Question: Searching Text String Within Comment/Note Within Capture

[bubbajunk]

Is it possible to search for text strings within the Comment/Note field? I would like to find all screenshots that contain a particular text string somewhere within the Comment/Note field of the screenshot. Where is the data stored, is that possible to search?

[mouser]

It's not currently possible to do within Screenshot Captor, but it is a feature I plan to add soon.

However, the comment/note field is actually stored as plaintext inside the designated COMMENT section of the png/jpg image files.  So if you find an image browser that knows how to search in image comments, it will be able to search your comments.

For example, the free and excellent XnView program can search inside image comments.

[tomos]

the free and excellent XnView program can search inside image comments.

-mouser (April 21, 2017, 02:50 PM)

I had reason to try this today --  unsuccessful for me with XnView (portable) current version 2.39
Double-checked and did a test: I could see the files I was looking for in XnView as thumbnails, but search still couldnt find

Question: Searching Text String Within Comment/Note Within Capture

couldnt find:

Illustrator
2017-04-25 , 16:03:31
Tracing Options

[mouser]

Hmm.. Anyone know any other image-comment-searching tools to test with?

[tomos]

^ I'll see what I have installed here . . .

PS for my last post mouser, I wanted to take a screenshot showing the text in the comment field in SC - as soon as I press any of the SC hotkeys, the field would go blank.
No big deal -- just reporting

[tomos]

Hmm.. Anyone know any other image-comment-searching tools to test with?

-mouser (April 25, 2017, 10:06 AM)

I opened the 'Comment' column in dopus, it's not showing anything for these files:

Question: Searching Text String Within Comment/Note Within Capture

is that the column the text should be in?

[rgdot]

XYplorer doesn't see those 'windows' comments either


Question: Searching Text String Within Comment/Note Within Capture

[mouser]

Hmm, I'll have to look into this -- perhaps I'm storing the comments in a different field..

[IainB]

@mouser:

Hmm.. Anyone know any other image-comment-searching tools to test with?

-mouser (April 25, 2017, 10:06 AM)

I might be misunderstanding the Q, but I thought we'd already pretty much done this one to death some time ago - refer the DC forum thread: Re: Feature Request: Search text notes in screenshots

The  best proggy I have come across for searching through and indexing image files by text content in various fields is still Picasa.
The Picasa "Sunset" version, availability and download links are described in the DC forum thread, here: Re: Picasa to be 'phased out'

[tomos]

I thought we'd already pretty much done this one to death some time ago - refer the DC forum thread: Re: Feature Request: Search text notes in screenshots

The  best proggy I have come across for searching through and indexing image files by text content in various fields is still Picasa.
The Picasa "Sunset" version, availability and download links are described in the DC forum thread, here: Re: Picasa to be 'phased out'

-IainB (April 26, 2017, 07:55 AM)

I tried Picasa: am I missing something -- it seems to have very basic search (Ctrl+F, version 3.9.137), it didnt find any comment text.
I can try Agent Ransack at some stage but dont have it installed

but I guess at this stage the question is where this information is stored

[cranioscopical]

but I guess at this stage the question is where this information is stored

-tomos (April 26, 2017, 08:47 AM)

Stored, you say?

 

[IainB]

@tomos: if you read the two discussion threads I linked to, one tells you most/all the fields where information is stored, and the second tells you where to get the last ("Sunset") version Picasa  3.9 Build 141.259. Your version is apparently an older version - v3.9.137. So,you could indeed be missing some newer functionality - I don't know.
Get the Sunset version, install it and point it to the folders with the images you want indexed, and it will do that. Then start putting data into some pix and search on that.
Most of the data is/can be entered via the "Captions" in Picasa, and otherwise in Tags. The names of face-recognised people are also recorded and this can be used to link with a Gmail address book. There's geo-tagging as well.
Most/all of these fields can be found/searched using Picasa.

One can examine the .jpg fields using irfanview: Open up a .jpg image in irfanview, press Alt+i 3 times, and you will be in the IPTC Info view, where you can see all the interesting fields that are available for use.

If Picasa does not seem to be finding the data that you know is in the .jpg image files, then it will probably be because either Picasa has not been told to capture the folders where those files are, or has not had time to index them. My experience is that Picasa never fails, but the user can inadvertently screw it up without realising it.   

[tomos]

If Picasa does not seem to be finding the data that you know is in the .jpg image files, then it will probably be because either Picasa has not been told to capture the folders where those files are, or has not had time to index them.

-IainB (April 26, 2017, 09:58 AM)

no,
I'm reasonably familiar with Picasa, so can safely say that neither of those the case here.
I cant imagine the slightly older version of Picasa makes the difference, but can try the newer version tomorrow.

I presumed mouser is following up on where the info is in the screenshot file, but can try your Irfanview suggestion tomorrow.

[mouser]

Ok I see now that when SC saves to jpg, tiff, gif, it puts it into the standard "comment" field.
But when saving PNG files, SC puts it into a "png key" called "Description".
So the trick when searching is to search the Description tag (maybe called Caption for some apps?)

For example xnview CAN see the description but lists it under IPTC tag of "Caption".

For example in xnview:

[tomos]

I thought that had resolved it here mouser, but unfortunately Bizarre Behaviour going on here:
it finds e.g. 'InfoQube'
but
cannot find 'Illustrator' (or any of the other text quoted above)

All files are PNG, I compared filepaths to ensure I'm not losing my sanity -- they definitely in the same folder.
If anyone can think of anything else that might affect this, shout.

Got the same results with Picasa:
finds the first, but not the second :-/

I will have another look at this when I have the time.

[tomos]

Ok I see now that when SC saves to jpg, tiff, gif, it puts it into the standard "comment" field.
But when saving PNG files, SC puts it into a "png key" called "Description".
So the trick when searching is to search the Description tag (maybe called Caption for some apps?)

For example xnview CAN see the description but lists it under IPTC tag of "Caption".

For example in xnview:

-mouser (April 26, 2017, 06:11 PM)

mouser, turns out the files I was finding were jpegs:
the info was in the 'description' field.

With PNG files, I still cannot find *any* info from SC's comment box using XnView or Picasa.
With XnView I tried each of the following: Description / IPTC >All / IPTC > caption / EXIF >All / Comment
Now,
I'm not sure I fully trust XnView nor Picasa.

Maybe better to use something that simply shows all metadata for the file.
Using Dopus to show all metadata:
(Viewer >Edit metadata) shows no information for PNG files.
Note it does show the info in description field for JPG files.

That's as far as I've gotten today - and I dont really know where to go from here (any ideas anyone?)

[tomos]

mouser,
it appears to be a weakness of XnView and Picasa (and Dopus) in relation to PNG's.
EDIT// Re Dopus my version is 12.3 - must update to 12.4 and check again. //EDIT

I remembered I have ExifToolGUI (8.35) here -- a GUI for ExifTools:
it shows all metadata for PNG files -- below the file I needed that got me going here:

Question: Searching Text String Within Comment/Note Within Capture

unfortunately it does not seem to have any search, or filter for exif etc info, so will have to find something that works well there

[mouser]

I stand corrected -- I was finding JPG files too.

Seems PNG searching is not working in xnview OR I am misunderstanding something.

[tomos]

I stand corrected -- I was finding JPG files too.

Seems PNG searching is not working in xnview OR I am misunderstanding something.

-mouser (April 28, 2017, 07:02 AM)

the odd thing is ExifInfoGUI shows the info in 'description' field,
Dopus just has the pixel dimensions in the 'description' field.
I tried anything that sounded remotely like an info field in dopus:
all empty



Part the problem here might be that these fields are not fully standardised. Even in the dopus shot there, there's a Title field for Documents and one for Pictures - both with the same name :-/

Looking at my screenshot in previous post above again:
I checked and that description field is not in any of the sub-buttons listed:
Exif / IPTC / XMP / etc.
is listed under the title PNG which makes it seem it a standard field/column (not sure what term to use)

[tomos]

Finally got to test Agent Ransack,
search string 'Tracing' --
it did find the three relevant files (took a very long time though)

Here the export of results (for one file) --- looks like gobbledygook to me:

Code: Text [Select]

1. Z:\My Documents\screenshots\MINE\Screenshot - 2017-04-07 , 11_22_49.png 32 KB PNG File 2017-04-07 11:23:20 2017-04-07 11:22:49 2017-04-07 11:22:49 1
2. 6 Tracing OptionsñH% IDATx^ì½k Ç•çןýXk=özí]ï¬ý] ŠõÚÞÕŒ ±áõÌzրb¢ÃÒö¬W³³ 3 {<#€      uñd7²DR ‘’ÀKJÈ–( à ŠM    Ã¢â€šâ‚¬D“

if I go 'Copy' instead of Export I get

Code: Text [Select]

1. Tracing OptionsñH% IDATx^ì½k Ç•çןýXk=özí]ï¬ý] ŠõÚÞÕŒ ±áõÌz÷Äb¢ÃÒö¬W³³ 3 {<#€          uñd7²DR ‘’ÀKJÈ–( à ŠM  â‚€D“

it didn't give any further info.

Question: Searching Text String Within Comment/Note Within Capture

Looks like in order to use the SC comment info properly, the files would have to be indexed :-/

[tomos]

I stand corrected -- I was finding JPG files too.

Seems PNG searching is not working in xnview OR I am misunderstanding something.

-mouser (April 28, 2017, 07:02 AM)

I tried using PhotoSupreme, (formerly IDimager), my image cataloging programme -- it cannot find any info either.
I think there one of two things happening here, either:

• none of these programmes treat PNG's as 'proper' images,
  or:
• SC is saving the info, but not in a format that is easily legible (maybe not in the correct location?)

I think this one worth following up on (not only cause I've been adding info to my screenshots for a while, foolishly without actually testing if I could find same).
If the information is correctly there in the images, and there was some more exact info available about where it is, I could ask some one of these programmes if they could support it

[mouser]

Let me look into it again.
And I can always add a built-in search function to SC.

Here's something that would help: Can someone make a png image that has a Description/Comment field that *DOES* show up in these other programs?  With such a sample png I should be able to figure out the difference.

[dluby]

I have just sent you an image that hopefully is off use to you.

[tomos]

Here's something that would help: Can someone make a png image that has a Description/Comment field that *DOES* show up in these other programs?  With such a sample png I should be able to figure out the difference.

-mouser (May 17, 2017, 09:54 AM)

well, using Photoshop CS2, I can add the info to what appears to be the same field (Description >Description) as in the jpegs, but cannot find the added info using Xnview (which did find the info from the jpegs).
EDIT//
FWIW the info I added to the PNG, using Photoshop -- supposedly in the same field as the jpeg -- can only be read by Photoshop. I do wonder if there is a limitation on PNGs, that they are treated differently than other image files (jpegs at any rate). Hopefully you find something helpful in dluby's file.
//EDIT

But the jpeg info was difficult enough to find as it was.
So,
I'm starting to wonder:
could it be added to a more universally accessible field?
(I, and I imagine others, move screenshots around to different project folders so not always using SC to read/view.)


Any file manager users out there that add info to their files for access via the file manager?
And/or file managers that can read info -- but from where?
I know XYplorer implemented something re adding comments to files -- or was it for tagging of sorts?

I remember (I think) there being a bit of a fuss a while back about descript.ion files being used by one manager -- looking, I think they not a good idea (non-standardised, separate file with info for all files in the folder)

Will do some research myself if I get a chance over the next few days.