Use DTP as Image Catalog program?

DEVONthink Scenarios
1

I’m looking at Apeture, Adobe Bridge, iView Media (now Expresssions Media, by MS) and even ACDSee (XP program) for cataloging/tagging images on an external hard drive. I’ve been recommended by others that DTP can be used for this, but I’m not getting it.

Using DTP, I’ve imported a folder (Index), but don’t see any easy way to tag images. Specifically, I’ve created a folder called MyFamily, have a nested folder called Me, Kids, Pets, etc… but other than Replicate to I don’t see any easy way to tag images. If I have a picture with me and my son, and then another with me and my daughter, and one with son and daughter. What is the best way to tag them so I can search by me AND son, son AND daughter, etc…

Or is this not how DTP is meant to be used, and really when I’m referred to use it, it’s only best for an image viewing program, not a catalog program. I’ve been able to cmd+option drag to replicate, but is there an easier way to batch tag items (put in folders, I’m guessing).

Thanks

2

DTP does not seem like the right application for you, IMHO. I’m not aware of any way in which DTP would fulfill that purpose.

3

Personally, I use Aperture to house my photos, largely because I can easily do photo editing without modifying the original images. I don’t do much tagging in Aperture, other than quality ratings. Most of the images in my databases have been edited in Aperture and are either JPEG exports of Aperture images, or screenshots of images from Aperture captured to the clipboard by SnapNDrag (especially when I don’t want a huge image, but a smaller or cropped version).

In the current version of DT Pro you can tag images by entering keywords or notes into the Comment field of the Info panel, and Comments (and of course Names, which can be used as tags) are searchable.

Tagging will be more powerful in DT Pro 2.

4

Thanks for the feedback, I’m not sure DTP 1.5 will be what I need for a massive photo library. I’m finding ACDSee to be the most intuitive at this point: Select 10 images from a birthday party, drag Birthday tag to them, crtl-click the 5 that don’t have person A but have person B, select person B tag, ctrl-click on the 4 that have person A and tag them, photo 10 has both A and B. Now I can search for image with “Birthday” AND person A, person A AND person B, etc… in a matter of a few seconds of tagging.

Thanks again!