jwshack

Q: Batch change in Photos?

Seems like Apple has gotten rid of the "batch change" feature from iPhoto when moving to Photos. I liked using the "batch change" feature to change the "description" for several photos at once. Does anyone know how this can be accomplished in the new Photos app (which doesn't include pasting a sentence 200 times)...

 

Thanks for your response!

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 4:37 PM

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Q: Batch change in Photos?

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 5:05 PM in response to jwshack
    Level 10 (105,543 points)
    iLife
    Apr 12, 2015 5:05 PM in response to jwshack

    use an apple Script or similar.  You can only add keywords to several photos at once.

     

    In this discussion I posted a script to batch change the title of selected photos:   Is there a way to do batch changes in Photos (like we could in iPhoto)?

     

    You can easily modify it to change the description of several photos - just replace "name" by "description".

  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Apr 12, 2015 5:05 PM in response to léonie
    Level 10 (105,543 points)
    iLife
    Apr 12, 2015 5:05 PM in response to léonie

    To batch change the description of selected photos to the same title you could try a simple Apple Script and run it with Automator.

    Create an Automator action, that prompts you for the new title and executes an Apple Script to change the titles to the name you entered:

     

    on run {input, parameters}

      -- batch change the description to the input

      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 the description to input

      end tell

      end repeat

      end if

      end tell

      return input

    end run

     

     

    Screen Shot 2015-04-13 at 02.00.16CEST.png

    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 "BatchChangeDescription".
    • Select the service to let it run.
    • You will be prompted to enter a new  description for the selected photos.
    • When you click the selected photos again, the titles should change.

     

    I put the service in my Dropbox:

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g64e6sxd8qncg88/AADyqWgOuifcWsIqWwsO4W3va?dl=0

  • by jwshack,

    jwshack jwshack Apr 12, 2015 5:26 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 12, 2015 5:26 PM in response to léonie

    Awesome! Thanks so much! Glad there's people out there who run these machines a lot better than I do!

  • by Lpk17,

    Lpk17 Lpk17 Apr 17, 2015 5:59 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 17, 2015 5:59 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for this, its really useful as many of my photos have migrated from iPhoto without the titles, however when I run this it seems to only process 4-6  photos and then says the action run apple script encountered a error. Also I changed description to title. Do you have any ideas how to resolve this?

  • by Sandra Foster,

    Sandra Foster Sandra Foster Apr 19, 2015 1:50 PM in response to léonie
    Level 4 (1,545 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 19, 2015 1:50 PM in response to léonie

    I must be doing something wrong. I've done exactly (I think) what you suggested, creating the workflow and saving it, though I'm not given a choice of where to do that; it simply saves to "Automator — iCloud". When I re-open Photos, there are no services listed, and opening the Services Preferences doesn't show this workflow at all, so I can't "activate" it. Have I skipped an essential step or something? Thanks!

  • by Sandra Foster,

    Sandra Foster Sandra Foster Apr 19, 2015 2:00 PM in response to Sandra Foster
    Level 4 (1,545 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 19, 2015 2:00 PM in response to Sandra Foster

    Never mind. I finally figured out how to re-save it in the proper place so that it will work. Thanks so much for creating this! I use batch changing a lot, so this is really useful.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 19, 2015 2:05 PM in response to Sandra Foster
    Level 10 (105,543 points)
    iLife
    Apr 19, 2015 2:05 PM in response to Sandra Foster

    You're welcome, Sandra!

  • by Ghostborg,

    Ghostborg Ghostborg Apr 24, 2015 8:02 AM in response to jwshack
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 24, 2015 8:02 AM in response to jwshack

    My first Time using Automator. (Big Red Flag) haha.

     

    Running this in Automator or from Services with Photos I get the Message Box Error.

    I select two images and then run the service. I enter "HI" and then get this Error.

    I copy and pasted the script from this webpage.

    I saved the file using Automator File Save, Quit Automator, Launched Photos, Selected a couple of test images and Selected the BatchChangeDescription from

    Services Menu in Photos. Entered some Text and then Error. Ugh.

    Strangely, the same script changed a description of single selection one time. Would not do it again for single or multiple selections.

    Any Ideas what I did wrong?

    Thanks.

    Screen Shot 2015-04-24 at 10.50.26 AM.png

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 24, 2015 9:54 PM in response to léonie
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 24, 2015 9:54 PM in response to léonie

    I was trying to build this script. I've never really used Automator, so I'm learning. I think I got it made correctly, but I can't get it to show in the Photos menu under Services. I found this script being saved to my user Library under Services.

    What am I doing wrong here?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 24, 2015 11:44 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 10 (105,543 points)
    iLife
    Apr 24, 2015 11:44 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    I found this script being saved to my user Library under Services.

    What am I doing wrong here?

    Have you restarted the Mac? The services will need to be indexed by Spotlight.

    Did you use the Services template, when you created the service?  And set the top line to "Service receives no Input in Photos"?

    Does the service run directly from Automator, when you click the "Run" button in the Toolbar? Then it should work. 

    To see, if the service has been recognised, open the System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts.

    If the Service has been indexed and is enabled, you should see a checkmark beside the name. Click the checkmark, if it is missing.

    You should also be able to assign a keyboard shortcut in the same panel. But that does not seem to be working for me.

    Screen Shot 2015-04-25 at 08.30.29CEST.png

    Screen Shot 2015-04-25 at 08.33.03CEST.png

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 25, 2015 5:49 AM in response to léonie
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 25, 2015 5:49 AM in response to léonie

    OK. Found my error. I had text intstead of no input. Seems to work fine. Now to make one for the other actions.

     

    Thanks

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 25, 2015 5:50 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 10 (105,543 points)
    iLife
    Apr 25, 2015 5:50 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    You're welcome

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 25, 2015 8:08 AM in response to léonie
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 25, 2015 8:08 AM in response to léonie

    Leonie

    Thanks again. Your scripts works fine. I made 3. The only error I encountered was when appending a number in the timeline view where photos are in 2 different sections, sometimes it gives and error, or numbers the latest 2 first and then continues numbers the earlier ones in order. Not a problem as I can just go to the All Photos Section and select them without any section break which works fine.

     

    Instead of adding the text to the title, how do you create a script to get the info from the metadata to set the title to either the camera photo title or the date & time. Actually i'm more interested in creating one to set the title to date & time.

  • by Mr. Zoot,Helpful

    Mr. Zoot Mr. Zoot Apr 25, 2015 8:25 AM in response to jwshack
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 25, 2015 8:25 AM in response to jwshack

    While AppleScript may be a workaround for the lack of Batch Changing Titles — it is still a workaround!

     

    Bring back Shift-Command-B please. It not only batch-changed titles, it could also auto append a series number which was also very helpful for the way I was using it.

     

    Too often Apple appears to be making transitional changes to its software (e.g. iWorks suite) without enough feedback from a community of users who use those tools daily. Some very simple tools are dropped while others are added that have limited usefulness at best. The result is very frustrating. For now, I'll stick with iPhoto.

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