Search Results: Iphoto

Our use of digital technology to support our research efforts have been focused on finding digitized records and building our family tree using applications specifically designed for genealogy. Online archives and genealogy applications have revolutionized genealogical research and made our research efforts much easier. Yet, when it comet to  organization and management tasks, we’re still stuck in the paper age. Even when we are using digital tools, we’re performing the same tasks and workflows we used for paper systems.

Mac's Spotlight searches inside email, docs, even GEDCOM files.

Many of us are digitizing our photos, documents and other family ephemera to share our treasures with others and to protect ourselves from disaster. Does your digital filing system for these records duplicate your paper system – even to the point of duplicating files so they can be filed under multiple surnames? If you have included the appropriate metadata with the file during the digitizing effort, your computer’s search function will put that record in your face faster than you can browse to the appropriate folder to find it. And, that same metadata is permanently embedded in the file providing provenance as well as descriptive information about it.

Are you asking yourself, “What is this metadata thing she’s talking about?” If so, it’s time for you to get acquainted. Metadata is information used to describe data. In the paper world, a good metadata example is the citation information. For a book, it’s title, author, publisher, ISBN, etc. In the digital world, that information is embedded with the actual data in the item’s file. For example, a digital photograph can have date stamps, geotags, camera settings and other technical details automatically included in the same file as the image when you take the picture. You can add more metadata information using your photo management software – things like titles, description and tags – that are also permanently added to the image file.

Metadata is not only today’s equivalent of the pencil notes you’d love to find on the back of an old family photo, it’s also a very useful organizational tool. Why? Because most search engines – both desktop and online – can search the metadata in your photos and files. So, instead of building cumbersome filing systems and duplicating files in various locations, spend your time and effort adding appropriate metadata to your digitized photos, documents and records.

Where do you begin? You probably already have begun – you just aren’t aware of it. If you use a photo management app like Photoshop Elements or iPhoto and add titles, descriptions and keywords to you photos, you’re creating metadata. And, it’s not hard to add it to other items you create. If you scan documents to PDF, does your scanning app allow you to add keywords and descriptive information in addition to the document title? That’s metadata. Microsoft Word users will find the File > Properties command displays a nice form for adding metadata. iWork users will find that information on the Inspector’s Document pane – just click the Info button.

Once you get into the metadata habit, you’ll find your computer’s search function is a lot more . . . functional. As you can see in the example above, the Mac’s built-in Spotlight search will search metadata and even file content. What the example does not show is that when you mouse over items in the search result, a preview pane opens showing where you’ll find the search term inside that file. You can also take advantage of “smart” folders – virtual folders that appear in Finder (for the Mac) or File Manager (for Vista) based on a saved search. Any time a new document is created or added to your file system that fits the search criteria, it will be automatically included in that smart folder. Features like these allow you to have one file “located” in multiple places. Windows Vista supports saved searches and users can take advantage of its advanced search feature in Files Manager to search the metadata you included in your Office documents’ Properties.

Although there are many other ways you can make metadata work for you, these few examples demonstrate how your computer can be your partner in both research AND organization. January is traditionally a month devoted to organization and here at the Gazette I’ll be pointing out even more ways to put your digital tools to work so you can focus on your research. Stay tuned!