Basic OSX Asset Mgt. software?

[ElyseC]

I need to catalog 18 CDs of images. They're from an old clip art collection and come with some search terms / keywords already in their metadata. I'd very much like to retain and use those keywords, too. It will make my searching ever so much easier! Is the old Extensis product, Portfolio, still good for this? Is there something better?

I used to use Portfolio and had all these things fully cataloged, but in the switch to new machines and the big 1800 mile move last year I lost all that and must start from scratch. Pronto. There are two projects for which I need stuff from this collection now.

Or am I being dim and don't know to use something already built into OSX? Remember, I need to retain the images' built-in keywords if at all possible!

[djb]

We're using Portfolio v7 (8 was just announced). iView MediaPro gets good reviews as well. There's also Cumulus...

iPhoto may be able to do it, but I don't know about maintaining the metadata. If you've gone to Adobe CS2, Bridge may work as well (Haven't used it yet).

Off the top of my head...

[ElyseC]

Thanks very much, Dave. Having once used Portfolio, I grabbed their 30-day demo and now have 27 or so days left to use the heck out of it before drumming up $200. It seems that not all the images I had to import came with metadata and the old export files containing that data for them were for Portfolio's early incarnation, Fetch. Several versions of Portfolio ago you could still import Fetch info files, but no more. I've got a LOT of reentering of keywords ahead of me. 4500+ images worth minimum, plus improving them for the other 1800+ images that did come with some. Oy.

So far I like the improvements Extensis has made since I last used the app, but right away I thought of some I'd really like them to add.

BRB...

OK, just looked at iView MediaPro. Now, it says it can import the old Fetch keyword export files! Hm...maybe I won't kill myself entering keywords into this Portfolio demo just yet. Oh, and I see the iView site says version 3 is arriving in 10 days. Now, if it would just catalog my old QX files, too, but the specs only list InDesign, Multi-Ad Creator and Pagemaker for "big" layout apps. Hm. Well, maybe that's not too big of a loss. I pretty much know or can guess by filename what each old QX file is and I rarely have to pull one up now, so I might be able to live without them being cataloged.

Thanks, Dave!

[djb]

It seems that not all the images I had to import came with metadata and the old export files containing that data for them were for Portfolio's early incarnation, Fetch. Several versions of Portfolio ago you could still import Fetch info files, but no more.

Send me one of the export files, would you? If I can parse them I can probably script the import into Portfolio.

[ElyseC]

Send me one of the export files, would you? If I can parse them I can probably script the import into Portfolio.Oh cool! Here's hoping!

It just seems so strange that Portfolio won't recognize it's ancestor's export file format as anything other than plain ol' text files. It's also weird that I can't find any way in the menus to import anything similar. All I see is something called "Import Field Values."