FastPhotoTagger Revision History
(Android)


o 01-Oct-2024, v3.6
Internal programs:
o ExifTool has been upgraded to version 12.76.
o ExifTool's new warning: "IPTCDigest is not current" is logged as an informational message.

WEBP:
o webp file metadata is now writable with the upgraded ExifTool.

Image Viewing:
o jxl files are now recognized as image files but are not viewable.

Fixes:
o On Android 11+, some images showed distinct moire patterns when viewed full screen.
o On Android 11+, some checkboxes in Search Metadata and Update Cache were low contrast and difficult to see.
o On some versions of Android, moves from search results to SD cards failed.
o An instance of "FastPhotoTagger isn't responding" in folders with many files was fixed.
o In the Metadata Panel it was possible to open the keyword checkbox dialog or the edit dialog without selecting files.
o The user guide now lists the special (and hidden) files in .FastPhotoTagger.


 o 02-Apr-2024, v3.5
File Sorting:
o The promote field in "App / Program Settings / Sort By" gives more ability to order results. 
-You may promote more than one word, e.g., promote Spain France to move metadata containing Spain or France to the top.
-You may boost the importance of the terms with ^n appended to a word, e.g., promote Spain France^2 to promote the France words before the Spain words.
-You may promote strings with some number of intervening words with ~n appended to a quoted string, e.g., "John Smith"~1 will promote John Smith, Smith John, John Adam Smith, Smith Adam John, etc.
-You may use keyword file values in promotion fields. "[animal] [nature]"~2 promotes strings with any keyword in animal and any keyword in nature with <= 2 intervening words.

Fixes:
o Some searches are faster, especially those with a large number of folders or results.
o On Android 13+, search results sometimes showed generic icons instead of image thumbnails.
o "Metadata / Update Cache" now removes cache entries where multiple filenames, differing only in case, point to the same file. These can occur in search results on case-insensitive file systems when files are renamed outside of FastPhotoTagger.


o 15-Aug-2023, v3.4
Search Metadata:
o The search screen now includes fields for file path and file modify date. Searches of file path are always case-sensitive.
o The search screen now has a 3-dot menu which supports several new features.
o More complex searches can now be defined. Multiple instances of the search input fields, "search terms", may be created and joined with AND or OR. Use the menu items "+ AND", "+ OR", and "- AND/OR" to add/delete these instances.
o Search terms are evaluated first to last but ANDs are always performed before ORs, like math where * is performed before +, e.g, 2+3*4 = 14.
o Switch between the search terms by tapping on the new search term button bar.
o Remove a search definition and start fresh using the "Clear" menu item.
o Save a search definition to a file or load a search from a file using the "Save" and "Open" menu items. Search files are compatible with PC FastPhotoTagger v4.1.
o Recently executed search files are listed at the bottom of the menu. Just select to load a search file.
o A "Recent Searches" button has been added to show the history of (up to 100) searches performed. A recent search may be loaded with a tap The recent search list is compatible with PC FastPhotoTagger v4.1.
o The search screen stays open if you choose not to view discoveries.
o When sharing search files and search history with PC FastPhotoTagger, use the same metadata fields in Settings. The Settings Export/Import operations make it easy to move settings between devices.
o The Users Guide and tutorial video have been updated to further explain the search facility.

File Sorting:
o In "App / Program Settings / Sort By",  you may now perform a two-level sort of the files in the open folder. For example, sort by Country then sort each country by City.
o Additionally, you may force some files to the top of the sort by entering a text string contained in their metadata. For example, sort by Country and set Promote=Spain  to move the Spain files to the top.
o In "App / Program Settings", you may now independently sort files and folders ascending or descending.
o File sorting options have been removed from "App / Program Settings / All Settings".

Fast Tagger:
o The filename is now shown above the Use Abbreviations and Use Suggestions checkboxes.
o A Grow/Shrink button enlarges all images in the selected set or reduces them back to small size.
o The Grow/Shrink button may be pressed and dragged to move the input fields elsewhere on the screen.
o Both the large and small images may be enlarged by double tap and zoom gestures.
o The zoom level of images is preserved as you move through the set.
o Next / Previous buttons may be used to move to the next or previous image in the set. These are in addition to the swipe gesture and are handy when the image is zoomed.
o Star buttons may be used to apply a rating to an image without use of the keyboard. Star buttons are shown when a rating field is detected in "Program Settings / Metadata."

Slideshow:
o In "App / Program Settings / All Settings / Slideshow" you may now choose to show multiple metadata values in a slideshow caption. (Sorry, you will lose your current setting.)
o Audio and video files may be played automatically during slideshows by pressing the Circle-Play button on the slide's action bar. (You need a media player that quits after playing.)
o "Metadata / View Slideshow" will play media files if your previous slideshow was playing media files.
o Audio and video files may be played individually by pressing the Play button on the left side of a slide.
o When the slideshow is paused, the action bar now allows you to invoke the Fast Tagger to edit the metadata of the current slide. Upon closing the Fast Tagger, you may resume the slideshow.

File / Folder Select Dialog:
o The folder select dialog now presents recent folder buttons for open and save operations.
o The maximum number of recent folder buttons has been increased to 12.

Image Viewing:
o avif files are now viewable in Android 14+.

Fixes:
o Audio and video files could not be played during slideshows.
o When searching a hierarchical structure, the keyword in [ ] had to match the case of the keyword in the keyword file.
o Searching now works for a lone minus sign value on a line, e.g., -cat.
o Search now diagnoses some missing operators, operands, quotes, and brackets.
o Suggestion support in Search is improved for keywords surrounded by  " " [ ] { }.
o The Search dialog now reflects "Program Settings / Font size."
o In Search, the keyword dialog was returning too many keywords where it only should return the lowest in the hierarchy.
o When interrupting a fast scroll, image thumbnails sometimes were not immediately generated.
o Clicking and changing panel widths with the "grabber" was imprecise when there was a camera cutout (Android 10+) or navigation bars on the left screen edge.
o "Program Settings / Import Settings" did not import the slideshow "auto start" and "overlay caption" settings.


o 01-Dec-2022, v3.3
Metadata Panel & Fast Tagger:
o A "Use Suggestions" checkbox has been added below the "Use Abbreviations" checkbox. You may choose whether to use suggestions in keyword fields. The state of the checkbox is remembered between sessions.

ExifTool Interface:
o You may now select and use folders with the "Metadata / ExifTool" command. Most of the commands, e.g., "Copy Tag to Tag" use image files only. But, if you select "Other", you may now write ExifTool commands that use image files and/or folders.
o You may now add your own custom commands to the Command menu. Put your custom commands in .FastPhotoTagger/exiftool.txt, two lines per command. Line 1: menu text. Line 2: ExifTool options. See ExifTool Interface.

Search:
o You may now search for a keyword in a hierarchical keyword structure. The structure is defined in a keyword list file. This operation provides some of the benefits of hierarchical keywords without actually using them.

Photo and Slide Viewing:
o New options for full screen photo viewing and slide shows have been added to "Program Settings / All Settings / Photo Viewing." You may choose to override the Android system settings for screen brightness and auto-rotate when viewing photos full screen.

Fixes:
o "File / Open" now permits switching back to FastPhotoTagger while the target app is still running.
o Folder names containing comma caused errors in Update Cache, Search Metadata, and the Copy/Move recent folders list.
o A missing keyword file caused a program error.
o On the Update Cache and Search Metadata screens, some space was added to the right of the buttons to avoid the scroll bar.
o The ExifTool warning about "The ExtractEmbedded option may find more tags in the media data" is now suppressed.


o 10-Jan-2022, v3.2
User Interface:
o In the Metadata Panel and the Fast Tagger, you may long press on the metadata name to immediately show the keyword checkbox dialog or the edit dialog. (Android 6+)

Android 9 issues: Android 9 users: please read this.

Fixes:
o Using -geotag in the ExifTool Command Builder failed.
o "File / Share" did not work with apps unable to handle mime wildcards.
o In v3.1, using abbreviations in the Fast Tagger could result in an error.
o In v3.1, on Android 11, some file types could not be opened by "File / Open".


o 01-Jul-2021, v3.1
Android 11 changes:
o FastPhotoTagger on Android 11 uses the new "All Files Access" permission. This is a new Android permission but it does not extend the abilities that FastPhotoTagger previously had. Your privacy is safe. Read about All Files Access. You must grant this permission to use FastPhotoTagger.

Image Viewing:
o avif files are now recognized as image files but are not viewable.

Fixes:
o On some copy/move operations, file size was shown as -1.
o When importing settings, the dialog did not show the selected file.
o On some foldable devices, the fold/unfold reconfiguration was not correct.
o Two instances of "FastPhotoTagger isn't responding" were fixed. If you see this please contact the author.


o 15-Aug-2020, v3.0
Keywords dialog:
o An "extra" ("+") keyword field has been added to the Keywords dialog. During a keyword tagging session, you may type keywords into this field that are not included in your keyword files. These typed keywords will be appended to the list of checked keywords. Be sure to end each keyword with a comma or semi-colon delimiter.
o A "Search" button has been added to the Keywords dialog. You may search for categories, keywords, and synonyms. Matches are highlighted and the tree containing the latest match is expanded. The search starts at the latest match and wraps around the list Search is case insensitive.
o The full hierarchy of the search result is shown in a momentary popup over the search field.

Select / Filter:
o The "File / Select" command now includes a Filter option. In your current folder, you may choose to view or not view image files, video files, audio files, and other files. This option remains in effect until you change it or navigate to a different folder. (This does not apply to zip file contents.)

Folder Select Dialog:
The folder select dialog, used by "File / Copy", "File / Move", and "Navigate / Open Folder" now contains a recent folders panel. Clicking on a recent folders button is equivalent to and much faster than navigating to the folder.

SD Card:
o When you grant write access to an SD card, the SD card path is automatically added to your folder favorites list.

Animated GIFs, WEBPs, HEICs:
o On Android 10+, you may play animated GIF and WEBP images. On Android 11+ you may play animated HEIC images. Select just one file; press "Metadata / View Slideshow."

Folder Icons:
o Android 6+: Folder icons now incorporate a preview of a random image from the folder.

Android 11 changes:
o Starting with Android 11, the .FastPhotoTagger folder is created inside the Download folder.
o Starting with Android 11, the log file, fastphototagger_log.txt, is created inside the .FastPhotoTagger folder.
o Starting with Android 11, momentary popup messages, aka "toasts",  always appear at the bottom of the screen.

Internal programs:
o ExifTool has been upgraded to version 12.00.
 
Fixes:
o When using the Dark theme, in Inspect Metadata and Compare Metadata, the Search button was not visible.
o The "Navigate / Top" and "Navigate / Bottom" commands are faster in folders with a large number of items.
o Metadata scrolling in Inspect Metadata is faster in folders with a large number of items.
o The setting to hide hidden files did not work on SD cards.
o Added a warning to the "Copy All Tags From Reference File" documentation in "Metadata / ExifTool."


o 28-Feb-2020, FastPhotoTagger for Android is 5 years old!
o Thank you all for your ideas, suggestions, defect reports, translations, criticisms, compliments, and encouragement. FastPhotoTagger is very different and hopefully much better than it was in those early beta days. I hope to make it even better in the months and years ahead. I can't do it without you. -Dennis


o 01-Feb-2020, v2.9
Text Editor:
o The text editor now loads very large files much more quickly and virtually any size file may now be edited. Visually, the editor divides large files into "pages" of about 500 lines each. A navigation bar is provided for moving between pages. Scrolling operates on the current page. The "Menu / Top" and "Menu / Bottom" commands still operate on the entire file.

Fixes:
o When typing search words, suggestions based on previously entered keywords were not shown if a search prefix such as + or - was used.
o When navigating to folders containing thousands of files or editing a file of many thousands of lines, the "FastPhotoTagger isn't responding" error might occur.


o 02-Jan-2020, v2.8
Update Cache:
o The command "Metadata / Update Cache" has been added. Select some folders before invoking this. When metadata tags are added to "Program Settings / Metadata", FastPhotoTagger must discard its fast-access copies of metadata, i.e., the "cache." This command restores the cache for the selected folders as if you had navigated to them. It makes those folders searchable again and makes navigating into them faster. However, this may be a very time consuming operation and some Android versions may pause this operation if FastPhotoTagger is moved to the background. Please see Performance Tips in the user guide.

Revision Support:
o This will be the last version to support Android 4.1, 4.2, 4.3.

Fixes:
o Search and Keyword Checkbox Entry have been reworked to support a larger number of folders and keywords. The maximum number will depend on device memory size.
o SD card files are now writable using the "Metadata / ExifTool" command.
o When long pressing on a Metadata panel input field, the Keywords and Edit menus sometimes flashed and disappeared if the keyboard was not visible on the display.
o On devices with small memory, it was possible to get an "out of memory" error.
o Attempting to save a text file into a zip file failed silently.
o On Android 10, "Open with... FastPhotoTagger" of a zip file from the Google file manager failed.


o 28-Sep-2019, v2.7
Search:
o The commands "File / Copy, Move, Rename, Delete" are now available when viewing Search results.

Slide Viewing:
o Slide show images may now be zoomed using the double-tap or two-finger gestures.

Image Viewing:
o webp files are now recognized as image files. These files are not writable by ExifTool. Read this.

Fixes:
o Attempting to rename a file to an existing name failed silently.
o Cached metadata was not copied/moved when files were. Navigating to the destination was necessary before re-searching.
o Image viewing in folders containing thousands of images caused hangs or crashes.
o "Open with... FastPhotoTagger" from the Google file manager failed.
o Attempting to move a file with an "uncommon" and uppercase extension such as .BMP from primary storage to an SD card failed.
o Thumbnail rotation recognizes Android 10 changes.


o 27-Jul-2019, v2.6
User Interface:
o The command "App / Program Settings" now works as a pull down menu making frequently used settings more readily accessible.

Search:
o Pressing the Up folder in the search results panel now navigates to the folder from which the search was invoked.
o You may now prepend a + or - to a search word to specify that the word must or must not be present in search results.
o You may now prepend > >= < <= to search words to perform relational comparisons.
o There is now a Help button on the Search screen that shows examples. More examples are shown in the Search documentation.
o The commands "File / Share" and "File / Open" are now available when viewing Search results.

ExifTool Interface:
o The command, "Metadata / ExifTool" has been added.
o This provides an interface to the ExifTool command line from within FastPhotoTagger. Advanced users can build and execute virtually any ExifTool command.
o Several useful metadata operations are predefined and safe for users who are not comfortable with ExifTool command lines.
o Read this for more information.

Fixes:
o When appending or removing keywords, it was necessary to type comma or semicolon to start auto keywords.
o The command "File / Share" did not allow more than one file to be shared in one operation.
o Recent versions of FastPhotoTagger did not work on some Android 5 64-bit devices.
o Under Android 6, "File / Share" and "File / Open" now always use file providers.


o 25-May-2019, v2.5
User Interface:
o This version continues the user interface changes begun in v2.4, with focus on metadata operations.

View Metadata:
o The thumbnail is larger.
o The colors and layout have changed slightly.
 
Compare Metadata:
o The thumbnails are slightly larger when fewer than four files are selected.
o The colors and layout have changed slightly.
o Scrolling is enabled in the metadata names and thumbnails parts of the display

Fast Tagger:
o The Fast Tagger colors and layout have changed to be similar to the Edit Selections screen.
o The filename has been moved to the top, above the image.
o A "Use Abbreviations" checkbox is shown at the top of the form.
o Long text values are wrapped on to multiple lines.

Text Editor:
o The icon buttons have been revised. The meaning of the buttons has not changed.

Image Viewing:
o On Android 9.0+ many High Efficiency Image Format files (extension .heic) are now viewable. Not all heic files are viewable or writable. Read the limitations here.

Internal programs:
o ExifTool has been upgraded to version 11.44.

Fixes:
o In the Metadata Inspector, when pressing on a value the corresponding thumbnail was not always selected.
o The limit of eight images for comparison was not enforced by the menu panel button though only eight thumbnails would be displayed.
o When long pressing on a Metadata panel input field, the Keywords and Edit menus sometimes flashed and disappeared if the keyboard was not visible on the display.
o Pressing the Back button did not always close the Favorites list.
o When opening the text editor from another program using "Open with..." the text file sometimes could not be saved.
o Some Android systems prevent navigation to the root folder, "/", resulting in a "Wrong folder" error. Navigation will instead be to the default location, typically "/storage/emulated/0".


o 29-Mar-2019, v2.4
User Interface:
o This version introduces major changes to the user interface. These are intended to make the app easier to use, especially for new users, without compromising the goal of fast photo tagging.

--The top of the app (Action Bar) contains four menu buttons: Metadata, File, Navigate, and App. All FastPhotoTagger functions are accessible through these buttons.

--As before, some functions are only available when files are selected. Select by long pressing a thumbnail and then dragging or short pressing other thumbnails, or use one of the "Select" commands on the "File" menu.

--Users with larger screens can still choose to view two or three panels simultaneously. Small screen users will use only a single panel.

--As before, the number of visible panels is set by "App / Program Settings / Side-by-side panels". When this is set to "Auto", FastPhotoTagger uses display size to guess the ideal number of panels to display. The number of panels displayed may be different for portrait and landscape orientation of a device.

--The symbols over the left and right panels (so called hamburger and tag icons) have been removed. When two panels are visible you may swipe left and right to view the third panel.

--The left panel now contains only metadata commands and help.

Open Folder:
o This command, "Navigate / Open Folder", formerly "Open Image Folder", now allows browsing to any folder on the device rather than just presenting a list of Favorite folders.
o Favorites are now handled by a separate command: "Navigate / Favorites".
o SD cards are now handled by a separate command: "App / SD Card".

Favorites:
o The Navigate menu contains a "Favorites" command. This command displays the list of Favorite folders. It is the same as a long press on the address bar.

SD Cards:
o On first execution of Android 6.0+, FastPhotoTagger will offer to mount an SD card.
o At any other time, use the "App / SD Card" command.

Image Viewing:
o Images can now be zoomed to approximately 3x actual size.

Fast Tagger:
o In the Fast Tagger, a double tap on an image now enlarges all images in the selected set to full screen width, not just the tapped image. A subsequent double tap will reduce the size of all images. The larger image size provides you with more image detail during the fast tagging operation.

Search:
o Search now presents the searchable folders in a hierarchical list.

Text Editor:
o The "Save as" command now presents a file dialog instead of just asking for a filename.

Copy and Move:
o The "File / Copy" and "File / Move" commands now present a fie dialog for selection of the destination instead of just presenting the Favorites list.

Settings:
o In "App / Program Settings / Metadata Tags", a new setting, "Read IPTC as UTF8", has been added. When checked, the default, this forces IPTC metadata, which may have been written without the required character set tag, to be interpreted as UTF-8 characters.

Internal programs:
o ExifTool has been upgraded to version 11.26.
o DCRAW has been upgraded to version 9.28.
o Internal programs now run in 64-bit mode on devices running 64-bit Android. You may observe a modest performance improvement in metadata operations. This also results in a storage increase of about 5MB.

Removed commands:
o "Create desktop shortcut", "Copy name to clipboard", and "View" commands have been removed. (You can still tap on a thumbnail to view the item.)

 Fixes:
o When working with folders containing many (typically hundreds of) files, it was possible to get an "out of memory" error.
o If a RAW file's embedded thumbnail is unreadable an attempt will be made to display a thumbnail derived from the full image.
o When typing into keyword fields, suggestions based on previously entered keywords were not always correct for keywords containing spaces.
o In "Inspect Metadata", repeated pressing of the left/right arrows could result in showing black thumbnails.
o SD card folders could not be added to Favorites using the "Add to favorites" command.
o "Export Settings" could not save to SD cards.


o 01-Dec-2018, v2.3
Panel Management:
o The icon buttons have been revised. The meaning of the buttons has not changed.
o Scrolling between panels is now more visible to the user.

Image Viewing:
o The "context action bar" now allows the Fast Tagger to be invoked directly.

Compare Metadata:
o Search results are now highlighted.
o Replace and Replace All buttons have been added. You may replace one or all of the metadata values found by search. Replace and Replace All are case sensitive.
o The left and right arrow buttons now wrap around to the previous/next row.
o When changing a value, the menu invoked by a long press now contains an "Edit" item which allows editing the value in a larger space, and a "Keywords" item which provides a checkbox entry method using your keyword files. (Android 6+)

Inspect Metadata:
o An "Inspect Metadata" command has been added to the Overflow Menu. Inspect Metadata allows you to examine one tag's values in all selected files, e.g., look at just the keywords. You may edit, search, and replace metadata values. See the User Guide for more information. This is an ideal way to replace one keyword with another.

Search Metadata:
The Search panel is larger and reformatted. The "sweep" icon has been replaced by an X icon. The "close" icon has been removed.

Permissions:
o SMS permission has been removed because of a Google policy change. On some older versions of Android (I don't know which) this permission was necessary for FastPhotoTagger to view images in text/SMS messages. This no longer seems to be the case. If you require this permission you can find older versions on the FastPhotoTagger files page. If this is not sufficient please contact the author.

Fixes:
o On some versions of Android, it is necessary to restart FastPhotoTagger after granting it access to your files on the very first run of the app.
o The Fast Tagger did not correctly handle suggested keywords containing accented characters.
o In Compare Metadata, filtering for settings tags did not handle MWG tags correctly.
o When invoking the keywords dialog, comma was not recognized as a keyword delimiter.
o When viewing search results containing many (typically hundreds of) files, it was possible to get a "recycled bitmap" error.
o In the Light Theme, the Status bar color was not changed to match the Action Bar color.
o Adaptive icons in Android 8+ were not displayed properly.
o Desktop shortcuts did not work in Android 8+.


o 01-Sep-2018, v2.2
Panel Management:
o The command buttons on the action bar are now captioned.
o On narrow screens, the application name may not be shown on the action bar.
o In the favorites list (long press on current path), long paths have ellipses in the middle.
o The "Exit" button color has changed.

Image Viewing:
o Images are now shown full-screen. A short tap on the screen will show/hide the Android status and navigation bars as well as the context action bar and the metadata overlay. A double tap still zooms the image.

Slide Viewing:
o Slides are now shown full-screen. A short tap on the screen will show/hide the Android status and navigation bars as well as a context action bar. Use the context action bar to pause/resume the slideshow. A long press on a slide no longer pauses/resumes the slideshow. Use the context action bar instead.

List tags:
o List-type tags such as Keywords, Subject, and others are now always shown with a trailing semicolon even if there is only a single item. This makes typing easier to add a new item and prevents comparisons from failing when otherwise identical values differ only by the trailing semicolon.

Selection Mode:
o The icon for entering Selection Mode has changed from a checkbox to a pencil.
o When entering Selection Mode, all files are now initially selected.

Compare Metadata:
o A Search option has been added to the Compare Metadata menu. You may search for tag names or tag values. The search starts at the selected cell and wraps around the table.
o A Filter button has been added to the Compare Metadata menu. Use filter options to view all metadata tags or only tags related to your settings. View all metadata values or only values that differ in the selected files.

Fixes:
o On Android 8 and some Samsung devices, the panel titles were shaded based on which was last touched. Panel titles are now uniformly colored.
o Scrolling the Metadata Panel or closing the on-screen keyboard when the input cursor was obscured by the keyboard could cause a program error.
o The on-screen keyboard interfered with scrolling to some of the fields on the Metadata Panel.
o When FastPhotoTagger was opened by a desktop shortcut there were occasions when metadata changes would not immediately be shown in thumbnail labels. (The changes were always made to the files.)


o 01-Jun-2018, v2.1
Keyword Entry:
o When entering keyword lists, both comma and semicolon may be used as separators interchangeably. On display only semicolon is used.
o When typing into keyword fields, suggestions based on previously entered keywords are shown. Tap on a suggestion to accept it. The suggestion list is kept in .FastPhotoTagger/autokeywords.txt, which may optionally (Android 6+) be added to "Program Settings / Keywords".

Video and Audio Files:
o Video and audio files may now be tagged. Please note that tagging large media files may take considerably longer than image files. Also note that relatively few metadata tags are supported. See ExifTool documentation.
o Thumbnails are shown for all video types supported by Android.
o In the Photo Viewer and Slideshow you may play video and audio files by pressing the "Play" button.

Image Viewing:
o A short tap on the image displays a "context action bar" with options to rotate or delete the image. Only jpeg images may be rotated.
o The metadata overlay now appears at the bottom of the screen instead of the top.

File Panel:
o You may drag to select contiguous files. Long press on the first file, then drag to select additional files.
o The "fast scroller" is no longer shown. It was often accidentally activated when trying to tap an image thumbnail. You may still scroll quickly by using the "fling" gesture on the file panel.
o The leading "/" on folder names is no longer shown.
o Portrait mode thumbnails are slightly smaller. This allows more thumbnails to be visible at one time.

Selection Mode:
o Selection Mode makes small screen devices more efficient to use. It lets you view selected thumbnails while entering metadata values.
- Select some files in the file panel.
- Press the Selection Mode icon on the program action bar at the screen top. (It looks like a pencil, formerly a checkbox.)
- The selection mode panel will appear containing a narrow file panel and a metadata panel. Only the previously selected files appear. You may work with these files as you normally do in FastPhotoTagger.
- You may adjust the relative widths of the two panels. Tap on the vertical dividing line to reveal a "grabber". Press on the grabber and drag the dividing line to a new position.
- For convenience, a Select All command icon has been added to the action bar, but you may select some or all files for operations.
- To exit Selection Mode, press the ".." folder icon or press the back key once to unselect and again to exit.
 
Panel Management:
o The default color theme is now "light". Use "Program Settings / Colors / Themes" to change it.
o The icon for invoking the Select / Unselect dialog has changed.
o The title of the file panel is now wider and able to show the full path more often.
o The titles of the home and metadata panels are now represented by icons: a menu and a tag. The home panel is renamed to the menu panel.
o After pressing a command button on the Menu panel, the File panel is selected.
o When switching to the Menu panel or the File panel, the soft keyboard is hidden.
o After pressing the Change button on the Metadata panel, the soft keyboard is hidden and the File panel is selected.
o After selecting a folder from the Favorites menu, the File panel is selected.
o When opening the Keywords checkbox entry dialog, the soft keyboard is hidden.
o When nothing is selected, the back key selects the File panel.

Fixes:
o Fixed: Duplicate keywords are now consistently removed from all keyword metadata tags.
o Fixed: Multiple spaces within a keyword are now replaced by a single space.
o Fixed: Spaces on the end of a keyword are now removed.
o Fixed: Thumbnails were sometimes not updated after delete/rename sequences.
o Fixed: In "Program Settings / Slideshow / Slide view time", 8 seconds was listed twice.
o Fixed: Several French language phrases were corrected.


o 05-Dec-2017, v2.0
o You may now search for exact word phrases or multi-word keywords by enclosing them in curly braces, e.g., {New York} will match keyword "New York", but not keyword "New York City".
o When collecting metadata from files, the "Working..." panel title is now updated with progress.
o In "Program Settings / Slideshow / Caption Location" you may now choose to overlay the caption on top of the image rather than next to it.
o In "Program Settings / Sorting method" you may now choose to sort images on the file panel by the value of one of your metadata tags. (Note that some ExifTool pseudo-tags, e.g., File:System:FileModifyDate, are refreshed only when the folder is re-opened.)
o In "Program Settings / Sorting method" you may now choose to sort images on the file panel ascending or descending.
o "Program Settings / Side-by-side panels / Auto" now uses physical screen width (or physical window width in Android 7+) rather than pixel width to choose the number of panels to display. One, two, or three panels may be displayed. This should provide a pleasing result for more devices. You still may have to change the number of visible panels or individual panel widths for best usability.
o The High Efficiency Image Format file extensions heif and heic are now recognized as image types. These images and their thumbnails are not viewable. Not all metadata tags are writable. See the ExifTool documentation.
o Fixed: FastPhotoTagger would not run at all on some Samsung Galaxy devices. See known problems.
o Fixed: Reordering or deleting from metadata and labels settings no longer causes internal, fast-access copies of metadata to be discarded. Adding an item will still cause discarding.

o 03-Oct-2017, v1.9
o On the Metadata Panel, pressing one Change button now causes all Change buttons to be pressed.
o You may now search for phrases or multi-word keywords by enclosing them in quotation marks, e.g., "New York".
o In the Fast Tagger, a double tap on the image will enlarge it to full screen width with the input form shown as an overlay. A subsequent double tap will reduce the image size. This provides you with more image detail during the fast tagging operation.
o See the user guide and this for details on all the following new features: (Sorry, Android 6+ is required for some of these.)
o Keyword files: You may now make lists of your keywords in text files and use those files to set metadata using a checkbox entry method. Use keyword lists as an alternative to typing or when you want to limit keyword values to a controlled set. The keyword files are managed in "Program Settings/Keywords". (Android 6+)
o Keyword synonyms: Synonyms are supported in keyword files. When a keyword is assigned its synonyms may also be assigned. (Android 6+)
o On the Metadata Panel, the Fast Tagger, the Search panel, and the Abbreviations Settings, the menu invoked by a long press now contains an "Edit" item which allows editing the value in a larger space, and a "Keywords" item which provides a checkbox entry method using your keyword files. (Android 6+)
o Hierarchical keywords: You may now assign a hierarchical keyword structure as a metadata value. You may also specify a backup metadata field that will automatically receive the flattened version of hierarchical keywords. Hierarchical keywords are managed in "Program Settings/Metadata Tags/Hierarchical Keywords".
o Fixed: Merely looking at metadata or labels settings no longer causes internal, fast-access copies of metadata to be discarded.
o Fixed: Modified values were lost when rotating the Fast Tagger screen.
o Fixed: The sequence "Export Settings", "Import Settings" no longer changes the order of metadata in "Program Settings"
o Fixed: An error occurred on exit from Program Settings while displaying the contents of a zip file

o 14-Mar-2017, v1.8
o This version contains full support for Android 7+ split screen, aka multi-window mode. Please read known problems.
o "Program Settings / Side-by-side panels / Auto" now uses screen width (or window width in Android 7+) rather than device orientation to choose the number of panels to display. One, two, or three panels may be displayed. Previously, only one or three panels would be displayed. You still may have to change the number of visible panels or individual panel widths for best usability.
o The default thumbnail size and the default font size have been reduced to better suit current screen resolutions. Use "Program Settings" to change them to your liking.
o Fixed: On Android 7+ in split-screen mode, the secondary app windows (compare metadata, slideshow, etc.) did not correctly respond to resize operations, e.g., resizing from half screen to three quarters screen.
o Fixed: On Android 7+ in split-screen mode, the "App may not work in split-screen" warning no longer appears.
o Fixed: Display of a large number of search results was slow and was not interruptible. (It still may be slow, but you can now scroll the results or cancel by navigating away.)
o Fixed: Search results were not invalidated, as they needed to be, after a Program Settings / Metadata or Labels change.

o 28-Jan-2017, v1.7
o Fixed: On Android 7.0 and later, the dialog boxes for Program Settings / Menu / "Import Settings" and "Export Settings" were missing fields and buttons.
o Fixed: Commas were incorrectly removed from abbreviation expansions.
o Fixed: When appending or removing keywords using abbreviations, a space was required after "+++" or "---".

o 21-Dec-2016, v1.6
o Android 4.1 or later is required for this version of FastPhotoTagger. Earlier Android versions should use FastPhotoTagger v1.5.
o The application file (apk) supports both ARM and x86 CPU architectures.
o On the Metadata Panel, you may now append to or remove from current metadata values as well as replace them. This is especially useful for adding new keywords or deleting old keywords in a set of photos. See User Guide.
o The table displayed by "Compare Metadata" is now editable. You may edit metadata values cell by cell like a spreadsheet. See User Guide.
o In the Photo Viewer, a single tap on the photo will display your chosen metadata as an overlay.
o In Program Settings/Colors, a Theme option has been added. Selecting a theme sets all colors in a consistent way. You may still change individual colors as you wish.
o "Program Settings" has been added to the program menu.
o Dutch and Greek translations of the user interface are now available.
o Fixed: Some folder moves from SD card to primary storage failed.
o Fixed: The progress bar was not updated during some SD card file moves.
o Fixed: Some missing German translations were added.

o 20-Aug-2016, v1.5
o In the Photo Viewer, image zooming has been improved for JPG and PNG files.
o Clicking the file panel title now briefly displays the full folder path at the top of the display.
o Fixed: On secondary (external) SD cards, Save-As in text editor did not work.
o Fixed: On some systems running Android 6.0, SD cards could not be given write permission.

o 18-Mar-2016, v1.4
o Secondary (external) SD cards are now supported on Android 5.0+. Use the "Open Image Folder" button on the home panel to give FastPhotoTagger permission to write on the SD card. See User Guide.
o Changed: The program icon has been updated.
o Fixed: Slideshows of multiple Tiff images in one file did not show captions.
o Fixed: View image could fail with many, quick View/Backs in succession.
o Fixed: The device might go to sleep during long metadata change operations. (The screen still may go dark but the operation continues.)
o Fixed: "Wait..." messages may no longer be hidden by tapping on the screen. Hiding the "Wait..." message obscured the fact that operations were still running.

o 14-Jan-2016, v1.3
o Panel sizes may now be adjusted. Clicking on a vertical panel dividing line reveals a "grabber." Press on a grabber and drag the dividing line to a new position. See User Guide. Android 3.0 or higher is required for this feature.
o The selection status has moved from a small space at the bottom of the file panel to a larger space at the top next to the program name.
o The action bar commands now change to reflect item selection.
o File copy, move, and delete operations are much faster.
o Changed: The format of View All Metadata has changed. The new format is faster when there is a lot of metadata.
o Changed: FastPhotoTagger no longer writes abbreviations to the user dictionary.
o Fixed: Device architecture values "aarch*" were not recognized as ARM devices.
o Fixed: The font color on the metadata panel did not respond to settings changes.
o Fixed: The "Focused" color could not be restored to its default without a program restart.
o Fixed: Tiff files inside zip files could not be viewed.

o 01-Dec-2015, v1.2
o The interface for selecting file items has changed to be closer to Android recommendations. (I apologize for any confusion this causes.) See User Guide.
--When nothing is selected: short press opens or views the item. Use short press on a folder icon to navigate the file system..
--When something is selected: short press selects or unselects the item.
--Long press unselects everything and selects the item.
--Back key unselects everything.
o A "Compare Metadata" command has been added to the program menu. Select 2 to 8 files and then invoke the command.
o Many TIFF files are now displayed by FastPhotoTagger. See Installation notes and User Guide. Multiple Tiff images in one file may be viewed as a slideshow.
o Program Settings for side-by-side panels have changed. You may now specify 1, 2, or 3 panels visible as well as an automatic mode.
o Many metadata values are now presented in words instead of their internal numeric value, e.g., Flash: "On, Return detected" instead of "15".
o An x86 version of FastPhotoTagger is available on the project web site.
o Fixed: When not using abbreviations, metadata changes where the new value had leading or trailing spaces were incorrectly reported to fail.
o Fixed: Some file management operations did not work when the file panel was not selected. The menu button now automatically selects the file panel.

o 20-Oct-2015, v1.1
o This revision is specifically for x86 / Atom / Intel devices running Android 4.1 and higher.
o Many TIFF files are now displayed by FastPhotoTagger. See Installation notes and User Guide. Multiple Tiff images in one file may be viewed as a slideshow.
 
o 12-Sep-2015, v1.0
o You may now specify metadata tags using ExifTool group 0 and/or 1 group names. Examples: EXIF:IFD0:ModifyDate, EXIF:ModifyDate, IFD0:ModifyDate. See User Guide,
o The "View all Metadata" command now displays ExifTool group 0 and 1 names.
o Fixed: Images might be copied more than once from text messages to the Download folder after viewing an image with "FastPhotoTagger", switching applications, and then returning to FastPhotoTagger.
o Fixed: Image thumbnails were sometimes lost after exiting the text editor.
o Fixed: Email attached text files could not be opened by the text editor.
o Fixed: Returning to FastPhotoTagger after switching applications sometimes resulted in a "Nothing to rename" warning.
o Fixed: Added a start-up test for ARM processors. FastPhotoTagger only runs on ARM processors (until v1.1),

o 09-Jun-2015, v0.4 Beta
o Changed: The default side-by-side mode and default font size were changed for tablet-sized devices.

o 08-Jun-2015, v0.3 Beta
o Changed: The internal manifest file was modified for Google Play Store purposes. No feature changes were made.

o 30-May-2015, v0.2 Beta
o Changed: The View menu item now only appears if one file is selected.
o Fixed: On the "View All Metadata" screen, if a group contained multiple tags with the same name, only one tag was displayed.
o Fixed: Error messages were written to the log file for file operations that were not errors, such as cancelling a copy or move.
o Fixed: Navigating to the root folder caused an error message to be written to the log file.
o Fixed: When viewing the contents of a zip file, selections were lost when the sorting method was changed.

o 15-May-2015, v0.1 Beta
o Fixed: Open with FastPhotoTagger of a DNG or RAW file from another program failed if FastPhotoTagger was not already running.
o Fixed: Corrected version reporting on Help panel.
o Fixed: Optimized long press handling on Menu and Metadata panels.
o Fixed: When sorting files by size or date, changing metadata did not refresh the files list with the new order.
o Fixed: When viewing images in a zip file, the first image was displayed rather than the selected image.
o Fixed: The status line (bottom of the file panel) was not updated after the Select command.
o Fixed: At program start, the file panel was misaligned if the file panel location was a .zip file.
o Fixed: A "cache read" error occurred in rare instances after a Settings change.

o 29-Apr-2015, v0.0.3 Beta
o Slideshow and Slideshow Settings are now implemented.
o Search Metadata is now implemented.
o The context menu was folded into the main application menu.
o A long press on a folder or file item now selects/deselects the item. Short press behavior is unchanged.
o Abbreviations are now temporarily written to the user's personal dictionary and may appear as suggestions during typing.
o Enlarged the "Image Loading" icon.
o Added to the installation instructions.
o In Fast Tagger, abbreviations are now expanded when the next image is swiped into view.
o On small screens in landscape mode, the keyboard no longer fully hides the application.
o Upgraded ExifTool to v9.90.
o Reduced the .apk file size and the program memory requirements.
o Lower case abbreviations now match mixed-case and upper case words.
o Renamed the settings backup file from preferences.zip to settings.zip.
o Fixed: Some translations were updated.

o 24-Mar-2015, v0.0.2 Beta
o DNG and many RAW formats are now supported.
o Metadata and Labels for a folder are now cached on first visit to a folder. Subsequent visits to the folder load much more quickly.
o Added Performance Tips to the User Guide.
o Added more information to the log file when writing metadata fails.
o Added Top/Bottom choices to menu.
o Fixed: In Fast Tagger mode, the metadata changes against the last file were not written to the image.
o Fixed: Some translations were updated.

o 28-Feb-2015, v0.0.1 Beta
o First beta release.
o Slide show is not implemented.
o Search metadata is not implemented.