Automator Service: Photos: Batch Append Text to a Description

Photos 2 on Sierra does not support to append a text to the descriptions of several photos at once.

To batch append some text to the descriptions of selected photos you could try a simple Apple Script and run it within Automator.

Create an Automator action, that prompts you for the text to append and executes an Apple Script to append the text to the descriptions of the selected photos.

on run {input, parameters}

-- batch append the input to the description

tell application "Photos"

activate

set imageSel to (get selection)

if imageSel is {} then

error "Please select some images."

else

repeat with im in imageSel

tell im

set old_desc to get its description as text

if old_desc is "missing value" then set old_desc to ""

set the description to (old_desc & input as text)

end tell

end repeat

end if

end tell

return input

end run

Save this workflow with a suitable name. It will be installed in the services.

• Now quit Photos, if it is running and launch Photos again and select a few test images.
• Open the "Photos" Menu > Services".
• The service should be shown in the menu - I saved my version as "BatchAppendDescription".
• Select the service to let it run.
• You will be prompted to enter the text to be appended for the selected photos.
• When you click the selected photos again, the descriptions should change, but you will only see them in the Info panel, unlike the titles, that are showing below the thumbnails.

Before you test a script on your Photos Library, make a backup of the library, so you can revert to the previous version, if something should go wrong. I tested the script thoroughly, but please do not rely on that without precautions.

I put the service in my Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kaddxkj5ihz6q7d/BatchAppendDescription.workflow.zip?dl =0