10.4: An AppleScript to import metadata into iPhoto 6

Jan 20, '06 05:46:00AM

Contributed by: barrrt

Tiger only hintI haven't been using iPhoto in the past, because I prefer keeping my photos in a specific folder structure. Since version 6 will handle images without copying or moving them, I decided that it is time to take a plunge and start using iPhoto. I was disappointed, however, to see that tagging with keywords was not improved in this version. Since I have all of my photos' metadata in IPTC fields, I only needed a script that would import keywords, titles and comments into iPhoto. It took quite a few hours of work (it's my first large AppleScript program) and testing, but I was able to accomplish that.

The script will only work in Tiger, as it uses Spotlight to extract metadata from images. Keywords, titles and comments are added for photos selected as of the time the script is run, and new keywords are added to iPhoto automatically. Importing of each of the three (keywords, titles, and comments) can be turned on and off individually.

I decided to make the source available so that others can learn from it and, hopefully, improve upon it. The script is too long to paste here, but it can be downloaded from this entry on my blog. Instructions and caveats are included in the script's comments.

[robg adds: In the interest of sharing the server load, I've also mirrored the script here on macosxhints.com. I have not tested it, however.]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060115181817510