Microsoft Photo Info, Makes It Easy To Add Metadata To Your Photos

Power Toys, Program Crate, XP 4 Responses »

Oct 012007

Microsoft Photo Info allows photographers to add, change and delete common “metadata” properties for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer. Get it Here for Free.

When installed, a new “Photo Info” item appears on the context menu for files selected in Windows Explorer. To use, simply select one or more image files, right-click and choose “Photo Info” to open the Photo Info properties editor. You can edit metadata for files individually, or all together as a batch. Photo Info reads and writes metadata in IPTC and XMP formats (depending on file type). It also provides enhanced “hover tips” and additional sort properties for digital photographs in Windows Explorer.

Right click 1 picture or a group of pictures and choose Photo Info.

Now you can add your Metadata.

Microsoft Photo Info provides the following features:

View or edit photo metadata from inside Windows Explorer. View or modify advanced image properties from within Windows.

Edit images individually, or as a collection. Photo Info has two edit modes: individual and collection, making it easy to update many images at the same time.

Quick recall of recent entries. For some properties, Photo Info remembers the most recent entries you have typed. To recall a recent entry, click on the drop down arrow and select it from the list.

Generate copyright notice automatically. Photo Info can generate a standard copyright notice automatically from the Author and date Created information, if present.

Quick recall of location details. To help save time when entering location information, Photo Info can save location details under a name you provide. Recall these details by selecting the location name from the drop-down menu.

Correct EXIF capture date / time information. Photo Info can optionally update the EXIF date/time information as recorded in the image file by your camera. You can use this feature to correct the file capture date if your camera�s clock was set incorrectly (for example, to the wrong time zone).

View EXIF properties. Click on the Details tab to view common EXIF properties. Click on More properties for additional details.

Preview the image. To see a larger preview of the image, double-click on the thumbnail.

Enhanced hover tips. Hover tips have been enhanced for JPEG, TIFF and other supported file types in Windows Explorer.

Custom column properties. In Windows Explorer when viewing a folder in Details view, additional sort properties are available for supported image types.

Using Microsoft Photo Info

After running Setup, a new �Photo Info� item appears in the file context menu in Windows Explorer. (Microsoft Photo Info can only be accessed from within Windows Explorer; it does not appear separately in the Windows Start Menu.)

To use the tool, select one or more supported image files in Windows Explorer, right-click and choose Photo Info. The Photo Info properties dialog appears. This dialog permits you to view and edit properties for selected images individually or as a batch, and you can switch between these two editing modes at any time. Navigate between selected images by clicking on the Next or Previous buttons or by pressing the Page Up or Page Down keys on your keyboard.

Properties are arranged in several tabs: Description, Keywords, Origin, Advanced, and Details. Click on the tab containing the information you wish to view or edit. To see tips or get help with a particular property or control, hover over it with your mouse, or, click the �question mark� icon in the title bar, then click the control for which you wish to see additional information.

When you are finished, click OK or Apply to save your changes, or Cancel to exit the tool without saving changes. You can also undo changes by clicking on Revert. Only changes that have not yet been saved can be reverted.

Microsoft Photo Info does not modify the image pixel data in any way when saving changes; only valid �metadata� properties are updated or added to the image file.

Calculator Plus From Microsoft

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Sep 302007

When the Windows operating system is installed on your computer, a simple calculator program that you can use to perform standard mathematical functions also gets installed. However, your legal copy of Windows also entitles you to download a fancier calculator program. It is called Microsoft Calculator Plus. Get it here for free

The standard calculator.

Calculator Plus.

Calculator Plus does everything the standard Microsoft Calculator does but also enables you to convert one type of units to another, a useful feature for businesses with international relationships. You can calculate conversions for:

Area
Currency
Fuel consumption (engines)
Energy
Lengths
Power
Pressure
Temperature
Volume
Velocity
Weight

For currency calculations, you can add currencies to the default list that is installed. The calculator also includes a tool that will automatically update the exchange rate for the Euro by downloading it from the European Central Bank (ECB).

Improve The Readability Of Text On LCD’s With Clear Type Tuner

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Sep 022007

This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access. Get it here This program is only for Win XP

What is ClearType technology you ask?

ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.

ClearType works by accessing the individual vertical color stripe elements in every pixel of an LCD screen. Before ClearType, the smallest level of detail that a computer could display was a single pixel, but with ClearType running on an LCD monitor, we can now display features of text as small as a fraction of a pixel in width. The extra resolution increases the sharpness of the tiny details in text display, making it much easier to read over long durations. (from Microsoft)

Virtual Desktop Manager For Win XP

Power Toys, Program Crate, XP No Responses »

Aug 262007

This is another program in the free Microsoft PowerToys library. It allows you to run up to 4 individual desktops at once, each with different programs running, different wallpapers and easily switch between them. You can download it from Microsoft here.

After you download and install it here’s how to get it setup. Right click an empty space on your toolbar and choose > Toolbar > Desktop Manager.

Alt-Tab Replacement

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Aug 192007

This is another great addition to the PowerToys that Microsoft provides for Free. In case you don’t know what happens when you press Alt-Tab, It gives you a list of all your open applications that you can quickly tab thru. Give it a try. Hold down the Alt key then repeatedly press the Tab key. (See the images after the jump)

Microsoft Photo Info 1.0

Power Toys, Program Crate, Windows Vista, XP No Responses »

Aug 122007

This free program is part of Microsoft’s PowerToys and provides digital photography Information at your fingertips Get it here

Microsoft Photo Info allows photographers to add, change and delete common “metadata” properties for digital photographs from inside Windows Explorer via the right click menu.

Microsoft Photo Info runs on 32-bit versions of Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 or later) and the Windows Vista operating systems.

The Programs Features Include:
View or edit photo metadata from inside Windows Explorer. Now, advanced image properties are at your fingertips from within Windows.

Edit images individually, or as a collection. Photo Info has two edit modes: individual and collection, making it easy to update many images at the same time.

Quick recall of recent entries. For some properties, Photo Info remembers the most recent entries you have typed. To recall a recent entry, click on the drop down arrow and select it from the list.

Generate copyright notice automatically. Photo Info can generate a standard copyright notice automatically from the Author and date Created information, if present.

Quick recall of location details. To help save time when entering location information, Photo Info can save location details under a name you provide. Recall these details by selecting the location name from the drop-down menu.

Correct EXIF capture date / time information. Photo Info can optionally update the EXIF date/time information as recorded in the image file by your camera. You can use this feature to correct the file capture date if your camera’s clock was set incorrectly (for example, to the wrong time zone).

View EXIF properties. Click on the Details tab to view common EXIF properties. Click on More properties for additional details.

Preview the image. To see a larger preview of the image, double-click on the thumbnail.

Enhanced hover tips. Hover tips have been enhanced for JPEG, TIFF and other supported file types in Windows Explorer.

Custom column properties. In Windows Explorer when viewing a folder in Details view, additional sort properties are available for supported image types.

For pictures of the program running click read the rest of the entry.

Tweak UI A Powerful Way to Customize Your System

Power Toys, Program Crate, XP No Responses »

Aug 052007

Microsoft Tweak UI is a must-have tool for anyone customizing Microsoft Windows XP. It prevents users from opening the registry and customizing settings that aren’t available in the operating system’s user interface. Tweak UI started as a grassroots utility built by a handful of rebellious programmers and ended up one of the most popular downloads on the Internet. Microsoft has released versions of this tool for every version of Windows since Microsoft Windows 95. The company even included it on the Microsoft Windows 98 CD. And now, it’s available for Windows XP, and it includes even more customizations.

You can download Tweak UI from Microsoft (Microsoft split the original Microsoft Power Toys programs apart) The file you download is called TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe. Run this program to install Tweak UI on your computer. To run Tweak UI, click Start, All Programs, Powertoys for Windows XP, and Tweak UI for Windows XP. In the left pane, click a category, and then in the right pane, edit the settings you want to change. The program is mostly self-explanatory; you see a description of each setting at the bottom of the window. Pay attention to the bottom part of the windows. It tells you whether the settings in that category are per-user or per-machine. Per-user settings sometimes require you to log off and back on to Windows XP in order for them to take affect. Per-machine settings affect every user who logs on to the computer. Source: Microsoft

This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. Plus you won’t have to mess around in the Registry to make these changes.

SyncToy: The Smart Way To Copy Files

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Apr 192007

SyncToy

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E0FC1154-C975-4814-9649-CCE41AF06EB7&displaylang=en

Backing up files just got easier

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy is a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows XP that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program to help copy, move, and synchronize different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without adding complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of directories at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

There are new sources of files coming from every direction: digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store and retrieve files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to get copies of files from one place; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping a mental card catalog in their heads. Others use one or more applications to provide this functionality for them.