Adding metadata/regular data upon save

[zamboknee]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question but I perused the help me stuff and didn't see an answer for this...

Is it possible to add data or metadata to a file as I'm saving it?

I do voiceover work so I'm auditioning a lot and I'd like to be able to mark some auditions (mp3) I send out for future use.

My perfect world situation would be to create a file, name it 'FileA' for the audition file but as I'm saving it insert a trigger letter/symbol that would add more information (such as 'Great Read') TO THAT FILE so that I can find it later.

Is this possible with Alfred?

[deanishe]

I think you're going to have to be clearer about what it is you're talking about.

 

What do you mean "metadata"? A tag? A Spotlight comment? An ID3 tag?

 

And how do you imagine it will be added? In your program's UI (whatever that program is)? Via Alfred's input box?

[zamboknee]

A tag or ID3 tag would be fine.  Is there a way to do either?

[deanishe]

They can both be done, but Alfred can't do it natively. Also, Alfred doesn't do anything "automatically". You have to tell it to do something. That's the way it's designed.

 

Again, if you can be more concrete about what you want to do and how, I can perhaps give you a concrete solution.

[zamboknee]

2 hours ago, deanishe said:

They can both be done, but Alfred can't do it natively. Also, Alfred doesn't do anything "automatically". You have to tell it to do something. That's the way it's designed.

 

Again, if you can be more concrete about what you want to do and how, I can perhaps give you a concrete solution.

I'd like to, for instance, be able to name the file 'FileA' and with a keystroke (let's say Command-2) I can add the tag to the file of 'raspy' or 'lighthearted' or 'dark' or 'movie trailer', etc.

Does that clear things up a bit?

[deanishe]

Yeah, that's actionable.

 

If you only have a few tags, that's very easy to implement as File Actions with a tiny bit of scripting. I already have a workflow that does pretty much exactly this for my most common tags, which I'd be happy to adapt for you.

 

If you have quite a few tags, or think you'll want to add new ones, it can be done with a Hotkey + List Filter + a bit more scripting.

 

In either case, you'll probably have to select the files in Finder in order to tag them. You can't just hook into arbitrary apps and monitor their save operations.

 

I can put that together for you tomorrow. But please let me know exactly what you have in mind. Happy to write it for you, but I don't want to have to rewrite it for you because you weren't clear about what you wanted.

[zamboknee]

Hey Deanishe,

Sorry for the delayed response. I'm looking to do a few tags.  Such as 'trailer', 'soft', 'hardsell', 'announcery' 

Would this be possible?

[dfay]

Note that you can add Finder tags in the standard MacOS file save dialog, with auto-complete.  These can then appear in the Finder sidebar.  You can also manage tags with this workflow: 

 

or roll your own using https://github.com/jdberry/tag

 

But again, the basic functionality of adding a tag while you're saving a file is already there natively in MacOS without Alfred.