I originally posted these tutorials on DA as images but they're not so printer-friendly as on my own site. I learned a lot by trial and error- it would have been nice to have found this kind of information earlier on in my computing days- particularly the Corel and IPTC stuff.

I almost totally lost track of what this tutorial/comparison was all about what with finding out how software giants like to manipulate existing functionality and bend it towards their own tastes. In a nutshell: you want to input important information in your photos beyond the title. Editing the IPTC data via a freeware program or thru Microsoft Window or Adobe products will let you do this and so far you don�t have to be dependent in Adobe products to view that info if you have Windows XP and probably visa versa- but if you use XP�s way of editing metadata IT WILL NOT NECESSARILY BE THE SAME INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN ACCESS WITH FREEWARE- this gets to be really important if you are sending photos to people who have older operating systems and/or don�t have major graphics applications. Windows uses the XMP (Adobe�s creation) categories for information that has somewhat different names in the IPTC standards although XMP is built on this older standard. What follows are screen caps of some of the differces in categories using IrfanView, XnView and PixVue. I should mention that PixVue is a great free download that lets you see just by looking at the file in Windows Explorer if there is info. imbedded in the files already.

This file was edited with Irfanview. Notice that in the peach coloured box which is how Windows displays the properties it deems worthy of display that where Windows uses the �Title� category/field Irfanview will use the �Object Name� category under it�s �Origin� tab. Image>Information>IPTCinfo

This file was edited with XnView. XnView, like Irfanview, makes use of the �Byline� category as opposed to Windows use of �Author�.

This file was edited with PixVue. PixVue is more consitant with Window�s categories but I can�t say much about the program because I haven�t used it yet to edit IPTC in batch mode. A really great thing about PixVue are the extra little graphical elements that indicate whether the categories have been edited or not. A Red and Blue flag indicates EXIP data is present and a Black Cross on a Yellow Flag indicates IPTC data is present.

My almost last word on this horrible subject: using Windows to input information is only useful in Windows. It is neither IPTC nore XMP data. If you seriously have to use Windows then put your copyright in the �Author� field. If you use a program like Irfanview, XnView or Pix-Vue to edit metadata you must enable the XML catagories in Windows to view that data. I seriously have no idea why Windows even has a �Copyright� or �Keywords� field since thus far I have been unable to get anything I input to any field to show up under them.

I hope this has been moderately helpful or informative at least. I wish anyone who is managing their photo archive a lot of luck- so far I�m sticking to IPTC until such time where I may be forced to go the other route in which case I�m pretty sure the big software programs will be able to import non proprietary metadata.