Get started
+ Quick start
+ Tutorial videos
Tool index
+ Metadata Panel
+ Fast Tagger
+ Metadata Viewer
+ Metadata Compare
+ Metadata Inspector
+ MultiTagger
+ Slideshow
+ File Manager
+ Search
+ ExifTool Command Builder
o Set
individual images to have unique tags
o Compare and edit metadata in several images
o Execute custom ExifTool commands
+ View metadata:
o View and print all metadata in an image
o Compare metadata in several images
o View images and slideshows with metadata captions
+ Search metadata:
o Create and search a metadata database
+ Manage images
o Rotate JPEG images
o Rename, Copy, Move, Delete, Drag
+ Work quickly:
o Define abbreviations for faster tagging
o Use keyword list files to limit keyword choice
o Use hierarchical keywords
o Interactively build and use a keyword list
o Use keyboard shortcuts instead of pointing device
+ Work efficiently:
o Control which metadata fields are written
o Open multiple image folders simultaneously
o Sort image files in various ways
o Modify or undo changes before committing to files
o Customize the appearance of FastPhotoTagger
+ Use multiple devices:
o Transfer program settings to other computers
o Install FastPhotoTagger on a removable drive
o Use FastPhotoTagger on your Android device
Alas, nothing is ever perfect, please see the list of known problems.
o Compare and edit metadata in several images
o Execute custom ExifTool commands
+ View metadata:
o View and print all metadata in an image
o Compare metadata in several images
o View images and slideshows with metadata captions
+ Search metadata:
o Create and search a metadata database
+ Manage images
o Rotate JPEG images
o Rename, Copy, Move, Delete, Drag
+ Work quickly:
o Define abbreviations for faster tagging
o Use keyword list files to limit keyword choice
o Use hierarchical keywords
o Interactively build and use a keyword list
o Use keyboard shortcuts instead of pointing device
+ Work efficiently:
o Control which metadata fields are written
o Open multiple image folders simultaneously
o Sort image files in various ways
o Modify or undo changes before committing to files
o Customize the appearance of FastPhotoTagger
+ Use multiple devices:
o Transfer program settings to other computers
o Install FastPhotoTagger on a removable drive
o Use FastPhotoTagger on your Android device
Alas, nothing is ever perfect, please see the list of known problems.
Quick Start #1
Assign the same metadata to
multiple photos:
This is a fast way to tag fields
like Copyright, City, Country, and others that are the
same in a large set of images.
| 1. Open an image folder. |
| 2. Select one or more photos with the mouse or click the "Select All" button. |
| 3. Enter a value into a metadata field. |
| 4. Click the "Change" button. |
| 5. Write the metadata to the photo files. |
| Also see Append or Remove
Metadata in Multiple Photos. |
Quick Start #2
Assign unique metadata to each photo:
This is a fast way to tag fields like Keywords, Description, and others that are different in each image.
(Optional) Open the "Program Settings / Abbreviations" panel. |
(Optional) Use Right-Click/Insert Rows to add rows. Create abbreviations for frequently used tag values. Keywords need a trailing semi-colon on their expansions. Click column header to sort. |
| 1. Open an image folder. |
| 2. Select one or more photos with the mouse or click the "Select All" button. |
| 3. Open the Fast Tagger window. |
Continue...
| 4. Select the appropriate tag name. |
5. Enter tag value with or without abbreviations.
Type Enter to advance to next photo. (Optional) Abbreviations make this operation very fast.Repeat this step until all files are tagged. |
| 6. After all photos are tagged, click the "Change" button to write changed metadata to the photos. |
Append or Remove Metadata in Multiple Photos If several files are selected and their current metadata differs, you will see ***multiple_values*** in the "Metadata for Selected" panel. You have the option of replacing, appending to, or removing some of the metadata in all the files. This is especially useful for adding new keywords or deleting old keywords.  1. Click in the field showing ***multiple_values***. The string "+++" and the "Append" button will appear. 2. To set the metadata in all the files to the same value, delete the "+++", enter a new value, press the "Change" button. 3. To append to the metadata in all the files, preserving current values, type a new value after "+++", press the "Append" button. 4. To remove certain metadata from all the files, delete the "+++", enter "---" followed by the metadata to remove, press the "Remove" button. 5. Special note 1: Since many people care about the order of keywords, you will see ***multiple_values*** even if the keywords are all the same but not in the same order in every file. Use Inspect Metadata to look at just the keywords in a set of files 6. Special note 2: If the metadata field is one of these fields associated with the MWG Composite tags then duplicate entries will be removed during the Append and Remove operations: -- Artist, EXIF:Artist, EXIF:IFD0:Artist -- By-line, IPTC:By-line -- Creator, XMP:Creator, XMP:XMP-dc:Creator -- Keywords, IPTC:Keywords -- MWG:Creator -- MWG:Keywords -- Subject, XMP:Subject, XMP:XMP-dc:Subject Modify or Undo Changes FastPhotoTagger
allows you to review, modify, or undo your changes
before writing them to the image files. Open the
"Program Settings / Pending Changes" panel. Click
on a column heading to sort the table.
Right-click to delete rows in the table. Edit
within a table cell to make a correction.
 |
|||
Choose Metadata
FastPhotoTagger allows you to
choose the metadata fields you wish to work with. Open the
"Program Settings / Metadata" panel. Right-click to insert
or delete rows in the table. For each new entry, enter a
screen label (or prompt), a valid metadata tag name, a
text entry field size (small or large or none) and then
check/uncheck DB for database use. If you wish, you may
enter more than one tag in the "Metadata Tags" column.
Only the first tag will be displayed by FastPhotoTagger,
but changes to it will also be written to the other tags.
FastPhotoTagger uses ExifTool to write metadata, so any tag recognized by ExifTool may be used. See https://exiftool.org/TagNames/index.html for a complete list. Some metadata tags, such as Keywords and Subject, are defined by their standard as lists. For compatibility with other software applications, you should separate individual list items with semi-colons. For example, "Keyword1; Keyword2; Keyword3;".
If you wish, you may prefix a tag with
Do not enter the same tag name more than once in the metadata list unless all uses are qualified with unique group names. For example, specifying Keywords and IPTC:Keywords may lead to confusing results. Instead just use IPTC:Keywords. If you use MWG tag names do not also use their derivative tags. e.g., if you use MWG:Keywords, do not also use IPTC:Keywords or XMP-dc:Subject. Similarly, if you use MWG tag names do not modify their derivative tags in "Compare Metadata" or "Inspect Metadata."
Various photo viewers and web sites choose to use different tags. Confusingly, they sometimes do not use the precise metadata tag name or do not even tell you the tag name. Choose metadata tags based on your needs or the preferences of your other software applications.
When setting keywords, you may define lists of your keywords and limit keyword choice to those in the lists. See Keyword List Files. You may also choose to define keywords in a hierarchical fashion. See Using Hierarchical Keywords.
Examples with explanation:
FastPhotoTagger uses ExifTool to write metadata, so any tag recognized by ExifTool may be used. See https://exiftool.org/TagNames/index.html for a complete list. Some metadata tags, such as Keywords and Subject, are defined by their standard as lists. For compatibility with other software applications, you should separate individual list items with semi-colons. For example, "Keyword1; Keyword2; Keyword3;".
If you wish, you may prefix a tag with
o an ExifTool level 0 group name such as XMP:, IPTC:, or EXIF:, example: XMP:Caption orSee https://exiftool.org/#groups. If you do not specify a prefix or the prefix is ambiguous then ExifTool decides which groups will receive the tag.
o an ExifTool level 1 group name such as XMP-acdsee, example: XMP-acdsee:Caption or
o ExifTool level 0 and level 1 group names, example: XMP:XMP-acdsee:Caption.
Do not enter the same tag name more than once in the metadata list unless all uses are qualified with unique group names. For example, specifying Keywords and IPTC:Keywords may lead to confusing results. Instead just use IPTC:Keywords. If you use MWG tag names do not also use their derivative tags. e.g., if you use MWG:Keywords, do not also use IPTC:Keywords or XMP-dc:Subject. Similarly, if you use MWG tag names do not modify their derivative tags in "Compare Metadata" or "Inspect Metadata."
Various photo viewers and web sites choose to use different tags. Confusingly, they sometimes do not use the precise metadata tag name or do not even tell you the tag name. Choose metadata tags based on your needs or the preferences of your other software applications.
When setting keywords, you may define lists of your keywords and limit keyword choice to those in the lists. See Keyword List Files. You may also choose to define keywords in a hierarchical fashion. See Using Hierarchical Keywords.
Examples with explanation:
| Screen
Label |
Metadata
Tags |
Size |
DB |
Explanation |
| Title |
Title | small |
y |
Use Title metadata.
Use a small text entry field. |
| Title | XMP:Title | small |
y |
Same as previous
but explicitly specify XMP metadata. |
| Title | XMP:XMP-dc:Title | small |
y |
Same as previous but explicitly
specify groups 0, 1. |
| Caption |
IPTC:Caption-Abstract |
large |
y |
Use
Caption-Abstract metadata. Use a large text entry
field. |
| Keywords |
IPTC:Keywords,
XMP-dc:Subject |
large |
y |
Write to two
metadata fields. |
| Image Size |
Composite:ImageSize |
none |
y |
Use in metadata
database but do not show on screen. |
| Copyright |
Copyright |
small |
n |
Display on screen but do not use in
metadata database. |
FastPhotoTagger allows you to
view all the metadata that is stored in your photos. Open
an image folder, select one or more photos, press the
"View All Metadata For Selected Photos" button. Then you
can step through the photos. (See below.) You can sort by
clicking on a column name. Note that the displayed
metadata does not include pending changes.
The metadata is printable and some customization of the printed version is possible. Press the "Print Preview" button and see Printing Metadata Reports.
The metadata is printable and some customization of the printed version is possible. Press the "Print Preview" button and see Printing Metadata Reports.
Compare (and Change) Metadata in Several Image Files
FastPhotoTagger allows you to
display and compare all the metadata in up to 8
images files field-by-field. When a metadata field's
values are not the same in every file the values are
displayed in red. Open an image folder, select two
to eight photos, press the "Compare All Metadata For
Selected Photos" button. You can sort by clicking on
a column name. Note that the displayed metadata does
not include pending changes.
Inspect (and Change) Metadata in Several Image Files
Use the filter button to
limit the display to just tags related to
your settings or to just values that differ.
The Compare Metadata table is editable. You may change values cell-by-cell like a spreadsheet. You may copy and paste contiguous groups of cells. You may right-click to copy selected cells from one column to other columns. Changed cells are shown with a gray background.
Use the "Search" button to search for tag names or tag values. The search starts at the selected cell and wraps around the table. Search is case insensitive.
Use "Replace" and "Replace All" buttons to replace one or all of the metadata values found by search. Replace and Replace All are case sensitive.
When you finish editing, press the "Change" button to copy your changes to the "Program Settings / Pending Changes" panel. Some of your changes may not be shown on the "Metadata for Selected" panel until you write them to the photo files.
The Compare Metadata table is editable. You may change values cell-by-cell like a spreadsheet. You may copy and paste contiguous groups of cells. You may right-click to copy selected cells from one column to other columns. Changed cells are shown with a gray background.
Use the "Search" button to search for tag names or tag values. The search starts at the selected cell and wraps around the table. Search is case insensitive.
Use "Replace" and "Replace All" buttons to replace one or all of the metadata values found by search. Replace and Replace All are case sensitive.
When you finish editing, press the "Change" button to copy your changes to the "Program Settings / Pending Changes" panel. Some of your changes may not be shown on the "Metadata for Selected" panel until you write them to the photo files.
Inspect (and Change) Metadata in Several Image Files
The "Inspect Metadata" command
is another way to compare metadata in several
files. Inspect Metadata works with only one tag
at a time from your settings and can examine a
large number of files.
This is a handy way to replace one keyword with another in a large number of files. Also, after a tagging session, you can check quickly that all files have been tagged correctly.
Open an image folder, select some photos, press "Inspect Metadata" button. You can sort by clicking on a column name. Note that the displayed metadata DOES include pending changes, unlike Compare Metadata.
The Inspect Metadata table is editable. You may change values cell-by-cell like a spreadsheet. You may copy and paste contiguous groups of cells. Changed cells are shown with a gray background.
Use the "Menu" button to select a different metadata field.
Use the "Search" button to search for tag values. The search starts at the selected cell and wraps around the table. Search is case insensitive. Another way to search is to click on a word in the word frequency table at left.
Use "Replace" and "Replace All" buttons to replace one or all of the metadata values found by search. Replace and Replace All are case sensitive.
When you finish editing, press the "Change" button to copy your changes to the "Program Settings / Pending Changes" panel. Some of your changes may not be shown on the "Metadata for Selected" panel until you write them to the photo files.
The "MultiTagger" is a simple, table-oriented way to construct and use a keyword list. You have the benefit of checkbox tagging and also can instantly define new keywords as you need them. The MultiTagger depends on your "Program Settings / Metadata" so be sure you've finalized that before using. You may use the MultiTagger with keyword and short non-keyword fields. The MultiTagger is optimal when all the possible metadata values can fit onto the screen at once, less than about 200 values.
Open an image folder, select some photos, then select "MultiTagger" from the overflow menu.
o In the MultiTagger, select images by click, shift-click, CTRL-click or the "Select All" button. When more than one image is selected "+++" is shown on the button bar and the MultiTagger appends to existing values.
o Use "Add Column" to add a checklist. Each checklist is tied to a metadata field. Each checklist has a "Category." One metadata field may have several categories. In the above screenshot, MWG:Keywords has two categories: "nature" and "animal."
o Add a new keyword by clicking in a cell and typing the keyword.
o Assign a keyword to an image by selecting the image and checking a keyword box.
o When you add keywords you may want to save the updated keyword list by using the "Save Lists" button.
o You may reorder the columns by dragging their headers and may sort by clicking on a header.
o You may move a keyword to another column by selecting it with Enter or an arrow key and then right-clicking.
This is a handy way to replace one keyword with another in a large number of files. Also, after a tagging session, you can check quickly that all files have been tagged correctly.
Open an image folder, select some photos, press "Inspect Metadata" button. You can sort by clicking on a column name. Note that the displayed metadata DOES include pending changes, unlike Compare Metadata.
The Inspect Metadata table is editable. You may change values cell-by-cell like a spreadsheet. You may copy and paste contiguous groups of cells. Changed cells are shown with a gray background.
Use the "Menu" button to select a different metadata field.
Use the "Search" button to search for tag values. The search starts at the selected cell and wraps around the table. Search is case insensitive. Another way to search is to click on a word in the word frequency table at left.
Use "Replace" and "Replace All" buttons to replace one or all of the metadata values found by search. Replace and Replace All are case sensitive.
When you finish editing, press the "Change" button to copy your changes to the "Program Settings / Pending Changes" panel. Some of your changes may not be shown on the "Metadata for Selected" panel until you write them to the photo files.
The "MultiTagger" is a simple, table-oriented way to construct and use a keyword list. You have the benefit of checkbox tagging and also can instantly define new keywords as you need them. The MultiTagger depends on your "Program Settings / Metadata" so be sure you've finalized that before using. You may use the MultiTagger with keyword and short non-keyword fields. The MultiTagger is optimal when all the possible metadata values can fit onto the screen at once, less than about 200 values.
Open an image folder, select some photos, then select "MultiTagger" from the overflow menu.
o In the MultiTagger, select images by click, shift-click, CTRL-click or the "Select All" button. When more than one image is selected "+++" is shown on the button bar and the MultiTagger appends to existing values.
o Use "Add Column" to add a checklist. Each checklist is tied to a metadata field. Each checklist has a "Category." One metadata field may have several categories. In the above screenshot, MWG:Keywords has two categories: "nature" and "animal."
o Add a new keyword by clicking in a cell and typing the keyword.
o Assign a keyword to an image by selecting the image and checking a keyword box.
o When you add keywords you may want to save the updated keyword list by using the "Save Lists" button.
o You may reorder the columns by dragging their headers and may sort by clicking on a header.
o You may move a keyword to another column by selecting it with Enter or an arrow key and then right-clicking.
View a Slideshow or a Single Image
FastPhotoTagger allows any of your metadata fields to be used as a caption on a slideshow. The caption may appear above, below, left, or right of the image. You may choose the size of the caption text and how much of the screen is devoted to the caption. Only selected images are shown in the slideshow. Slide controls optionally appear at the bottom of the screen.
View a Slideshow
| 1. Open the "Program Settings / Slideshow" panel. |
| 2. Enter choices for the slideshow. Close
Program Settings. |
| 3. Click the "View Slideshow for Selected
Photos" button or just press the space bar. To view multiple images within one Tiff file: select just one Tiff file; press "View Slideshow for Selected Photos." |
You may also view a single image by
double clicking on it. Your slideshow settings will
determine how the image, captions, and controls are
displayed.
You may use a pointing device or keyboard equivalents to view the slideshow.
You may use a pointing device or keyboard equivalents to view the slideshow.
| Keystroke |
Pointing Device |
Explanation |
| Right Arrow |
click control |
Next slide |
| Left Arrow |
click control |
Previous slide |
| Up arrow |
click control |
Play slideshow |
| Down arrow |
click control |
Pause slideshow |
| SPACE |
Toggle between play and pause |
|
| ENTER |
click Play button |
If the current slide is media
launch the media player |
| +, = |
double click |
Zoom in up to 3x actual size |
| -, _ |
double click |
Zoom out |
| click, drag |
Pan image |
|
| CTRL-F |
Launch the Fast Tagger to edit
the current image metadata |
|
| ESC |
click control |
Exit the
slideshow |
FastPhotoTagger supports limited file management. The file management commands apply to selected files and may be executed only when there are no unsaved changes in "Settings / Pending Changes" or on the Metadata Panel.
The commands "Rotate Left" and "Rotate Right" may be selected by a right-click in the thumbnails window. Rotation is supported only for JPEG files.
The commands "Rename", "Copy to", "Move to", and "Delete" may be selected by a right-click in the thumbnails window.
Image files can also be copied from the main application window to a file explorer window. Select one or more images and either issue the keyboard copy command (^C) or drag the images to a file explorer window. (Some file explorers may offer you the option of moving the files, however FastPhotoTagger is not designed to support moves. Do not move files from the main application window).
You may order the image files in a folder or the result of a search in a way that is most helpful to you. The default sorting is by filename but using "Change Sorting Method" from the overflow menu you may choose another sort method.
o Sort ascending or descending.
o Sort by any metadata value.
o Sort in two steps. For example, sort by Country then sort each country by City.
o Promote some files to the top of the sort by entering one or more words contained in their metadata. For example, sort by Country and move Spain files to the top.
o Promote files where metadata contains words close together. For example, "John Smith"~1 will promote files with <= 1 intervening words between John and Smith: "John Adam Smith", "Smith Charles John" etc.
o Use keyword file values in promotion fields. "[animal] [nature]"~2 promotes files with any keyword in animal and any keyword in nature with <= 2 intervening words.
o Promote some files before others by appending ^n to a word, e.g., "Spain France^2" promotes the France files before the Spain files.
Search for
Metadata
FastPhotoTagger can create a database of the metadata in all your photos. Then you can easily search for photos whose metadata satisfies your criteria. All the details are here.
FastPhotoTagger supports certain keystrokes as alternatives to pointing device gestures. They can speed up your tagging by eliminating hand switches between pointing device and keyboard. These are supported when appropriate for the context in which they are used.
| Keystroke(s) |
Pointing Device |
Explanation |
| Arrow Keys | click |
Navigate through the thumbnail images; navigate through edited text |
| Arrow Keys - Shifted |
click, shift-click |
Like arrow keys but select items |
| CTRL-A | Select All button |
Select all |
| CTRL-C, -X, -V |
Copy, Cut, Paste
operations |
|
| CTRL-E |
Overflow menu |
Open the ExifTool
Command Builder. |
| CTRL-O |
Open/Close a larger view of
the last selected thumbnail. |
|
| CTRL-S |
Change button |
Save changes to "Pending Changes". |
| ESC |
Close window or click |
Exit the current
viewer or transfer focus from the Metadata Panel to
the Image Panel |
| HOME, END |
click |
Move to start or end |
| HOME, END - Shifted |
click, shift-click |
Extend selection to start or end |
| TAB |
click |
Move focus to the Metadata Panel or
the next entry field in the Metadata Panel. |
| SPACE |
View Slideshow button |
View a slideshow of the selected
images. |
| CTRL-SPACE |
View a slideshow of the selected
images; automatically play media files when auto
advancing. |
If you run FastPhotoTagger on multiple computers you can transfer the settings from one computer to the others. If you use FastPhotoTagger for different purposes, requiring different settings, you can easily switch between different settings.
Open the "Program Settings / Other" panel. Press "Export Settings". Choose a file with the extension ".xml" to receive the settings. The settings will be written to the file.
Press "Import Settings". Choose a file with the extension ".xml" to which settings have previously been exported. Uncheck the boxes of the settings you do not wish to import. The selected settings from the imported file will replace your current settings.
Program Updates
Check the FastPhotoTagger Revision History for new features not yet described in this user guide. Read About FastPhotoTagger for known problems and workarounds.
Some Notes
The "Use Abbreviations" checkbox is used to enable/disable the expansion of abbreviations. When entered as metadata, abbreviations must be surrounded by whitespace to be recognized. For example, if "a", "b", and "c" are three abbreviations then "a b c" may expand to "apple banana cherry", but "abc" will not be expanded.
Some metadata tags, such as Keywords and Subject, are defined by their standard as lists. For compatibility with other software applications, you should separate individual list items with semi-colons. For example, "Keyword1; Keyword2; Keyword3;".
Newline characters are removed from text before being written to file metadata.
FastPhotoTagger can write metadata to any file type supported by ExifTool. See Types for a complete list. Not every tag can be written to every image file type. See Tag Names.
Some file types cannot be displayed and are shown as blank images. See About FastPhotoTagger for information about display of DNG, RAW, TIFF, HEIC, WEBP, and video format image files.
Video and audio files may 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. Thumbnails are shown for video and audio files if FFMPEG is installed. Video and audio files may be played if VLC is installed. See Installation notes.
In "Program Settings" you may choose to use larger or smaller thumbnail images. Please note that it takes longer to load folders when using larger thumbnails. Also, the number of images that can be loaded from a folder or a search result is limited by available memory and will be smaller when large thumbnails are used. You may increase available memory using a command line option. Read about increasing memory here.
ExifTool permits moving and renaming image files by use of the DIRECTORY and FILENAME metadata tags. However, FastPhotoTagger is not designed to support this. Do not change DIRECTORY and FILENAME metadata tag values. Use the "Rename" and "Move to" commands with a right-click in the thumbnails window. Also, see next note.
Many ExifTool operations including tag copying, geotagging, and file renaming can be performed using the ExifTool Command Builder.
There is limited support for metadata sidecar files. Contact the author for information.
The suggested keyword list is maintained in "autokeywords.txt" in the database folder. (The default database folder is ".fastphototagger.") You may edit that file with a text editor.
The MultiTagger keyword list is maintained in "multikeywords.txt" in the database folder. (The default database folder is ".fastphototagger.") You may edit that file with a text editor and may add it to Settings / Keywords.
FastPhotoTagger writes metadata and program errors to a file named "fastphototagger_log.txt" in your home folder. (Your home folder is something like "C:\Users\Dennis" or "/home/dennis") This may be useful when reporting problems to the author.
Comments, suggestions, and defect reports are always welcome. Send email to dennis508@yahoo.com.