Choosing Source Used In Timeline View

[Darius1968]

I think I saw a post about my "Subject" that I can't find now, but for now, IMatch seemingly uses the "File Modification Date/Time" in organizing the images among year, month day in Timeline View.  The post I'm searching for on this forum states that at some point in time, IMatch will finally allow one to choose the "File Access Date/Time" or the "File Creation Date/Time" as how the Timeline View will be organized.  At this point in time, however, I need that my Timeline View be organized by the "File Creation Date/Time", but since it can't be done now, what would be the next best thing that I can do right now in IMatch to simulate this? 

[pajaro]

I think I saw a post about my "Subject" that I can't find now, but for now, IMatch seemingly uses the "File Modification Date/Time" in organizing the images among year, month day in Timeline View.  The post I'm searching for on this forum states that at some point in time, IMatch will finally allow one to choose the "File Access Date/Time" or the "File Creation Date/Time" as how the Timeline View will be organized.  At this point in time, however, I need that my Timeline View be organized by the "File Creation Date/Time", but since it can't be done now, what would be the next best thing that I can do right now in IMatch to simulate this?

AFAIK IMatch uses Date/Time Created for the Timeline and currently this cannot be modified. I do not think there is any way how to avoid this behavior except for correct setting of Date/Time Created. Personally, I am facing similar problems with my scanned images: for most of them Date/Time Created is the time when they were scanned, not when they were taken. The only option is to manually change Date/Time Created so that it fits correctly to the Timeline.

[Darius1968]

What I mean is if I download say 100 images from said sources on the internet, the "File Modification Date/Time" is the date these images were actually created from a digital camera, scanner, etc.  This date does not change unless I edit the image.  Also, this seems to be the date that is used to organize in IMatch's Timeline View.  The other two dates I mention, "File Access Date/Time" and "File Creation Date/Time" are the date I downloaded those image, and I want to be able to tell Timeline View to organize these images on one of those two dates instead. 
It sounds like you are using a scanner to scan photographs, and hence, those scanned photos aren't gonna have the date that the camera snapped the pictures. 

[Mario]

IMatch produces a File Date/Time derived from several fields (EXIF, XMP, PDF, Office, Flash etc., depending on the availability and file format). This value is then uses as the File Date and Time e.g. in the File window, history, Metadata Panel, Time Line etc.

Search the help index for Date and Time and click on File Date and Time for all details.

[Darius1968]

I think there's been a misunderstanding of my question.  There are more than one date/time variables in a file, and my question is how to instruct IMatch to use a certain one in its Timeline View. 

[jch2103]

I don't believe there's a way currently to tell IMatch which date/time to use in the Timeline. It uses the 'best' date/time among the choices available to set the File Date/Time, although I don't know the specific algorithm. The date/time tags also have confusingly similar names. However, I believe Original Date/Time (XMP::photoshop\DateCreated\DateCreated\0) will be used in the Timeline in preference to other date/time fields. I also suspect that Digitized Date/Time (XMP::xmp\ModifyDate\ModifyDate\0) is next in line to be used if the prior tag doesn't have a value.

As you observe, images (especially including scanned ones) may not have these tags populated (or may not have the 'proper' date/time) depending on the image origin.



@Mario: I think it would be helpful to have available somewhere (FAQ? Help?) the hierarchy of date/time tags used to set File Date/Time. I may try to backwards-engineer this list if I have time, but if there's an 'official' source it would be preferable.

[Richard]

I think that the date and time could be modified using Tools > Modify EXIF Date and Time then look to see where the new date appears to learn what source is used for the Timeline. My results show that it is the "Date Digitized".

[jch2103]

More precisely, Modify EXIF Date and Time can update either or both the created date and the digitized date, depending on the user's choice:

Update Original date and time: XMP::photoshop\DateCreated\DateCreated\0
Update Digitized date and time: XMP::xmp\ModifyDate\ModifyDate\0

But I suspect Darius1968 would prefer to sort images using a particular existing tag rather than change/update tags in the existing tag(s). As previously discussed, there's no way currently to select a particular tag to drive the Timeline.

It's possible to create a data-driven category based on a specific date/time tag, but it would be a very good idea to limit the data returned, otherwise there would be too many results to be useful. Attached is an example of how to do this for one date/time field, with the results limited to year and month. Perhaps there's a more elegant way.


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[Mario]

I think there's been a misunderstanding of my question.  There are more than one date/time variables in a file, and my question is how to instruct IMatch to use a certain one in its Timeline View.

This has been discussed several times in the past, and when I recall it correctly, there is also a pending feature request.

I have a selectable base time for the time line on my low-prio to-do list (e.g. choose an IPTC date or a XMP date). But not many users will ever need that (only a few mentioned this so far), because the date and time information chosen by IMatch is the best time for any given format, and also compliant with the Metadata Working Group (as far as we speak about digital images) and what you see in other software. For Office documents, PDF files, video files etc. IMatch uses the best date for a given format to position the given file in the time line.

[Frank]

Mario,
I don't think that only a few people need the so called "configurable Timeline". I am waiting since the beta test of that functionality. Currently I do have many different file formats and I cannot use the timeline as mentioned in  e.g. the following post.

https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=1548.msg9680#msg9680

My current workaround is using dynamic categories as a timeline.

So for me it would help a lot having the timeline configurable.

Frank

[Mario]

If there is a feature request, vote for it. If there is no feature request, add one.
Feature requests with many posts or many +1 votes get a higher priority. Currently there are over 200 feature requests made by users.