I’ve read how digiKam automatically writes the full tag hierarchy into images when you select a tag lower down in the hierarchy. However, even after the tag has been set, the upper level tags don’t seem to show up in the tag manager, so it’s a matter of trust. Or a matter of inspecting the xmp file to make sure all the tags have been applied correctly. Is that correct?
I assume this means that if you remove a tag lower down in the hierarchy but want the upper levels to remain, you have to select the upper level after you’ve removed the lower level, and trust that it will be written to the xmp file correctly.
(I’m new to digiKam, so I hope this question is okay. I’m still at the stage of trying out the app to see if it will meet my needs.)
Whether or not parent tags are checked as well depends on a setting. To change that setting:
right click on a tag;
in the context menu pick the last option “Toggle auto…”;
select the option you want (probably “parents”).
That should select all parent tags when you select a tag (and unselect all parents when you unselect a tag, even if a sibling tag is still selected).
As for the xmp files: I haven’t yet seen the synchronisation fail, if digikam has had time to write the sidecar. (If you watch the sidecar in another application, there will of course be a delay between you changing the tagging, and the changes appearing in the viewer. And changing the sidecar outside digikam, especially while it is running, is asking for discrepancies…).
Personally, I use digikam for tagging and captioning, and darktable for editing the (raw) files. Works pretty good, although digikam won’t pick up darktable’s edits, and you have to be a bit careful to keep metadata synchronised between the two when you want to edit them in darktable.
Thank you. I’ll check the settings. Good to know about the parent tags disappearing even if a sibling tag remains selected. I’ve got quite a few of those.
Plus the warning about editing raws in a separate program. I suppose that applies whatever raw editor is used. I’ll watch out for that one too.
Yes, that will apply to any external raw editor. The best you can hope for is getting an extra file with the edited version in the digikam library (which is what the digikam editor does). You’d have to explicitly create those files by exporting from the editor (and read them into digikam).