David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Searching for Photos by Text

The flagging/starring mechanism described above is an adequate way to tag photos, but there are other ways. The name you give a picture might be significant; its original filename on the hard drive might be important; and maybe you've typed some important clues into its Title/Caption box.

That's the purpose of the Search box. (In iPhoto, it's below the thumbnails; in Picasa, it's on the top right.) Start by selecting the container you want to search—folder, album, or whatever. Then type into the Search box.

The program instantly shows you only the thumbnails of the photos whose text matches what you typed. "Text," in this case, means filenames, captions, tags, folder names, album names, date, camera model, and so on.

Tip

Picasa Tip: As you type, a pop-up menu appears, showing matching bits of text, which can save you some typing—just the way it does when you use Google on the Web! Coincidence? You decide.

As you type, all pictures are hidden except the ones that have your typed phrase somewhere in their text. In iPhoto, "text" means names, keywords, descriptions, filenames, and Event titles. In Picasa, it means filenames, captions, tags, folder names, album names, camera maker, and date.

Tip

Picasa Tip: You can also search for photos that contain faces. Yep, that's right: Face recognition software has come to the PC. Just click the Find Faces button next to the ...