EXIF warnings and Help Documentation

[lnh]

EXIF can be confusing, especially for the newbie. Operations you expect should work don't because the default Metadata2 file definitions do not allow writing EXIF to RAW formats. In general this seems to be the right "default" setup. The problem is the default setup is at odds with what an end-user believes should be a simple and direct operation such as rotating the display orientation of a RAW image. There are no doubt other situations like this as well.

The problem is that easy-to-understand end-user documentation (i.e. "Idiot's Guide to EXIF") isn't available from a definitive source, and it's not even clear the official technical docs are available from the sponsoring organizations are available without becoming a member. What I've seen available from web archives is a 148 page specification which isn't geared towards the end user.

My suggestion is that IMatch add some of these common use cases in it's excellent help docs. Warnings or error messages within the software would also be helpful. For example, if you EXIF rotate a RAW image where Metadata2 isn't set to allow EXIF writing, IMatch appears to churn away at the operation and comes back without anything changed, and no error/warning message. To a metadata non-expert, non-multiyear user of IMatch, this appears to be a bug even though it's understandable once you learn more.

[Mario]

I've already added warning messages for the next release (wrote that elsewhere). I currently don't have the time to write an EXIF guide. If a user really falls back to directly manipulating EXIF orientation or date and time (which is only needed in rare cases) for RAW files while having disabled the corresponding write-back settings, the warning message must do for now.

Or maybe a user spends some time and writes a FAQ or a How-To, that's what the corresponding board here in the community is for. I'm incapable to do all that on my own.