Everything 1.5 Alpha • Re: custom values csv questions

I didn't have a specific sidecar file in mind; I was just looking for a place to store custom property:value pairs robustly, in such a way that Everything could display the custom properties in columns. A number of programs, including file managers, store such metadata in ADS. But lately I've realized how such ADS aren't preserved "through the cloud", and wouldn't be preserved when the files are backed up to a NAS. Sidecar metadata doesn't automatically travel with files like ADS travel with files on NTFS disks, but at least they would not be lost like the ADS can be. They would always be available to be reconnected with their corresponding files. And, it would be easy enough to hide them in Everything when searching.

It seems that Exiftool can be used to create custom properties:
https://exiftool.org/config.html
And Exiftool can be used to write metadata to sidecar files:
https://exiftool.org/metafiles.html
The Exiftool author developed a sidecar file specification called MIE - I don't know if it's used much.
https://exiftool.org/MIE1.1-20070121.pdf
While Exiftool primarily works with image file metadata, my understanding is that Exiftool also works with non-image file metadata, for example PDF files.
Together these things might make it possible for a user to put custom properties and their values in sidecar files.
Then, ideally, these properties and values could be indexed and displayed in columns; and also edited in a spreadsheet-style interface.

Statistics: Posted by jimspoon — Tue Jun 11, 2024 8:43 pm

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