Tropy for Research Photo Management: Organize Photos

Lists can create a structured organization (such as chapters of your book/dissertation) or a more unstructured, thematic organization (such as power or justice).

• Create a new list: File -> New -> List; or right click over the sidebar -> New List
  • To create a sub-list: right click over a list
• Add items to a list: drag and drop an item or items onto the list name. 
• Remove items from a list: Right-click on the item in the list and select Remove Item From List (this will not remove the item from your project)
• Delete a list: Right-click on the list name and select Delete list. There is no confirmation message before deleting!
• Lists automatically created by Tropy
  • Unlisted Items - items that don't belong to any list yet
  • Last Import - photos from your most recent import into Tropy

Tropy allows you to create customized Tags to organize your materials. Check the tag list before creating a new tag. Tags are considered unstructured metadata. You can use any words or set of words. 

Lists and Tags are complementary. They organize your research photos from different perspectives. Generally speaking, Lists are used more for a structured organization, whereas Tags are used more for thematic organization or for tracking your research process. 

Possible Uses for Tags

• Tags could be used thematically. They might refer to places or people relevant to your research
• Tags could be used to help you track your research process. For instance, you could create a tag for items that have already been transcribed or items you have read or haven't read.
  • transcribed
  • read
  • unread
• Tags can also be assigned colors so that they can be quickly identified. 

Create a new tag:

• Select an item, click on the Tags tab of the Metadata pane, Add Tag.
• Select a few items, click on the Tags tab of the Metadata pane, Add Tag to the selected items.

Delete a tag from an item:

• Select an item, click on the Tags tab of the Metadata pane, press Backspace to remove it from the item or right click over the tag -> Remove tag

The idea behind 'Spend more time using your research photos, and less time hunting for them' heavily depends on Tropy’s built-in search functionality. Note that Tropy does not currently include built-in OCR, so it can't search for text within images. It can't extract text layers from PDFs that have a text layer either.  Searches in Tropy are limited to metadata and notes. If you are a Zotero user, you know that when you choose “Everything” in the search settings, the search includes the indexed text in PDFs, which means you can search PDFs. 

To search through all metadata and notes:

• Click the search box located at the top of the item table.
• Enter your search term.
• Matching results will automatically appear in the item table.

To clear your search:
Simply delete the text from the search box.

You can export item metadata, notes, and photos as a PDF. Right click the selected items, Export Selected Items -> PDF.

Before exporting, consider selecting the appropriate item template, as it controls how the metadata is formatted and displayed in the PDF.

In addition, to customize what gets included, go to Tropy → Settings → Print, and adjust the options to fit your needs.

You can also choose to export or copy notes. Refer to the screenshots above for guidance.