Caption Text Strings

[mbbphoto]

Captioning is without question the bottle neck to our shooting particularly if its time sensitive.
I searched the forums to see if there's been reference to this and found no reference. What would be great would be a pull down or right click menu that would contain pre loadable text strings in the Caption description box.

That way before a shoot we could load key peoples names with their titles or any string of text that we frequently use and insert them into a caption.

Wadddya think???

Marc

[Kirk Baker]

Marc,

Captioning is without question the bottle neck to our shooting particularly if its time sensitive.
I searched the forums to see if there's been reference to this and found no reference. What would be great would be a pull down or right click menu that would contain pre loadable text strings in the Caption description box.

That way before a shoot we could load key peoples names with their titles or any string of text that we frequently use and insert them into a caption.

Wadddya think???

While it is doable, I think Code Replacement is far more efficient.  Have you tried creating Code Replacements for the captions you would like to enter?  It only takes a few keystrokes, no hunting through menus with a mouse, etc.

Thoughts?

-Kirk

[mbbphoto]

I think Code Replacement is far more efficient.  Have you tried creating Code Replacements for the captions you would like to enter?  It only takes a few keystrokes, no hunting through menus with a mouse, etc

Wow, cool, this would certainly work although it requires printing out a list which may be tricky on location when you forget the list or create it on the fly.

I still think control click leading to a pull down menu would be more intuitive (easier for rookies too).
You would need an add string, delete string and clear strings (or option click to the source, like snapshots). Folder subsets would be the icing to keep the lists shorter.

Kirk, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Just giving you my wish list. This is a pretty big deal for us, I'm tired of spending longer captioning a gig than the time it takes to shoot it! We'll definitely use code replacement to start.

Marc

Marc

I'm sure others would find this useful.

[Primoz]

I hope my humble wish for 4.5 will be fulfiled and if it will be, it will probably solve at least some of Marc's problems too. A while ago I suggested to Kirk option, to have more then one snapshot/clipboard entry, and with this, you could write caption for few photos copy them into snapshot and then just paste right one into particular photo. And in snapshot paste menu, you could see something like first 20 or so characters of each caption which you could then select and paste to particular photo or set of photos... something like Reuters program has.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed this wish is still on Kirk's mind 

[Kirk Baker]

I hope my humble wish for 4.5 will be fulfiled and if it will be, it will probably solve at least some of Marc's problems too. A while ago I suggested to Kirk option, to have more then one snapshot/clipboard entry, and with this, you could write caption for few photos copy them into snapshot and then just paste right one into particular photo. And in snapshot paste menu, you could see something like first 20 or so characters of each caption which you could then select and paste to particular photo or set of photos... something like Reuters program has.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed this wish is still on Kirk's mind 

Yes, it's still on my mind...

-Kirk

[mbbphoto]

While it is doable, I think Code Replacement is far more efficient.  Have you tried creating Code Replacements for the captions you would like to enter?  It only takes a few keystrokes, no hunting through menus with a mouse, etc.

Thoughts?

-Kirk

The Code replacement does work but requires some form of reference to remember your shortcuts which can be time consuming (and lead to errors) at say an awards show or music festival where we dont have handy dandy numbers on everyones shirt.
I dont mind the excel set up (its a bit finicky) so much but would still love to have it translate into a pulldown as an additional way of entering.

[Kirk Baker]

While it is doable, I think Code Replacement is far more efficient.  Have you tried creating Code Replacements for the captions you would like to enter?  It only takes a few keystrokes, no hunting through menus with a mouse, etc.

The Code replacement does work but requires some form of reference to remember your shortcuts which can be time consuming (and lead to errors) at say an awards show or music festival where we dont have handy dandy numbers on everyones shirt.
I dont mind the excel set up (its a bit finicky) so much but would still love to have it translate into a pulldown as an additional way of entering.

I'll see about adding it.

BTW, using a plain text editor is much easier than using Excel to create Code Replacement files.

-Kirk

[Shadow]

Speaking of creating the text file, it would be nice if this could be done INSIDE PM. That way a user would be able to quickly update a file without searching for the original, editing in a text edit programme, saving at the right format and then re-loading the file in PM.

Also, as a further option, how about having PM link to a file on-line, a web address maybe? Then one user could create a web page with all the code replacement info on and all other users could just point their PM to that site. Obviosulty PM would have to be online for it to work, or the user could click a button called 'Get latest Code Replacment' or whatever before he starts to caption.

It would be useful for those of us who manager several photographers and need to make sure each one has an up-to-date and accurate list to work from.

[Kirk Baker]

Speaking of creating the text file, it would be nice if this could be done INSIDE PM. That way a user would be able to quickly update a file without searching for the original, editing in a text edit programme, saving at the right format and then re-loading the file in PM.

I don't think that PM should have a text editor in it.  To make a useful one would take time away from adding other needed features.  I think it would be reasonable to add a "Edit" button that would launch the selected Code Replacement text file with the text editor of your choice.  That would be helpful.

Also, as a further option, how about having PM link to a file on-line, a web address maybe? Then one user could create a web page with all the code replacement info on and all other users could just point their PM to that site. Obviosulty PM would have to be online for it to work, or the user could click a button called 'Get latest Code Replacment' or whatever before he starts to caption.

It would be useful for those of us who manager several photographers and need to make sure each one has an up-to-date and accurate list to work from.

That would be nice.  We'll look into it, but it wouldn't appear in version 4.5.0...

Thanks for the feedback,

-Kirk

[dmwierz]

Captioning is without question the bottle neck to our shooting particularly if its time sensitive.
I searched the forums to see if there's been reference to this and found no reference. What would be great would be a pull down or right click menu that would contain pre loadable text strings in the Caption description box.

That way before a shoot we could load key peoples names with their titles or any string of text that we frequently use and insert them into a caption.

Wadddya think???

Marc

Hear hear. Right now, I make a Word document as I go, and cut and past there terms into PM's caption field on the fly. Code replacement seems like a kludge IMHO. I'd envision a drop down menu of used terms that you could edit by right clicking and drag into the caption field. Aperture has a nifty feature (very basicailly described here: http://www.apple.com/aperture/tips/ but it actually is much more powerful and useful than this video shows).

Dennis

[Kirk Baker]

Captioning is without question the bottle neck to our shooting particularly if its time sensitive.
I searched the forums to see if there's been reference to this and found no reference. What would be great would be a pull down or right click menu that would contain pre loadable text strings in the Caption description box.

That way before a shoot we could load key peoples names with their titles or any string of text that we frequently use and insert them into a caption.

Wadddya think???

Marc

Hear hear. Right now, I make a Word document as I go, and cut and past there terms into PM's caption field on the fly. Code replacement seems like a kludge IMHO. I'd envision a drop down menu of used terms that you could edit by right clicking and drag into the caption field. Aperture has a nifty feature (very basicailly described here: http://www.apple.com/aperture/tips/ but it actually is much more powerful and useful than this video shows).

Honestly, I have tried their method, and while it has that "bling" feature, I can still use Code Replacement faster (especially combined with variables) than any drag and drop method.  Now I suppose that could be because I am a software engineer and I can type really well...

It may just be that your captioning needs are better served by complete strings and are not player-based sports where you can see a name or a number on a jersey or vehicle.  When you have that kind of captioning, Code Replacement cannot be beat.  It is definitely not a kludge.

In any case, I am adding a popup menu for the Caption field in the 4.5 version.

-Kirk

[dmwierz]

OK, maybe kludge was a bit strong, but it does seem like a lot of work to have to go through for each game to have to create a new and unique code replacment file. 'Nuff said that if you can make it easier to generate a notepad of a couple dozen caption terms per event (I don't know how many times I have miss-spelled the word University as in University of Miami, Tennessee, North Carolina, etc.  while manually entering captions).

Code replacement is a VERY convenient feature for player and name-specific items, and don't get me wrong, I love it. When I describe this feature alone to other shooters whom I see manually entering an entire roster's worth of player numbers and names into a Word document before a game so they can cut and past into their captioning program, they look at me like I have given them the meaning of Life itself, and ask where they can get PM.

Dennis

[gajones]

I find this program useful for pasting snippets of text (assuming you're on Mac). It has a floating window which allows you to see the first few words in the clip. You then use command + C and a number between 0-9 to insert them.

Gareth.

[Kirk Baker]

Marc,

Captioning is without question the bottle neck to our shooting particularly if its time sensitive.
I searched the forums to see if there's been reference to this and found no reference. What would be great would be a pull down or right click menu that would contain pre loadable text strings in the Caption description box.

That way before a shoot we could load key peoples names with their titles or any string of text that we frequently use and insert them into a caption.

Wadddya think???

I just wanted to let you know that I have just implemented this for the 4.5 version.
It works like the other popup lists in that it replaces the contents of the Caption field with the text that was chosen from the menu.

Is that what you were looking for or did you want it to just append text, or insert text at the cursor position?

-Kirk

[mbbphoto]

I just wanted to let you know that I have just implemented this for the 4.5 version.

Words fail me.
Its like having an IT department on hand.

Inserting at the cursor is what I had in mind.
The combination of the two methods will really make things fly....
Make sure we can have spaces in the list (please!).

Marc