Timestamp - absolute mode

[pajaro]

I have quite a lot of images scanned from old films for which I do not know exact time when they were taken. Mostly I am able to say in which month and year they were snapped but not the exact day. Absolute mode of timestamps would be ideal but it seems that I would have to specify information that I do not have (day, hour...). Is there a way around - something that would allow me just to say the month and the year when the images were taken?

Thanks,

Pavel.

[Mario]

ExifTool can handle "incomplete" dates - to some extent. But basically incomplete date and time info in EXIF is always a mess, because all the Windows date, time and calendar routines and controls IMatch uses cannot deal with it. XMP theoretically supports incomplete dates as well. But it's always calling for trouble. If not in IMatch then in another software or service...

Most uses adapt to this by setting 12:00:00 as the time, and using a 1 for the day if unknown, a 1 or 6 for the month if unknown (depending on whether you guess the date being more in the first or second half of the year).

Or, use a text field to include information like "About 1900" or IMatch Attributes.

[pajaro]

ExifTool can handle "incomplete" dates - to some extent. But basically incomplete date and time info in EXIF is always a mess, because all the Windows date, time and calendar routines and controls IMatch uses cannot deal with it. XMP theoretically supports incomplete dates as well. But it's always calling for trouble. If not in IMatch then in another software or service...

Most uses adapt to this by setting 12:00:00 as the time, and using a 1 for the day if unknown, a 1 or 6 for the month if unknown (depending on whether you guess the date being more in the first or second half of the year).

Or, use a text field to include information like "About 1900" or IMatch Attributes.

Okay, thanks. It just crossed my mind when I was looking at the Timeline tab that it would really nice to have all my images sorted according to the date so that they could be easily located there. I will try what you suggested.

[jch2103]

There are several discussions here about dates, including imprecise dates. Just do a search.

[pajaro]

There are several discussions here about dates, including imprecise dates. Just do a search.

I am always trying to do the search first (both the help file and the forum), but , of course, the result depends on the keywords one uses for searching. And this time I was not lucky... Anyway, now I know the principal thing - incomplete dates cannot be used. I will see what I will do with the affected images 

[Richard]

Take a look at https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=517.msg2865

[pajaro]

Take a look at https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=517.msg2865

Thanks a lot, it's perfect. Exactly what I was looking for  .