automatically grouped.
• Folder: a traditional folder tree view of the filesystem.

Organize Files

SwapNeat Metadata Studio comes preconfigured with a number of file organization schemes that you can apply to a single folder, a selected set of files, or your entire file library.

One example of how files match the criteria of a file organization scheme might be “only photos, that have members of your family, at special occasions”. Files that do not match the particular scheme will left where they are.

This is a great way to transform your file library from a set of folders based on the date the file was acquired to a easy-to-navigate structure that makes a lot more sense, based on the tags in the files.

Backup and Restore

SwapNeat includes tools to create backups for burning to CD and DVD.

Do a search on files matching specific criteria, or just choose all the files that have not yet been backed up.

SwapNeat will prepare filesets ready to burn to CD or DVD, in any media size required, and include a thumbnail browser on the backup disc.

You can even use the backup functionality to create “gift albums” on disc, complete with navigation and a tree-based search interface.

Shell Extensions

SwapNeat Shell Extensions provide quick access to the tags in a file.

From the file properties dialog, all the tags from the various tagging schemes can be examined and copied to the clipboard as raw text.

Tags embedded in files are available to various client- and server-side search technologies.

Powerful search

The power of structured metadata is revealed when you search for files and find exactly what you need.

SwapNeat Metadata Studio provides three distinct and useful search interfaces: Simple Text search, TAP Interface search, and Advanced Tree-Based search.

Simple Search

The simple text search is what most people are familiar with... simply type the tags you’re looking for, and click “Get Results”.

The files that match show up in the Thumbstrip.

TAP Search

The problem with simple text search is that unless you already know exactly what tags have been used, how do you know what to type?

The TAP search method works just like the TAP Interface for tagging, but sort of in reverse: instead of clicking the buttons on tabs to assign tags, you click buttons that represent tags already embedded in files, to show the files that match.

The TAP search doesn’t show all the tags that could be used for tagging from all tag vocabularies... it only shows the tags that have actually been used.

Using the TAP search, you deal with the real tags: no guessing games.

Advanced Search

The Advanced tree-based search is the most powerful way to search files that have been tagged with structured tag vocabularies.

Like the TAP search, only the tags that exist in files are presented in the tree. You don’t have to bother with tags that are in the vocabularies but have never been used.

Pick “All” mode to specify that SwapNeat should only show a file if it has all the tags you select. Pick “Any” to specify that files can be shown if any of the selected tags are in the file. Pick “None” if you want to see files that do not contain the selected tags.

Numbers next to each tag show how many files will be affected if that tag is selected:

In “All” mode, your first click returns every file with that tag. Other nodes are labeled with negative numbers, showing how many files will be removed if you click that specific node.

In “Any” mode, your first click shows the number of files next to that node. The numbers on other nodes are positive numbers, indicating how many files will be added to the Thumbstrip when that particular tag is selected. This may be a different number than before, because it is adjusted to show how many files will be added, and some of the files may already be in the Thumbstrip.

In “None” mode, the first click shows all the files that do not contain that clicked tag. This number can be very large. The number next to every other node is updated to show how many files will be removed from the Thumbstrip if that node is clicked. To clarify, none of the tags that are clicked can be in a file for it to be shown in the Thumbstrip.

After your search result is presented, you can lock any or all the files into place in the Thumbstrip, and start a new search. By locking files and performing multiple searches, the result is similar to a very complex search query, and you don’t have to be a computer genius to do the job.

Enjoy your files again!

The point of SwapNeat Metadata Studio is to tag. But the purpose of tagging is to find your files and enjoy them in more and better ways.

Slideshows

Perform a search and press the F11 key, then sit back and enjoy an animated slide show, set to your music from your music library.

PhotoStory

Export a photo search result as a WP3 file for use with Microsoft^® Photo Story. You can use this free software for Windows XP to edit your animated photo story, then burn it to a CD or DVD for playback on a standard DVD player.

Processable XML via SNTool

SwapNeat embeds metadata in a standard way that other tools can use. In addition to the various proprietary data compartments used by common metadata standards, all the metadata is embedded in an optimized XML form.

SwapNeat provides SNTool, a free command-line tool for extracting this XML metadata. Also, SwapNeat Metadata Studio can export all the tags, from selected files or the entire file library, as a single large XML file.

SwapNeat makes SNTool available to developers and enthusiasts so they can make the most of embedded metadata, to extend the value of this metadata well beyond what any one program can do.

This XML is designed to be easy to interpret and process with common XML processing techniques.

Visit www.swapneat.com/support/developers/ for more information.

Metadata enthusiasts community

SwapNeat Metadata Studio connects to the SwapNeat Community

Tagging your files with SwapNeat Metadata Studio is efficient, and made more so because of the SwapNeat Community.

Ready-made public tag vocabularies can be downloaded for use on your own files.

You don’t have to design the tag vocabulary or type all the keywords yourself. Search the online tag vocabulary database for a specific tag, and the matching tag vocabularies are presented as icons in the Thumbstrip. Examine them then download the most appropriate one. You’re back to tagging with mouse clicks, rather than thinking about which tags to create.

You can participate in the collaborative design of tag vocabularies using features built-in to SwapNeat Metadata Studio, and by joining in on the discussion in the SwapNeat Community forums.

Access to the SwapNeat Community is free and available to all SwapNeat Metadata Studio users.

Publish

When you tag your files with SwapNeat Metadata Studio, before you know it, you’ll have a richly structured tag vocabulary that could be quite useful to others.

You can publish your personal tag vocabulary for use by just your close friends and family, or, if you’ve crafted a general use tag vocabulary, make it available to the entire SwapNeat Community.

Discuss

You will find tag vocabularies covering a wide array of subjects in the SwapNeat Community.

Perhaps a subject like your favorite hobby or pastime is covered by a tag vocabulary, and once you use it, you’ll have ideas of how to make it better or how the tags can be applied to various file types.

Every tag vocabulary that is published to the SwapNeat Community has a discussion forum, where you and other users can discuss how to use and enhance the tag vocabulary to everyone’s benefit.

Collaborate

You and other SwapNeat Community members may share an interest in a particular hobby or pastime. Using SwapNeat Metadata Studio as a “metadata scratch pad”, you can create components of a larger tag vocabulary that can be combined and used by all the participants.

As a moderator of such a tag vocabulary, you can accept contributions and integrate them directly into the vocabulary with a couple of clicks... or each component can be maintained by individual users over time.

Share the effort and share the benefits of collaboration!

Save time and effort

SwapNeat Community provides the means for users everywhere benefit from each other’s efforts.

Suppose you’ve just come back from a great vacation, and have lots of photos to tag. Instead of trying to remember exactly what all the places you visited are called, why not search for a ready-made tag vocabulary on the SwapNeat Community website?

Using the TAP interface and the Guidance pane, you will be guided through the tagging process, never having to type a word.

Customize

If you find a tag vocabulary on the SwapNeat Community that is close to what you need, but not exactly right, you can customize it in a compatible way.

The original tag vocabulary is not changed, but you can hide tags you don’t need, and add your own tags and branches by creating a custom module. The module you create is owned and maintained by you, and you can even share it with others.

That’s the best of both worlds: a standard tag vocabulary with minor adjustments under your control.

Advanced Features

SwapNeat Metadata Studio goes beyond the limitations of conventional tagging programs and methodologies.

Click the green arrow next to the “Advanced Features” item to learn more about more exciting innovations of the SwapNeat Metadata Platform.

Tag Qualifiers

One of the issues with hierarchical tag vocabularies is with the assignment of “properties” to a given tag. For example, if you have tagged a photo with the keyword “flower” and want to say that the flower is of a particular color, you can enter the color as a sub-tag of “flower”. No problem, right? Well, if you have lots of photos depicting different flowers with different colors, you start to have to enter every color name under every type of flower.

Searching becomes another issue. If you want to find all flower tags that have the color “red” as a subtag, you have to add every single one to your search query.

The SwapNeat Metadata Platform solves that problem by the use of “Qualifiers”.

Qualifiers apply to tags but are separate from the tag vocabulary. They are like mini vocabularies that can be assigned to individual tags.

This means you don’t have to create color subtags for every tag that you want to indicate as being a particular color: simply hold the ALT key when you click a tag, and choose the type of qualifier you want.

When you search, you can specify you want to search for all tags in a given branch having a specific qualifier, rather than having to include each subtag individually.

Modular Tag Vocabularies

Tag Vocabularies in particular categories can grow to be quite large.

Most of a large tag vocabulary may not be relevant to a particular task or a particular user.

The SwapNeat Metadata Platform supports modular tag vocabularies. Every tag vocabulary can be self contained, but when a vocabulary becomes too large to manage effectively, branches can be “snapped off” and made into modules.

Unlike Qualifiers, a tag vocabulary Module belongs at a specific position in a specific tag vocabulary.

Included with every copy of SwapNeat Metadata Studio is the “SwapNeat Structured Tag Vocabulary Framework”. This framework is ready-made to accept modules created by users.

For example, the “Places” branch of the Framework includes a number of countries, and within those countries, various sub-jurisdictions... but it would be impractical and inefficient to try to include every subarea of each jurisdiction as a component of the vocabulary.

Users who know a given area can create a Tag Vocabulary Module that is rooted at a specific place in the Tag Vocabulary. So, a user can create “Oakville” as a module under “Places / Canada / Ontario”

The user can publish that module for other SwapNeat Community members.