"Find and Replace" for caption etc metadata?

There isn't a find-and-replace function per se. As you probably know, it would have to be done in two seperate steps-- use Find to locate all the images containing the error, then Batch Change to correct them.

Regarding handling of metadata, using Photo Mechanic for comparisons with Aperture is likely an exercise in futility. PM does metadata very well--perhaps best in class--but it doesn't come close to Aperture in many, if not most, other areas.

Afaik, there is no way to replace part of the text in a field (e.g.: correct a misspelling), even using Batch Change (where the options are "append" or "replace"). Imho, having the ability to search and replace metadata text fields (and also the Project Description field), would add much to Aperture (and make those fields much more useable). Is there any way to do this?

You're right. I was giving Batch Change too much credit. Like you, I'm not aware of any way to do other than search in metadata (oops, sorry..."info") and project descriptions.

Kirby Krieger wrote:

Afaik, there is no way to replace part of the text in a field (e.g.: correct a misspelling), even using Batch Change (where the options are "append" or "replace"). Imho, having the ability to search and replace metadata text fields (and also the Project Description field), would add much to Aperture (and make those fields much more useable). Is there any way to do this?

Agree about PM, I was just using it as an example. In PM its only a one step process, you select the images then do a "find/replace". The error doesn't have to be in every image, so you can just work on your current images. ALthough I see what you mean if you want to look through your whole archive...

Certainly worthy of a feature request if you haven't already done so. I could see Find & Replace being a useful addition to the Batch Change feature (along with some other design changes it needs).

What other changes would you like to see to Batch Change?

Briefly: The layout of Batch Change is terrible. The thing you use least (changing time) is at the top of the dialog; you better be sure that something isn't inadvertently changed regarding version name, because something is going to happen every time you do a batch change (I believe it defaults to current version name, which is a good thing); you are forced to use a metadata preset for info changes--there's nothing free-form about it; you can't tab through the dialog and are forced to revert to the mouse at some point. The whole thing needs help IMO. I'm not advocating getting rid of it, though, since it provides needed functionality.

Should "Find and Replace" be part of a "batch change", I see it as a seperate menu item as with other applications.

By making it part of Batch Change, the subset of images is already defined via a previous selection. It also fits in with the "Append, Replace" idea. A separate menu item would have to include an image selection process before applying the change. I don't think a "global" find/replace is a good idea.

I'd actually rather be able to change metadata for multiple images using the "info" panel - as you can for a single image - than "batch change". I think that's how iView MediaPro worked, isn't it how Lightroom works as well?

Agree 100% with this concept, and that's the way it should be. Yes, LR auto-sync does it like this, but it has it's pitfalls. Aperture could do it better, IMO. Appending to metadata would be tricky here, and that's where Batch Change would be used.

I do not have time to test this fully now, but I remember in previous versions (and maybe still) it was possible to correct typos in keywords through the keyword HUD. Search for a keyword in the search field of the HUD, select the keyword, hit Enter and correct. Aperture used to ask to change it in all versions using the keyword, and even to merge it with another keyword (without typo) if necessary.

Koen

Correcting Keywords is a "replace all" action (as opposed to a search and replace). It works well.

The problem more generally is that there is no way to search and replace text strings inside of text fields.

Right, using the keyword HUD would fix any keyword typos. A capability to correct misspelled words in other fields, e.g., caption, is what's missing.

It should be possible to use applescript and exiftool to do this. Sending your selection to applescript is fairly easy.

Steps:

1. with the selection write metadata back to masters.

2. Make the selection

3. Stage one: exiftool shows you the changes it would make.

4. Stage two: exiftool makes the changes.

5. Refresh from masters.