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[JolDC]

Since I started testing MC (I think starting with .145), I have been trying to add a custom field called User.  Of course, I can successfully add the field.  However, I am trying to set the type to List (semi-colon separated) and I am not having any luck.

Hopefully it is my misunderstanding of what needs to happen.  Basically I have tried select List from the pulldown and in the Value field entering "Jol;Le;All"

When I look at this field for a file, I only get two choices: blank and "Jol;Le;All"

Anyone else try it?  Am I doing it incorrectly?

Thanks
Jol

[Matt]

If you want a list of choices, add the list (as a pipe delimited string) to the "Values" field.

Values: Jol|Le|All

Use 'String' for the data type.  You want a 'List' data type when the value itself is a list. (i.e. people in a picture: larry; curly; moe)

Thanks.

(NOTE: next build will change to using a semi-colon to delimit the "Values" field for the sake of consistency)

[JolDC]

If you want a list of choices, add the list (as a pipe delimited string) to the "Values" field.

Values: Jol|Le|All

Use 'String' for the data type.  You want a 'List' data type when the value itself is a list. (i.e. people in a picture: larry; curly; moe)

Thanks.

(NOTE: next build will change to using a semi-colon to delimit the "Values" field for the sake of consistency)

Thanks.  I will wait for the next build before doing anything with this.

[nila]

Haven't played with this yet at all but I'm going to in the VERY near future.

What I want to know now though is if it is possible to see a list of other values you have entered into the field?

So like if I create a field for my images called: people and then enter a bunch of values, is it at all possible to bring up a box with all the already entered values and then just go through this list and enter check boxes next to the people that are in the image??

The reason I ask is because it would REALLY help to for consistency sake to be able to see the names used before otherwise someone who's name is: Kalindi, who I usually call Bindi could end up getting wrongly called Bindi in some of them and Kalindi in others meaning she wouldn't show for a search for Kalindi on the ones she was named Bindi in.

Basically - I'd like a box like the one we get in the search wizard where we can see all the previous values and just check whichever apply.
It'd make it a LOT better and is if I remember correctly how Portfolio does it which is a top of the range professional image cataloguing program.

[aussie1]

That's a good idea Nila.

[V-Man]

Just a thought but I think you could do something similar using a group of playlists. One playlist per person. There's a page on the properties panel for selecting which playlists a file is contained in which uses checkboxes.

But I agree, conceptually the List data type is very powerful, but more work needs to be done on the interface to reveal the power. Basically what's needed is for a small [...] button next to List fields, that pops up a dialog box with the following controls:

Category: A combobox that allows a named set of keywords to be selected from a predefined list (such as People or Fruit). This would be better than having just one global keywords list.

Categories...: A button that opens another dialog box that allows new categories to be created and keywords added to them. Eg, People={Me;Mum;Dad} Fruit={Apple;Banana;Cranberry}.

Keywords: A listbox of the keywords defined for the selected category, with checkboxes beside each item. Checked if all files in the selection have this keyword, gray checkmark if at least one of the selected files have the keyword, or no checkmark if no files have the keyword. Click checkboxes to toggle between the three states.

OK: Button to update fields of selected files. If any checkmarks are still gray, that keyword will only appear in those files that originally included them. Otherwise that keyword will be added to or removed from all selected files.

I think this would provide many possibilities for quick categorization of files.

Another possibility to make things easier without too much extra effort would be to support the following syntax for values of List field when several files are selected (ie when "<varies>" is shown):

+Pop +Rock -Blues

Rather than setting the field of each selected file to "+Pop +Rock -Blues" it should add "Pop" and "Rock" to the list of delimited fields to each file if that value is not already present, and delete "Blues" if it is. Another useful idea would be to add a character that indicates you want this field for each file to be resorted so that, eg, "Pop; Rock; Blues" becomes "Blues; Pop; Rock".