PhotoInfoEditor is free. It is a fully functional program with no time or ‘registration’ limited features. However, support for PhotoInfoEditor through donations, has been very poor (the same was true for PhotoGPSEditor – see earlier post). Therefore it was decided that a new ‘nag’ screen should be added to the program. This decision was not taken lightly.

The new ‘nag’ screen, unlike the previous version in the program (which was clearly not have the desired effect), does not have a ‘Do not show again’ setting (it, along with the ’service’ buttons on the main view only appear after the program has been used a number of times).

The PhotoInfoEditor ‘nag’ screen – to make it go away just make a donation (via PayPal) or use TrialPay

Now, the ‘nag’ screen can be made to vanish, and not appear again, by making a donation (via PayPal) or by using services, or purchasing goods at TrialPay (see earlier post on TrialPay).

How does this work? Well, if you do make a donation (via PayPal) or use TrialPay then MMISoftware will send you an ‘activation code’ that will stop the ‘nag’ screen displaying when you launch the program. As an added bonus you will also get a nice warm feeling as a result of helping to support the development of the program!

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

Added drag and drop support:

• this feature was requested by a surprising number of users. Photo files (any of the supported photo formats (ps, epsi, epsf, epi, eps, iff, xbm, hdr, exr, cr2, dcr, dng, srf, nef, crw, raf, orf, mrw, icns, jpg, jpeg, cur, fax, tif, tiff, jpe, and pef [please note, not all have been tested due to a lack of available photos in the correct formats]), can now be dragged on to the program icon, or into the window, to be loaded in to the program

Added ‘completion’ indicator:

• as you complete the geocoding process the indicator shows the amount done. A white ball, no data assigned; one-quarter green, description or summary completed; half green, latitude and longitude added (plus city and country – added automatically), or summary and description completed; three-quarters green, latitude and longitude added (plus city and country – added automatically), plus summary or description completed; fully green, all data added. It should be noted that you do not have to add all data for the photo to be available for export.

Added improved sorting function:

• Photos can now be sorted by name, date taken and ‘degree’ of added meta-data

In addition to the above major changes support was added for PEF files, the latest version of the excellent exiftool was incorporated, the ability to import photos from multiple directories can was added, ‘double-click’ zooming for the map (control-double-click to zoom out) and support for TrialPay was added (visit the PhotoInfoEditor Store at TrialPay – more info on TrialPay)

Besides the new features a number of bugs were fixed:

• Dealt with a number of user-interface inconsistencies reported by users
• Resolved a bug that was causing Google Maps not to display correctly
• Tracked down a really nasty and sneaky memory leak

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

More details to follow in later posts…

PhotoInfoEditor – new features, and bug fixes (read post)

PhotoInfoEditor – new ‘nag’ feature, and how to make it go away (read post)

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

The other change was the result of some feedback from users. A number of users were kind enough to send GPS data files that were not importing correctly and causing PhotoGPSEditor to ‘hang’. The program will now report the problem and not ‘hang’.

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

PhotoGPSEditor is free. It is a fully functional program with no time or ‘registration’ limited features. However, support through donations has been very poor. Therefore it was decided that a new ‘nag’ screen should be added.

This ‘nag’ screen, unlike the last one, does not have a ‘Do not show again’ setting (it, along with the ’service’ buttons on the main view only appear after the program has been used a number of times).

The PhotoGPSEditor ‘nag’ screen – to make it go away just make a donation (via PayPal) or use TrialPay

Now, the ‘nag’ screen can be made to vanish, and not appear again, by making a donation (via PayPal) or by using services, or purchasing goods at TrialPay (see earlier post on TrialPay).

How does this work? Well, if you do make a donation (via PayPal) or use TrialPay then MMISoftware will send you an ‘activation code’ that will stop the ‘nag’ screen displaying when you launch the program. As an added bonus you will also get a nice warm feeling as a result of helping to support the development of the program!

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

Added a ’step-by-step-tagging’ wizard for new users

• A number of users had commented that they found the main window confusing. The original idea was to produce a tutorial, but in the end it was decided that a ’step-by-step’ walk through approach to matching GPS data to photos (geotagging) may be a better approach. The user now has a choice of using the ‘advanced’ view, or the ‘wizard’ view. There are some more details in this post.

Added drag and drop support:

• This feature was requested by a surprising number of users. Photo files (any of the supported photo formats (ps, epsi, epsf, epi, eps, iff, xbm, hdr, exr, cr2, dcr, dng, srf, nef, crw, raf, orf, mrw, icns, jpg, jpeg, cur, fax, tif, tiff, jpe, and pef [please note, not all have been tested due to a lack of available photos in the correct formats]) and GPS data files – GPX (gpx) and NMEA (txt or log), can now be dragged on to the program icon, or into the window, to be loaded in to the program

Multiple GPS files can now be selected and imported

• Another ‘popular’ request. The previous version of PhotoGPSEditor only allowed data from one GPS file to be loaded. I found that when using the Sony GPS CS1 (which stores GPS data in multiple files) I couldn’t get the correct data in to the program (the Sony GPS CS1 now works with Macs if you are using 10.4.9 on an Intel based machine – see earlier post).

Added support for PEF image files

Incorporated the latest version of the excellent exif tool

Photos from multiple directories can now be loaded

Added ‘double-click’ zooming for the map (control-double-click to zoom out)

• This is a great new feature. The map display (powered by Google Maps) now uses the Google map controls and can be double clicked for zooming (see this earlier post for more details).

In this release a number of bugs were fixed, including:

• dealt with a number of user-interface inconsistencies reported by users
• resolved a bug that was causing Google Maps not to display correctly
• fixed a problem with offset time format stepper
• Fixed problem that was preventing altitude from being recorded correctly with the photos
• GPS track and point data now sort correctly
• tracked down a really nasty and sneaky memory leak
• resolved a problem in which picture data could not be ‘temporarily’ saved between editing sessions

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

So, what is this ‘wizard’?

Well, it is section of the program that allows a user to ‘walk-through’ the process of geotags to photos.

When PhotoGPSEditor is started for the first time it uses ‘the wizard’ (it is easy to switch to the ‘advanced mode’ which uses just a single ‘view’). The user is then walked through the process of loading the photo files, loading the GPS data and then finally matching the GPS data to the photos.

The first screen gives an introduction, and also an opportunity to switch to the ‘advanced’ mode.

Next – import the photos. Fairly easy and straight forward, use the ‘Load Pictures’ button to open the standard Mac ‘open file’ dialog box, and select either a single, or group, or a folder full of photos to load… Alternatively, the photos could just be dropped on the window, or the application icon…

Once the photos are loaded the user can move on to the next screen, loading the GPS data, by clicking on the ‘Next’ button (now active as the photos have been loaded), in the bottom right-hand corner.

Loading the GPS data is similar to loading the photos, that is, click on the ‘Load GPS file’ button and use the standard Mac dialog windows. One, multiple, or a folder full of GPS files (in the NMEA or GPX format) can be loaded, or alternatively, again, the GPS files could just be dropped on the application window or icon…

After the GPS data the ‘offset’ needs to be calculated. The ‘offset’ is a measure of the difference between the time setting on the camera and the time setting in the GPS data. For example, if you took a photo and the camera recorded the time as ‘26th March 2007, 10:15:12′, and yet the real time (or GPS time) was ‘26th March 2007, 11:20:15′, then there would a time ‘offset’ of 1 hour, 5 minutes and 3 seconds.

There are three ways that PhotoGPSEditor can calculate this offset.

1. By placing a pointer on a map at a known location for one of the photos taken
2. By using a known latitude and longitude for a photo in the set (this is easy to do if you have taken a photo of the GPS screen)
3. By knowing the ‘offset’, that is, you know that the difference between camera time and GPS time.

Calculating the ‘offset’ using the map – place the pointer and click the ‘Offset’ button

Calculating the ‘offset’ using a known latitude and longitude – type in the latitude and longitude (the program will take DD.DDDDDD, DD MM.MMMMMM and DD MM SS.SSSS, where D = degrees, M = minutes and S = seconds)

Setting a known ‘offset’

Once the ‘offset’ has been set the user can move to the next screen and match of the GPS data can be applied to all photos by clicking on the ‘Apply to all photos’ button.

Once the photos and GPS data have been matched the location data, that is, town, area and country, are added automatically and additional information, such as a description of the photos etc. can be added by the user. This information can be added to one photo at a time, or to multiple photos by selecting them and typing in the information.

Finally (and on the last screen), the photos can be saved…

And that is all there is to geotagging your photos!

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

More details to follow in later posts…

PhotoGPSEditor – new features, and bug fixes (read post)

PhotoGPSEditor – more on the wizard (read post)

PhotoGPSEditor – new ‘nag’ feature, and how to make it go away (read post)

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

The email was from a company called TrialPay (sign-up page), and they had a novel suggestion for a way that MMISoftware could make more money from its programs, and how users could get FREE licenses…

At first, I must admit, I thought it was a scam. I couldn’t see how it could work…. Something for free? How? Then the penny-dropped! (Pardon the pun!)

Basically, what TrialPay is offering is free licenses for software IF a user signs up for a service, or buys goods, from one of its business partners. As a thank-you for buying the goods, or signing-up for the service, the user gets the license, and the software company makes some money on ‘commission’ from the sale. TrialPay claim that this approach can dramatically improve income for software companies.

The approach used by TrialPay is basically what MMISoftware has been trying to do with PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor, that is, support software development not through users buying licenses, but by users signing up for services and/or buying goods, and MMISoftware earning money through ‘commission’. As you may have noticed, PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor both contain a number of links through to the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores (powered by Amazon), and to other affiliate partners. Plus, there is also the option of giving a straight donation via PayPal (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation).

Interestingly, this approach has not worked! There have been very few visitors to the stores, only a small number of purchases made, and an alarmingly low number of donations made. This is kind of surprising considering how many times the programs have been downloaded, and how many emails have been received from users asking questions.

So, I guess I will have to introduce some sort of ‘license’ for PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor… And I will certainly give TrialPay a go for PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor, and possibly some other programs at MMISoftware…

If you would like to purchase a ‘license’ for PhotoInfoEditor or PhotoGPSEditor, then please visit the TrialPay store for PhotoGPSEditor or PhotoInfoEditor.

If you are a developer and are interested in the ‘TrialPay approach’, then sign-up for their service:

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download:

The solution was really weird, and it appears to be a problem with Google…. (Well, that is my explanation, and I am sticking to it!)

I found that if PhotoGPSEditor and PhotoInfoEditor first load their maps with any zoom setting other than ‘1′ (i.e. maximum zoom-out), e.g. 3, and the map is positioned over the US (or in fact anywhere), then the problem is solved. When the maps are zoomed, or scrolled, all the parts load. Excellent!

This solution had to be implemented at the server level, and also within the code of PhotoGPSEditor and PhotoInfoEditor, and therefore will be rolled in to the next releases of the two programs (which in the case of PhotoGPSEditor should be within the next week or so, and in PhotoInfoEditor shortly after).

PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor are freeware programs from MMISoftware – continued development can be supported by making donations (PhotoInfoEditor Donation | PhotoGPSEditor Donation), or purchases at the MMISoftware GPS and camera stores.

Both programs are available for download: