Custom File Info Palettes


The panels that appear in File Info are actually created by .xmp files. They're stored in Library/Application Support/Adobe/XMP/Custom File Info Panels on the Mac OS, and in Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels on Windows.

In that folder, you'll find .xmp files that create many of the panels for the File Info dialog box (ignore the .dat files; the .txt files are the relevant ones). If you open these in a text editor, you'll get a fairly good idea of the level of complexity you're in for if you want to contemplate making your own File Info panels.

This is not an undertaking for the casual user. The syntax is unforgivingit's either right or it doesn't work at alland you'll need to read and digest the documentation referenced earlier in this chapter. In the previous edition of this book, I offered various clever tricks for embedding secret metadata that wasn't readily searchable or editable by anyone who didn't have the Custom File Info Panel that created it. In CS2, the rules have changed: any user-added metadata can be found using Bridge's Find command, and changed or removed by another user by editing it in File Info's Advanced panel. So the only reason to use Custom File Info Panels is to simplify adding custom metadata that doesn't fit easily into the fields provided in File Info.

MetaLab

If you feel that you could make use of Custom File Info Panels, but you're less than enthused about the steep learning curve, a reasonable solution is MetaLab, a free application from Pound Hill Software (www.poundhill.com). The same company also offers industrial-strength metadata tools, but MetaLab is a free and easy way to get your feet wet.

MetaLab-generated Custom File Info Panels are limited to 10 total fields, of which up to two can be popup menus and up to two can be checkboxes. If you can work within these limitations, it's all you need, and if you want to embark on more ambitious Custom File Info Panels, MetaLab is a handy learning tool for doing so. Figure 8-14 shows a Custom File Info Panel created in MetaLab, and the entries as they appear in File Info's Advanced panel on a machine that doesn't have the Custom File Info Panel installed.

Figure 8-14. Custom File Info Panel generated by MetaLab

This Custom File Info Panel, generated by MetaLab, lets me track use of my images in my published work.

Without the Custom File Info Panel installed, the metadata appears in cryptic form in File Info's Advanced panel under the poundhill schema.


The XMP code that generated this Custom File Info Panel is shown in Figure 8-15. It may seem dauntingly complex, but if you work through it methodically you'll find that it's fundamentally simple, but detailed.

Figure 8-15. Custom File Info Panel XMP code

This is the XMP code that generates the Custom File Info Panel shown in Figure 8-14.




Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 Industrial-Strength Production Techniques
Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 Industrial-Strength Production Techniques
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 112

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