I have been looking for some software for organizing my pictures for quite a while. There is a features set I have in mind for this software, and it seems impossible to find.

1. tagging
• show which tags I have already used
• tagging auto complete
• tagging information stored in an open format (XML)
2. archiving pictures to DVD
3. ideally NO picture manipulation (no resizing or retouching)
4. ideally open source software
5. works with my existing pictures folder hierarchy

I have been following this LifeHacker article on that very topic. I am currently using the YYY-MM-DD-Topic folder hierarchy that a lot of the commenters say they use. I really want better searching capabilities though, so software is needed.

I don’t like Picasa. Memory Miner sounds cool , but there is no windows version yet (I am hopefully on the mailing list for the windows Beta).

ACDSee is heavy duty, but maybe ACDSee Viewer will work – more investigation needed.

Pixvue is now abandonware.

Adobe Photoshope Elements

Corel Snapfire – UI sucks

This guy talks about IMatch. I might download that and try it but $59.95 USD? That is a little pricey for me.

There are lots of things to investigate, but I still feel like whatever I find isn’t exactly what I am looking for.