Just to update my review of this:
I have tried adapting to using
CommentExplorer, but, though it works fine, it does not suit my particular requirements, which are:
- #1. Ability to create or edit/modify/append file Comments for either single files or several selected files.
- #2. Ability to search/list file comments in selected nested directories.
- #3. Ability to speedily list/search all comments for all commented files, preferably in some kind of database.
The best I have come up with so far is still the use of the Comment (Alt-Z) function in xplorer²:
Using this function meets requirements #1 and #2 very well, but producing (say) a whole-of-drive (all files) file comments listing is a bit tedious as the xplorer² search is looking at all files with data in the comments field. A quicker way is to search for comments in
types of files or in specific nested directories.
However, if you do a save of a completed whole-of-drive (all files) file comments listing, then you can refer to that as your static snapshot database
as at that point in time - and it is very fast as you are only searching the database.
...I use xplorer² file manager (Windows Explorer replacement). That has 2 comments fields - one (A) seems to be peculiar to xplorer², and the other (B) is a system one. For a JPG file, if you write/edit a comment in (A), it appears in (B), but it does not appear in either the EXIF or IPTC info of the file.
xplorer² has this note about using Comments:
File comments rely on an advanced NTFS feature called “Alternate Data Streams” (ADS). Imagine a file as a kind of "folder" that has a stream for the regular contents and secondary streams for other information, including comments. When you move the file around, all these alternate streams are silently carried along.
What that means is that if you run a file backup to a non-NTFS disk, then you will strip off the ADS (Comment) data [in the back-up copies of the files].
There is no manager for the Comments, so you have to display them in the file manager, though xplorer² says you can export the comments and file names to a spreadsheet for analysis. ...
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-IainB
