For anyone who might be looking for blog # 2 regarding my new friend LINQ; it’s coming later this week. For now I wanted to drop a few words about Microsoft® Expression® Media 2. If you are into taking a lot of pic’s then this is the absolute best cataloging tool I’ve found. Getting photos off the camera is easy, but what about trying to find just the right photo later? Not so easy when every pic is named DSC0021745 is it? Expression® Media 2 is a cataloging tool that allows extremely easy batch imports of files from any source. Instead of importing from a camera or media card, what if you want to continue to use your current software to download the photos, edit and get them just right? No problem with Expression® Media 2 as you can set up watched folders for it to auto import. It doesn’t actually import the pictures themselves into another database. It catalogs the metadata associated with each photo (or video, flash, audio clip or whatever) and allows you to categorize them into logical groups. You can then save the catalog. You can then search the catalog using any number of ways. It recognizes over 100 media types so it will find yours I promise. :)
Want to share your catalog with a friend or coworker? No problem… the Expression® Media 2 Reader is a free download from Microsoft. This tool does way more than my few lines in a blog can do it justice. You have to use it to really appreciate it.
A few highlights….
- Hierarchical Keywords
- Easy Labels
- Ratings
- Ability to edit with a single click
- Ability to publish to Windows Live
- Create Slide Shows
- One click publish to Windows Movie Maker
- Bulk Import
- Command line processing if you desire
- When you edit a photo the original is kept intact and a version is generated for the edited copy.
- Too many other features to list here. :)
- Integrates with Live Maps, instantly get Long/Lat and generate push pins for your maps.
Photo Editing on the fly…
If you have a lot of photos that are in bad need of cataloging or you just want a tool that allows you to do almost anything with media, then Expression® Media is for you.
For more information try these links
Expression® Media 2 Reader (free)
If you do try it out please leave a comment about your experience. As I use and learn more about Expression® Media I’ll post some “How To” video clips of the product in action.
-Jay
