image by Pixabay.com
I have been trying to sort out my ever-growing collection of photographs as I am a bit of a hoarder; things have been getting out of hand lately. Actually finding what I’m looking for is proving to be not only impossible but downright frustrating, even though I know what I’m looking for is there somewhere.
I put my ultra-patient hat on and set to work, but soon realised that I might still be doing it this time next year, so I gave up. I would have to do a section at a time, fitting the time in as and when possible.
Fast forward to the following day, when I was looking for yet another image on Pixabay.com. If you have ever used this site, you will know that you have to enter your requirement in their search box and with one click, they give you pages of exactly what you are looking for.
I realised that this same system is in operation on many other sites too. There are search boxes everywhere, and this got me thinking. Why can’t we have a search box on our own image files?
Just think, instead of scrolling endlessly through dozens of folders and hundreds of images, you could just enter the relevant word and hey presto, no more frustration!
I just know that round about now, someone is going to tell me that there is already such a system. So, why don’t I know about it, and who is going to tell me how to get it?
I think one’s personal images would be searchable if we applied tags to them as we copy them over from cameras. At least my garden photo folders are labelled by date (2018-04-27), and I’ve taken to adding a word or two if they have something in common (e.g Mulching or Crocuses). The idea would be to visit each image and keyword it. If we did that with every batch of new photos, we’d end up with a searchable picture database. In theory.
Not sure if there is a search box on my Windows pictures folder, I would probably have to put them somewhere else. But all my pics are on google+ too and they don’t have a search facility either…
Windows has a search box for every folder. It’s at the top right. All my garden photos are in a main folder called Garden Photos. When I display it, I see a search box called “Search Garden Photos.” I can actually find photos using it — in the relatively rare cases where I’ve added keywords. I admit I haven’t explored Google+ much as yet.
This needs further investigation, as this might just be the answer to my prayers! Thanks Audrey… xx
You’re welcome!
The search facility is there… but it depends on having the images correctly laebelled to begin with. I too need to go back through and start titling pictures. I rely on memory for the most part and that is struggling with the tens of thousands of pics I now have…
I didn’t think Windows picture folders had a search facility, even with titles…
If you bring up your ‘Pictures’ folder on Windows, it should have a magnifying glass symbol and search bar near the top (I’m Windows 10 and its top right, under all th emain icons). If you have named, or go back and rename, all your folders of pics, or individual pics, it will search quite well… but will only pick up pictures with that word or phrase attached to them, or that date. If you know part of the folder name or date, that works too.
Wow, I will have to check this out, for I am sick and tired of spending time searching in vain for the image I want… Thanks Sue!
Dead easy… as long as you remember what you’ve labelled the images 😉