Slideshow:
o The space key may be used to toggle between play and pause.
o After the last slide when auto advancing, the slideshow now loops back to the beginning. A brief alert is displayed when this happens. When not auto advancing, the last slide remains on-screen.
o Audio and video files may be played during slideshows by clicking the Play button on the slide or pressing the Enter key.
o Pressing the CTRL-F key suspends the slideshow and allows you to edit the metadata of the current slide with the Fast Tagger. Upon closing the Fast Tagger, the slideshow will resume.

Keyboard Shortcuts:
When input focus is on the image panel and images are selected:
o The SPACE key starts a slideshow.
o Tbe CTRL-SPACE key starts a slideshow and automatically plays audio and video files when the slideshow is auto advancing.

Search Database:
o Search has been re-implemented in a fashion compatible with the search in Android FastPhotoTagger. This search is much easier to use for simple searches and also scales up for more complex searches.
o The old version of search is still available through "Program Settings / Other / Use legacy search." Previously saved search files may only be used with legacy search.
o Search files saved with the new search may only be used with the new search. Search files are compatible with Android FastPhotoTagger v3.4.
o A "Help" button has been added to the Search window to show simple examples. The Users Guide and tutorial video have been updated to further explain the new search facility.
o A "Recent Searches" button has been added to show the history of searches performed. A recent search may be loaded with a button click. The recent search list is compatible with Android FastPhotoTagger v3.4.
o When sharing search files and search history with Android FastPhotoTagger, use the same metadata fields in Settings. The Settings Export/Import operations make it easy to move settings between devices.
o The possible number of recent search files in the "Current Search File" drop down menu has increased to 100.

Some things have not changed.
o You choose metadata, choose photo repositories, and build the database as before.
o Existing FastPhotoTagger databases are compatible with new search.
o You add search terms as before. But now each search term accepts text for all searchable metadata. Search terms are evaluated left to right, row by row. You link the search terms with AND/OR. AND has a higher priority so ANDs are always performed before ORs, like math where * is performed before +, e.g, 2+3*4 = 14.

Change Sorting Method:
o 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.

Keyword Suggestions:
o Longer lists of suggested keywords are now shown in a scrollable drop down list. Suggestions are now triggered by all words in a multi-word keyword.

Change Font:
o Larger font sizes may now be selected. The main window and secondary windows make better use of the font selection.

Tutorial Videos:
o A new video about finding misspelled or bad keywords has been added.

Fixes:
o When searching a hierarchical structure using "is contained in" or "is not contained in", the keyword had to match the case of the keyword in the keyword file.
o The vertical divider bar between the thumbnail panel and the metadata panel tended to drift to the left after several program invocations.
o Full screen was not properly restored after exiting and restarting the program.

Tutorial Videos:
o Tutorial videos are now available on several "getting started" topics.

File Management:
o The image rotation commands "Rotate Left" and "Rotate Right" and the file management commands "Rename", "Copy to", "Move to", and "Delete" are now activated by a right-click in the thumbnail window.

Metadata Panel:
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 both checkboxes is remembered between sessions.

Fast Tagger:
o A "Use Suggestions" checkbox has been added next to the "Use Abbreviations" checkbox. You may choose whether to use suggestions in keyword fields. The state of both checkboxes is remembered between sessions.

MultiTagger:
o The MultiTagger is a new tagging facility. The MultiTagger is checkbox oriented using a keyword list file. Unlike the current linear keyword lists, the MultiTagger is table oriented allowing more keywords to be shown on-screen. It allows you to build the keyword list dynamically. Plus, it can be used with both keyword and short non-keyword metadata fields.
o The MultiTagger is optimal when all the possible metadata values can fit onto the screen at once, less than about 200 values.
o A tutorial video may be found here. Also, see the user guide.
o To use the MultiTagger, select some files and invoke it from the overflow (4 lines) menu.
o 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.

ExifTool Command Builder:
o You may now save your own custom commands in the Tag Operations table. Put your commands in "exiftool.txt" in the database folder. (The default database folder is ".fastphototagger.") Two lines per command. Line 1: Description. Line 2: ExifTool options and commands. See ExifTool Command Builder.

Search Database:
o A new operation, "is not contained in", has been added to the search term dropdown menu. Use this operation to exclude from your search a keyword in a hierarchical keyword structure. This is the opposite of the "is contained in" operation.

Fixes:
o The database operation "is contained in" was matching substrings of keywords, not just entire words.
o After viewing images full screen beginning with a double-click, selection is changed to the last viewed image.
o When viewing portrait mode images using CTRL-O, zooming now fills all available panel space.
o Added a test for unhandled Unicode filenames in "Update Database."
o When reading files, minor ExifTool warnings are no longer written to the program log file.
o On Windows, deleting a folder from "Settings / Repositories" did not always delete the folder's records from the database.
o On Windows, when running FastPhotoTagger on a removable disk, the database was not always usable.

Tutorial Videos:
o Tutorial videos are now available on several "getting started" topics.

Program Look and Feel:
o The "Fast Tagger" and "View Metadata" icons in the left button bar have been updated to match the newer Android icons. The meaning of the buttons has not changed.
o The "Inspect Metadata" operation has moved from the overflow menu to the left button bar.

Keyword Suggestions:
o Suggested keywords are now offered in a drop down menu in the Metadata Panel, the Fast Tagger, and Search Metadata. Whenever you navigate to a folder, the keywords of files in that folder are accumulated into the suggested keyword list.
o 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.

Search Database:
o An additional FastPhotoTagger field has been added to the database. FPTVIEWS records the number of times each file in the database has been viewed as a result of a search operation. You may reset all counts to zero using the Metadata Explorer; see below. Run "Update Database" to add this field to the database. Adding this field to the database (a one-time operation) may take seconds or minutes depending on database size. A program restart may be necessary.
o Two new operations, "count <=" and "count >=', have been added to the search term drop down menu. Use these operations to search for files with the specified number of keywords, e.g., "keywords count <= 3" will find image files containing 0, 1, 2, or 3 keywords. Use these operations to find files that may need additional documentation. You may also use these operations on non-keyword metadata fields to count spaces, approximating the number of words.

Metadata Explorer:
o The Metadata Explorer (bottom of Search window) now displays its results in a small, separate window. (The View button previously did this.) Window contents can be copied/pasted into a text file and imported by a spreadsheet program for analysis.
o The explorer now distinguishes between upper and lower case words and keywords and sorts them in locale-dependent order. (Searching the database is still case-independent.)
o When the selected metadata is not a keyword type, the full field value is displayed. Previously individual words were displayed.
o The explorer now appends a use count to each value/keyword, e.g., "Paris#0251" means the Paris keyword appears 251 times in the database.
o Filter is now triggered by the Enter key. Previously, every typed character triggered a filter.
o Filter is now iterative, it acts on the results of the previous filter operation, if there was one, or on the entire database if there wasn't. Re-select the metadata field from the drop down menu to cancel filters.
o A search button has been added. After a filter operation, you may search the database for the values contained in the results window.
o An "FPTVIEWS=0" button has been added. Use this to reset view counts for all files back to zero.
o A "CSV" button has been added. This will export the entire metadata database to a comma separated value file with character format UTF8 and tab delimiters. The file is named "export.csv" and is located in the folder containing the metadata database. (The default location is the .fastphototagger folder.) This operation may be quite lengthy and cannot be interrupted.
o More information about the Metadata Explorer is in the search section of the user guide.

Fixes:
o Images from some Canon PowerShot cameras could not be rotated.
o When appending to multiple files' date or time tags in the Metadata Panel, a space is no longer automatically inserted between the old and appended values.
o On Windows, the ExifTool Command Builder failed when using hundreds of images and very long filenames.
o The change sorting and change labels dialogs could extend off-screen for very long lists of metadata.
o An ExifTool v12.27+ warning about "IPTCDigest not current" is now suppressed from the screen though still written to the log file.

Search Database:
o A new operation, "is contained in", has been added to the search term dropdown menu. Use this operation to 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. See the documentation.

Image Viewing:
o avif files are now recognized as image files. These files are viewable if you have ImageMagick installed.
o webm files are now recognized as video files. Thumbnails are shown if FFMPEG is installed. The video may be played if VLC is installed. These files are not writable by ExifTool.
o psd files are now viewable if you have ImageMagick installed. Multiple layers in one file may be viewed as a slideshow.

Settings:
o In "Program Settings / Metadata", the "Metadata Tags" column now provides a drop down list of frequently used tags from which you may select instead of type.

Keywords dialog:
o The dialog now starts up with focus on the Search field.

ExifTool Command Builder:
o The ExifTool Command Builder text input dialogs now provide a drop down list of frequently used tags from which you may select instead of type.
o A Formatting & Control option, "-IPTC:CodedCharacterSet=UTF8" has been added.

Fixes:
o On Windows, building the database failed when using a folder with hundreds of images and very long filenames.
o On some Mac systems, the hyperlinks in "About FastPhotoTagger" did not work. Contact the author if you still have this problem.

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 the semi-colon delimiter.
o The full hierarchy of the search result is shown as a tooltip on the search field.

Fast Tagger:
o The Fast Tagger window now has a split pane to allow complete views of longer metadata values.

Overflow Menu, all commands:
o The Overflow menu will be inactive if you have unsaved changes on the Metadata Panel.

Overflow Menu, Rotate:
o "Rotate Left" and "Rotate Right" commands have been added to the overflow menu. These commands only apply to JPEG files and can be executed only when there are no pending changes.

Overflow Menu, File Management:
o "Rename", "Copy to", "Move to", and "Delete" commands have been added to the overflow menu. These commands can be executed only when there are no pending changes.

ExifTool Command Builder:
o The ExifTool Command Builder now puts up file and folder choosers and text input dialogs instead of requiring those items to be typed or pasted into the table.

Removable drive:
o You may choose to install FastPhotoTagger on a removable disk or flash drive. For details, please read this.

Thumbnails:
o Long filenames are displayed when you hover over a thumbnail.

Fixes:
o The Fast Tagger did not always remove duplicate keywords.
o Selection change or folder navigation would lose unsaved changes on the Metadata Panel.
o On the "Select multiple image folders" dialog, folder children of roots were listed twice.
o In "Inspect Metadata", when abbreviations were disabled, text changes might be lost after a sort.
o In "Inspect Metadata", blank values did not always sort to the top.
o On Windows only, pressing the play button for audio or video files while in a full-screen slideshow caused the audio or video to play invisibly behind the full screen slide. The Play button is now disabled in full-screen slideshows.

o Thank you all for your ideas, suggestions, defect reports, translations, criticisms, compliments, and encouragement. FastPhotoTagger has come a long way since those early days and it's primarily due to the feedback you have given me. I hope to make it even better in the months and years ahead. I can't do it without you. -Dennis

Keywords dialog:
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 tree. Search is case insensitive.
o A keyword files pane has been added to the Keywords dialog. This is initialized to the active/inactive states shown in "Program Settings / Keywords" but during a keyword session you may check / uncheck files to change the set of keywords in use in that session.
o The keywords dialog is now titled with the Screen Label of the metadata being set.

Metadata panel:
o The keywords dialog now opens with just a right click.
o When using the keywords dialog, the "Change" button records the change and closes as it always did. Subsequently, when entering a keyword field, the checkbox panel will automatically reopen. This behavior will continue until the checkbox panel is cancelled.

Fast Tagger:
o The keywords dialog now opens with just a right click.
o When using the keywords dialog, the "Change" button now records the change and advances to the next image. The checkbox panel remains open until canceled.

Settings:
o In "Program Settings / Metadata", a new column, "DB", has been added. If checked, the metadata in this row will be included in the metadata database. This allows you to display many fields on your screen but create a smaller database for searching.

Program Look and Feel:
o The disk icon, used in "Write Changed Metadata..." and other places, has changed slightly: redder when enabled.
 
Fixes:
o Very recent versions of ExifTool, around 11.77, caused FastPhotoTagger to report errors when writing to keywords. The keywords were written correctly.
o UTF-8 characters in keyword files were incorrectly displayed on Windows.
o A warning is issued when UTF-8 characters are detected in paths and the workaround is not in effect. Read this.
o When setting hierarchical keywords, the Fast Tagger did not recognize multiple tag names in the "Program Settings / Metadata" flattened tag field.
o When printing multiple reports to file from the Metadata Viewer, only the first report went to a file while the remainder went to a real printer. Now subsequent reports go the first file name with a suffix, e.g., first_name.00001.pdf, etc. Be sure to check the "Print To File" checkbox on the Print dialog. You may have to specify "Microsoft Print to PDF" as your default printer.
o Fixed: Rapid pressing of the navigation buttons at the top of the application window could result in incorrect folder display.
o Fixed: The keyword dialog could be shown when no files were selected.
o Minor French text correction.

Overflow Menu:
o These settings commands have been added to the overflow menu as a convenience: "Change Sorting Method" and "Change Thumbnail Label".

Image Viewing:
o Images can now be zoomed to approximately 3x actual size.
o webp files are now recognized as image files. ImageMagick must be installed to view these files. These files are not writable by ExifTool.

EXE file:
o FastPhotoTagger.exe is now included in the Windows distribution. FastPhotoTagger.exe and FastPhotoTagger.jar must always be kept in the same folder.

Program Look and Feel:
o The disk icon, used in "Write Changed Metadata..." and other places, has changed slightly.

Documentation:
o The French user guide has been updated.

Fixes:
o Non-existent folders are removed from the "Current Folder" pulldown menu at program start up.
o Some windows were off-screen and not visible when the secondary display configuration changed.

Image Viewing:
o High Efficiency Image Format files (extension .heic) are now viewable if you have ImageMagick v7.0.8 or higher and ExifTool v11.42 or higher. Not all heic files may be viewable or writable. Read the limitations here.

Settings:
o In "Program Settings / Other", "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.

Fixes:
o Fixed: Export slideshow did not work.
o Fixed: The Windows Unicode filename workaround was not being applied to RAW files.
o Fixed: If a RAW file's embedded thumbnail is defective an attempt will be made to display a thumbnail derived from the full image.

Overflow Menu:
o A menu button has been added in the top-left corner of the main application window next to the Current Folder. This button will be used to invoke commands that don't fit on or are not appropriate for the the left button bar. The initial contents of the overflow menu are "Change Thumbnail Size", "ExifTool Command Builder", and "Inspect Metadata".

Compare metadata:
o A "Search" button has been added to the "Compare Metadata" screen. You may search for tag names or tag values. The search starts at the selected cell and wraps around the table. Search is case insensitive.
o "Replace" and "Replace All" buttons have been added to Compare Metadata. You may replace one or all of the metadata values found by search. Replace and Replace All are case sensitive.
o A "Filter" button has been added to the Compare Metadata screen. 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.
o The thumbnails are now scaled when the horizontal divider bar is moved.

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.

Image folder handling:
o A Down folder navigation button has been added to the top of the FastPhotoTagger window. If the current folder has child folders you may navigate to them using this button.

Slideshow:
o In "Program Settings / Slideshow" you may now choose to show multiple metadata values in a slideshow caption.
 
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.

Search Database:
o The Metadata Explorer pane, at the bottom of the Search window, now displays keyword/list fields as semicolon-delimited and not as a simple word list.

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 video and audio files if FFMPEG is installed. Video and audio files may be played if VLC is installed. See Installation notes.

Program Look and Feel:
o Many of the icons in the left button bar and on other screens have been revised. The order and meaning of the buttons has not changed.
o The style of some of the windows, forms, and buttons has changed to be Java-default rather than system-default.
Windows users of High-Contrast Themes: Screens will look better if you execute FastPhotoTagger from the command line as follows:
java -jar FastPhotoTagger.jar -look com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel

Fixes:
o Fixed: When running some newer versions of Java, the "Search Metadata" button was unresponsive.
o Fixed: Large thumbnails in the Compare Metadata table were cropped.
o Fixed: Sorting the Compare Metadata table seemed to undo metadata changes. (It didn't.)
o Fixed: The navigation buttons at the top of the window now are inactive (dim) when they can't be used.
o Fixed: The Pending Changes window was sometimes slow to update after writing changes to disk.
o Fixed: Opening the Fast Tagger window activated the Save button even if no changes were made.
o Fixed: The metadata choices in "Program Settings / Slideshow" were not updated when "Program Settings / Metadata" changed.
o Fixed: Slide shows were never shown on a secondary display. They will now show on the display running FastPhotoTagger.

Thumbnails:
o Portrait mode thumbnails on the main window (image panel) are slightly smaller. This allows more thumbnails to be visible at one time. See next item.
o On the "Program Settings / Other" panel, "Change Thumbnail Size" has been added. You may choose to view thumbnails smaller or larger than the default size. Read about trade-offs in the user guide.

Keywords dialog:
o When the keywords dialog starts up, nodes are expanded to show any checked keywords.
o The "OK" button on the Keywords dialog has been renamed to "Change". When the keywords dialog is invoked from the Metadata panel, pressing "Change" immediately causes all Change buttons on the Metadata Panel to be pressed.

Image folder handling:
o On the "Program Settings / Other" panel, "Select multiple image folders" has been added. By choosing this, you may simultaneously open and view more than one image folder at a time. See this for details.
o If you have opened multiple image folders, there is a popup menu on the image panel (right click) that will allow you to choose a display mode. You may view images "Merged" (all images sorted together) or "Grouped" (images organized by their folder).
o Search results may also be viewed using the "Grouped/Merged" popup menu.
o Folder navigation buttons have been added to the top of the FastPhotoTagger window next to the Current Folder. If only one folder is open you may use the buttons to navigate to the next or previous (alphabetical) folder, or one level up in the folder hierarchy.

Keyboard Shortcuts:
When input focus is on the image panel and images are selected:
o Left and right arrow keys (unshifted or shifted) now wrap around rows on the image panel and between first and last images.
o CTRL-O opens or closes a larger view of the last selected image.
o CTRL-S presses all "Change" buttons.
o TAB transfers focus to the first text input field on the Metadata Panel.

When input focus is on the Metadata Panel:
o TABs and Shift-TABs move to adjacent input fields.
o ESC transfers input focus to the image panel.
o CTRL-O opens or closes a larger view of the last selected image.
o CTRL-S presses all "Change" buttons.
o After "Change" button is pressed, focus moves back to the image panel.

Command line options:
o You may force FastPhotoTagger to start in a certain folder by executing from the command line in the FastPhotoTagger folder: java -jar FastPhotoTagger.jar -path fullpathtoimagefolder
o You may force FastPhotoTagger to re-search for ExifTool by executing from the command line in the FastPhotoTagger folder: java -jar FastPhotoTagger.jar -exiftool

Sidecar files:
o Limited support for metadata sidecar files has been added. Contact the author for information.

ExifTool command line:
o For advanced users, there is now an interface to the ExifTool command line from within FastPhotoTagger. Virtually any ExifTool command line can be built and executed. Access the Command Builder by typing CTRL-E while focus is on the image panel.

Fixes:
o Fixed: Duplicate keywords were not always removed when using abbreviations with hierarchical keywords.
o Fixed: The startup test for ExifTool has been changed to require that the file be named "exiftool" or "exiftool.exe".

o Added: You may now make lists of your keywords in text files and use those files to set metadata. Use keyword lists as an alternative to typing or when you want to limit keyword values to a controlled set. The lists are managed in "Program Settings/Keywords".
o Added: Keyword synonyms are supported in keyword list files. When a keyword is assigned its synonyms may also be assigned
o Added: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 using a popup menu in "Program Settings/Metadata".
o Added: A checkbox entry mode is now supported for entering keywords, either hierarchical or not, that are defined in keyword list files. Checkbox entry mode is invoked by a popup menu on metadata input fields.
o Added: In the "Search Metadata" window, a button has been added for updating the database.
o Added: In the Metadata Explorer at the bottom of the "Search Metadata" window, a button has been added that will copy filtered metadata values to a new window. This allows much easier examination of the values in a metadata database field. Also, you may copy (^C) the values to an editor for printing or preparing keyword list files.
o See the user guide for details on all the above features.
o Fixed: The sequence "Export Settings", "Import Settings" no longer changes the order of metadata in "Program Settings"
o Fixed: Long pathnames (>70 characters) of photo repositories could not be saved in Program Settings.
o Fixed: Thumbnails for some Canon camera images were blank.