So, investigating further, I find that it was just unlucky that I was on flies or hymenoptera, big folders that have essentially all wrong formats, and I don't see the original exports, only ones named corrected and with the wrong format.  There were almost 20 subfolders that I processed and several have the correct date format, So it may be only half where some difference in procedure caused the change....  9 folders mostly good and 7 mostly not, with about 3800 files needed to change. ... View more

In contrast, reopening the Named beetle folder I can see that the dates are already gone. ... View more

I had initially selected about 40 RAW files to make tiffs and on several I got that message but didn't know what it meant, till I went to the next stage of processing and saw that some weren't still selected and I found they had no rating or data.  I pasted all the fields from the raw file into the metadata boxes and then when I found the date format was the problem and I could paste to correct, I only made subsequent tiffs after correcting the dates.  So there are no tiffs lacking metadata.  Also many of the processed files were already tiffs or jpegs and the import export process did not lose other metadata fields, just changed date format.  Initially I didn't realize why some files remained unchanged until I realized that it was the RAW files and they wouldn't be processed unless the hidden xmp files were shown and included in the export.   As I processed everything, I'm not sure why a lot in the beetles subfolder retain correct dates.  There must have been something different about the import. In fact it looks like none in this subfolder have the wrong date format.  I rember that it was one of the biggest imports with something like 1500 or 2000.  In contrast the subfolder with named beetles has few correctly formatted dates. Those were probably moved from the unnamed folder to the named after the import that was OK.  So I'm looking at saved Excel files and I see 3 versions of Beetles sort with dates within a few minutes of each other.  I think I may have opened one, had the extra columns row, and then tried a new one and then pasted the data into a previous spreadsheet that didn't have the extra columns.  I can see that reopening the latest one, I do get more options, about choice of fields to include and I can see that the date format here looks like nothing will be lost. ... View more

So the seconds are already gone on import to Excel.  My import procedure is to create new file in Excel.  Then click blank worksheet, click on data and select data, then data from text/cvsv.  I then choose the 65001 and except with the changed date one, tab is selected and I import. there was no choice to exclude fields and everything comes in. ... View more

No, in the tiffs all metadata is gone, so I have to correct the date to avoid losing all the info. ... View more

I have a large folder which is for reject files.  I keep till I extract their numbers so I can also delete from my ACCESS database.  So I'm using it as a test.  I rated a few with 'reject', while everything else is one star.  I select the 10 with reject and export and import into Excel.  One thing I noticed is that it is back to tab delimiter, as it was on all the other imports - except when I did the last test to change dates and it showed comma delineator, which I changed back to tab.  So here is a picture of how the date format imports.  ... View more

I just click to open, then after getting past camera raw I get this box. It is unfortunate, because I'd gone through all the subfolders of the SORT folder and corrected anything that was still out of the desired keyword formats and everything in all the folders has the neat ordering without unwanted duplications. I though I was ready to begin looking at how the keyword list would be adjust to fit.  Many keywords are now orphans without parent, so I was wondering about that part the operation.  Fortunately I didn't do anything out of the SORT folder, so the tens of thousands in the phylogentic folders and unaffected and I definitely need to be able to exclude fields before doing any more.  But I have to rectify this before moving newly ID'd and named subjects to such folders and to the website. It seems that unless some macro could be created that would do what I do manually, copying and pasting date and then going to the next folder, this will take hours and days to rectify.  ... View more

It's not looking good.  Meanwhile I posted to the Microsoft Community forum and suggestion to change the date format to have AM & PM.  I did a sample export/inport on 4 and it looked good, but when I went to make a tiff, I got the warning about unreadable data being ignored. I went back and saw that between date and time there is no comma.  Clicking in the box makes the date disappear as before.  Then I had the idea of going to exell and replacing a date such as 9/1/23 with 9/1/2023, (added comma) but it doesn't find anything to change, So in one picture, you can see the date created in the IPTC lacks the comma, while under the thumbnail and in the Camera data (exif) is still OK.  So I have pasted a few hundred from the latter to the former to make tiffs with metadata, but it is very time-consuming and maybe thousands were changed before I noticed the problem.  The other picture shows what I changed to in Excel that still didn't work.  It may be that the seconds are gone, so I don't get the choice that the MS forum person suggested. I wonder i ... View more

Only the date metadata in the IPTC core has been affected by the change to military time.  the date under the thumbnail and the date in camera data (exif) are in the original Bridge form.  If I make a tiff of a RAW file it strips all the metadata, which must be entered manually.  I can copy and paste the date from the camera data (exif). with each individual changed file, but since there are hundreds, perhaps thousands so changed, can I use the exporter with Excel to change back?  I don't want to start moving files to their specific family folders or upload any to the website until corrected.   ... View more

So. since the SORT folder was so large (~8000) files.  I had made subfolders there were 2 parents, one for ones who had IDs and name had been added to preceed their code number and the other not yet definitely ID'd.  Each of these parent folders then had subfolders for Orders.   Now I had gone through various unnamed files and rated 5 stars.  I just do this to mark them temporarily and then select all with 5 stars to make tiffs as the next stage.  I had about 46 from a search in the master SORT folder, which is including subfolders and I opened in groups of 12 to make tiffs.  Along the way, I had several that said data could not be read and will be ignored.  I was still able to make the tiffs. but when I then looked at the sort for 5 starts, about 4 didn't show the tiffs.  I went to the NEFs and find in Bridge and found tiffs next to them. I was looking at the metadata keywords to see if there was anything unusual and then I saw that those tiffs had no metadata.  I was trying to see what was different in the NEF and all the keywords looked all right and then I noticed the difference was that other files had a date followed by a time with AM or PM and these had no AM or PM.  Then I started looking in the subfolders and found that a whole lot have been affected thus, hundreds I assume in several of the subfolders.  I hadn't noticed so many are last backed up this way.  If I click on the date in the NEF to try to change it, it goes blank.  Do you think I can get the exporter to get the dates to conform again to be recognized by Bridge?  I see that it is 24 hour time, on these. Also the seconds are gone,  Sorting by dates, I found one at the border between normal and changed dates and found I could paste the date in, but this would be extremely tedious. ... View more

So it's been working well. I did Arachnids and Beetles in 2 folders with good results.  One bad mistake is when I did a batch to replace , with , space.  It was going to produce in some double spaces, so then I replaced all double spaces with single space.  Bad because I didn't select the keyword column and so it did it for ones in the description and file name.  So I had to go all over each of the hundreds in those 2 columns and put back the double spaces which otherwise would have screwed up everything.  The reason those have double spaces is because it is a scientific name followed by a COMMON NAME.  When I import into MSWorks I convert all the double spaces to tab to get in a new field.  So that was tedious.  then I did the unnamed Flies in the new sort folder.  That was more complex and when I imported back, I found lots of unmodified ones.  I checked the table and they weren't corrected there.  Looked up each and corrected and reimported and still more uncorrected.  Again, I had missed in the table and looked each up and corrected and on the 3rd import everything was OK.  The first time though there was also a problem, in that when I started the import, I left the room and when I came back Bridge had closed.  I reopened and had a spinning circle and tried restarting several times with the same results.  Then I went out for hours and came back and still stuck there.  I was finally able to restart with resetting thumbnails and then I could see the results of the 1st import.    so it's working when but requires great attention to find the many places where corrections are needed.   I am wondering if I am missing something in the way I do the export into Excel, as it doesn't give me the option to leave out fields and it comes with the columns at the top so I have to copy and paste all into another blank spreadsheet so I don't have that columns row.   I don't think that import that only had 55 return would be any use.  that was before I realized no NEF raw files would export unless I had the hidden files viewed, so they were all missing.   ... View more

I made a lot of progress, getting mor familiar with the automaticity resulting in bad results.  So I successfully did a selection of Orthoptera in the Sort folder and when I checked the results, I saw that in the filter column, some showed (0) which had beeen selected before.  this was because they had been corrected and no longer in a filter such as ().  but there were still a bunch unchanged so I reselected and ran again.  A few more may have changed but there were a lot that hadn't.  So I selected only those needing correction and exported.  there were 64 and it said 4 were successfully exports only.  So I thought, and then realized that it was the NEF raw files that weren't being exported.  I dcided to to a trial on 5 Mantids and in the view menu, selected sho hidden files, to get the xmp files.  But they didn't show.  I had to show all and then pick the xmps adjacent to the Mantids. So I exported the 10 files, but only 5 xmps exported.  I altered a comma with no space following to comma with space and imported back.  And they were all corrected.  I had also changed the default in Excel to stop saving to One Drive and to my documents and also to save as tab delineated instead of Excel workbood.  So now I am able to avoid the pitfalls and correct and save files as desired. GREAT! ... View more

I went back to the homoptera file.  I reopened to make sure I had the right version and got the offer to decide which columss to include so I skipped a lot of empty ones.  this file was imported into Excel differently as I had pasted the text file from notepad into a blank spreadsheet and so it has no first column with 'columns'. I saw that it had the desired changes and went to save and saw the problem here too it was automatically saving to onedrive also, so changed to document folder.  I then tried import and it said 55 successfuly imported. There were about 350 originally so I wondered where the rest were and then I realized I had since created a subfolder for Hemiptera and thought I had put all in there but there were a few Membracids missed but I didn't see any change.  I moved them into the Hemiptera folder and tried import again, but I was having a spincircle so long after it again said only 55 updated.  I tried closing Bridge and restarting with control, tab, shift to get the option to redo thumbnails, but it wasn't coming up.  I tired Bridge 2022, 2023 and Beta but they all just kept giving me a long time spincircle, so I finally rebooted.. I tried the import again, but it only said 55 updated, so maybe I have to do all over again because of the move.   I had also moved all the Arachnids into a subfolder.  I did such moves as the Sort folder had over 8000 files in and often took long times to do anything. I had saved the spider-greg folder in my downloads, and so now tried to use it with the Arachnid folder.  But though it clearly shows in the download folder, when I go to the import menu, it doesn't appear.   So then I tried the  ... View more

As I looked at the attachment, as a txt file, it was hard to make sense as now data of a record is on 2 lines, an thus not so neatly ordered.  so I went to the original and see the problem about the columns heading.  In MSWorks this would be easy to remove the record, but in Excel I am looking all over and can't see how.     When I do get to the stage of trying to import, should I first reselect the chosen thumbnails or will the program do that automatically. In this case I already moved all those to a new folder for easy reference so it won't matter.    Also, after the initial export to Excel, can I delete all the fields that are empy or don't want changed to reduce the clutter.  Thanks. ... View more

That was the problem.  I don't use onedrive either and didn't notice that Microsoft automatically switched to that rather than where I had originally put in my documents folder.  So it saved and I wasn't sure if I needed to make the same selection of spiders again or not before importing.  I did and got a spincircle for awhile as it looked throught whole folder.  seemed it was going to work but then I got.   ... View more

For some reason, I don't get the option to open with Excel in a menu.  then I chose open with program and looked in the list and still couldn't find Excel.  so I used the other method, imported, modified some fields. and then, when I named the file spider sort and save as txt, I got  ... View more

So now I successfuly exported a selection of spiders from the sort folder.  but when I go to Excel, and choose open, it doesn't show in the folder where it is saved.  Also I don't see an import on the Excel menu.    With the previously saved Homoptera exported file that I couldn't import, it seems that Adobe forum doesn't allow attachments to add. ... View more

Thank you.  This time I am reading the directions but now export is grayed out and I can't proceed,  ... View more

I don't know where the readme file is so I just tried to figure out the procedure.  Initially I got a message about not using the Bridge subfolder option, but I wasn't using it so proceeded.  I just took one group in a folder, seleted thumbnails, and exported.  I didn't remember how to get it into Excel so I just pasted into a blank from notecard.  I made the desired modifications to the keywords field only and then saved as Homoptera (the types I'd selected) text file. I went to import and chose the file and tried to import as both basic and IPTC Core and it said no metadata in both cases.  So I don't remember the procedure, though I can modify fields in Excel. when I went to import ... View more

I was a away for awhile and have returned to try to get back to some kind of order with my keywords. Since Bridge had updated, the script was gone but I got it back.  Before I do any more, the status is that I had exported and tried to correct things in the Excel, replacing (  and ) with , .  But I created a worse mess in bulk replacement as sometimes the ) was at the end and sometimes it wasn't, so I have an extra multiplicity of commas and even more keywords.  You had said that commas were not recommended, though the website accepts and rejects ().  So would using | as in an earlier thread post be acceptable?  I am so sorry I ruined my well ordered phylogenetic tree and really want to have something clear again that will also be accepted by the site and amenable to google searches.  No I have lots like this: ... View more

So I got further.  downloaded, didn't ask me to sign up, maybe because I have the free account already. I got it indo Bridge and the metadata deluxe came up.  I decided to 1st just try the last day folder with few shots to see how it does.  I did the extraction and imported the text file into Excel, leaving pretty much just the file number, description and keywords and I can see that Lightroom Keywords is the problem.  Bridge Keywords are in column C and I can extend that and it doesn't go very far. LR ones are in D and it just goes on and on, with so much duplication.  I had to extend E which has nothing just to get to the end and it ovelaps E, apparently having reached the limit of extension.  I don't really use LR so do I just delete everything in D? And make wanted adjustments in C?   thanks for all the great help! ... View more

I started the procedure.  I see the script in the startup folder, along with a simpler metadata extractor program, But when I reopened Bridge, in the metadata tab ( no metadata deluxe tab ) I only see my other script. Aslo it isn't in the list of startup scripts.  If I get beyond that, I am wondering how extensively I have to select files.  When I was trying before I went to my main archive of Arthropods and selected all with Acalyptratae, and then I went to my reject folder (these are due to be deleted, but I keep them temporarily till I export that metadata so I can correlate with my access database what numbers are deleted and delete from there too.  I went to recent day folders, and I went to another drive that had some videos.  When done, Acalyptratae was unchecked everywhere and all but "acalyptratae" deleted but when I removed the "", then I had a whole new set with all the child keywords.  ... View more

I would like to try the export. I thought I already posted such, but done see that, I went through all the possible files with Acalpytratae in the keywords and changed preferences so that parent keywords aren't automatically selected.  Then I unselected all instances of any version of the keyword acalyptrate, where alone, in "" or with *.  Then I went through all families that had () and applied the comma style instead all of which are under Diptera, FLIES..  Then I unselected alny with () so only comma ones were left.  Searches for keywords with acalyptrate now turned up none.  I went to the "Acalyptrate" version under Diptera, Files. and renamed it without the "".  So though no Acalyptratae of any type was checked, a whole new set  of families with scientific name, COMMON NAME, was created, undoing all I had done. ... View more

Athought the families I did so far did not duplicate, it seems that Bridge does not like " ". When I went back to look at the ones I changed, I found that any parent "Acalyptrate" was unchecked and there were 4 different Acalyptrate in other parent folders checked.  While I once had a beautifully organized phylogenetic heirarchy, I should have left it alone.  My idea of using standar commas , instead of parentheses () had just introducted a chaos of multiplicity and attempts to correct keep adding.  I haven't tried the write heirarchical yet, worried about how many levels I have to go up to without creating still more duplicates.     ... View more

Based on the link suggesed, I tried something similar.  I had an arrangement with an examples such as thus: Arthropods>Insects>Diptera, FLIES,>Acalyptratae>Tephritoidea>Ulidiidae (PICTURE WINGED-FLIES)>Otitinae>Cephalini.    I lready had duplicates of almost all the subfolders in two places from previous parent folder renames, the old ones of which were Diptera , and Diptera (FLIES).  So almost all below that was twice duplicated and I wanted to get rid of.  I decided to work with all under Acalyptratae, and renamed that "Acalyptrate" and then all the FAMILIES ( end in dae) below it I changed to the comma format, so the example above became Ulidiidae, PICTURE-WINGED FILES. All child levels below that, I renamed with a period after. So Otininae becomes Otininae.  .I'd go to a family folder where images are stored, and since Bridge removed the ability to find 'ALL' that it once had, I choose find all images that don't contain 'zzz'.  this pulls up everything in the subfolders as well.  Then in the folder panel I select a lowest level child keyword, such as Cephalini, and in the keyword panel, check the Cephalini. (with the period), then uncheck all the ones without the period and I can delete that keyword., from the other levels,  I go up to the family level and delete that. Once the family was gone, I'd also remove parents above that if they didn't automatically. I would look on the folder panel with all selected and see if there were any old keyword, check them and uncheck in the keyword panel.  Several hours of this worked well for quite a few families that didn't come back.  It got harder when Acalyptratae would show once in the folder panel but be in 2 different old parent FLY keywords. Earlier, it seemed one check on the folder panel would show all checked in the keywords and I'd uncheck and they'd all be gone.  but then I started getting cases where the 2 on the right would show (-) and I'd have to start doing smaller selections of images till I'd get a solid check and then uncheck and get rid of that group.  sometimes it would only be one image that would allow a single check.  Tedious.  But then a stranger thing happened, before I could finish the last families in the group.  "Acalyptratae" became uncheckable.  Earlier as a parent, anything below would check it, now the non quote Acalyptratae would check when I checked a family or its child instead and if I checked "Acalypratate" the check would go away. Mind boggling, but I got rid of all the extra families and their children of the 25 families in the one subgroup. Not perfect, but I was able to export less cluttered keywords to the metadata file being prepared to re-import into my website.   ... View more

This is proving overwhelming for me because I have a phylogenetic heirarchy of nested keywords. I had the format such as   " Latin name (COMMON NAME) " for most families. I started changing this to " Latin name, COMMON NAME " so that it would import into the correct format for keywords on my website.  But because of the parents and children, this created duplicates at many levels.  I was working on Flies for example.  There may be a structure such as Arthopods>Insects>Diptera, FLIES>Aschiza>Syrphidae (HOVER FLIES)>Brachinopini>Brachyopini. 7 levels of keywords. After reading this, I changed one fly family without childen to the comma family, and this created a new level of duplicates, which I deletes,  I renamed the parent "Aschiza" and this created a duplicate of the old, Aschiza, which has all the fly families under it duplicated. There is already a duplicate Diptera, and another, Diptera (FLIES). I was wondering about how many levels I have to do, and then there are all these other Orders, such as Beetles, Lepidoptera, etc, all under Arthropods with over 150,000 files, which I'm pretty sure Bridge can't hold at once and so I at a loss how to proceed without creating more and more duplicates from what was once extremely well organized. ... View more

I don't see any 14 version.    ... View more