ExifToolGui Workspaces: Build Your Own Tag Panels
A photo file can hold hundreds of metadata tags, but any one job needs about a dozen. The Workspace is ExifToolGui’s answer: a definition of exactly which tags the Metadata panel shows and lets you edit. In V6.3.12, maintained by Frank Bijnen as a fork of Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, the Workspace manager lets you define that tag set, save it under a name, and load it whenever the job comes around again.
This guide explains how workspace definitions work, how they are stored, and how to build three practical panels: one for date repair, one for descriptive credit work, and one for location review. It underpins editing Artist, Copyright and Keywords and every other tutorial in the Tutorials hub. The program itself is on the download page.
What a Workspace Definition Actually Is
A workspace definition is a list of tags. The Metadata panel renders that list for the selected file, showing current values and offering the listed fields for editing. Change the definition and the same file suddenly presents a different face: a date panel shows capture times and nothing else, while a rights panel shows Artist, Copyright and Keywords. Nothing in the file changes when you switch panels; only your view and editing surface change.
Definitions are managed in the Workspace manager, the menu the GUI has carried since the original documentation. Settings are stored in ExifToolGUIV6.ini beside the program, and definitions can be saved and loaded as named files through Export and Import, with names in the style of MyWorkspace_XMP.ini given as the documentation’s example.
Build a Panel: Add Tags in the Forms V6 Accepts
Open the Workspace manager and start from the default definition rather than a blank page. Remove tags you never touch, then add the ones your job needs. V6.3.12’s release notes state that file-list and Workspace field definitions accept tag forms G0:G1:Tag, G1:Tag, G0:Tag or a bare Tag, so you can name a tag loosely when only one exists, or pin it to a specific group when precision matters.
Order the fields the way you work through them, top to bottom, because you will tab through this panel on every file of a batch. A small panel you fully understand beats a forty-field panel that shows everything and gets used for nothing. Save the result under a job name, not a date, so future-you can find it by purpose.
- Start from the default definition and prune it.
- Add job tags using bare or group-qualified names.
- Save under a purpose name, for example a dates panel.
Three Panels Worth Building First
A date panel groups DateTimeOriginal and its EXIF and XMP companions, supporting the fixes in changing DateTimeOriginal. A credit panel groups Artist, Copyright and Keywords for the workflow in the Artist and Copyright guide. A location panel groups the GPS tags, which makes reviewing what a sharing copy would reveal, before removal, a ten-second check.
Build each panel when the job first appears, not in advance. A panel designed against real files, with the fields you actually reached for, matches the work. Export the finished definitions as files and keep them with your photo-workflow notes; they are plain configuration, small enough to back up with the archive they serve.
Switch Panels Per Job, Share Them Per Machine
Switching definitions is a view change, so it is safe to do mid-session and mid-folder: load the location panel to audit a set, then the credit panel to stamp it, then the date panel to fix its timeline, all against the same selection. This is the rhythm that makes batch-editing a whole folder feel organised rather than improvised.
Because definitions export and import as files, a panel built on one Windows machine moves to another with your setup, and a team or a household can share one standard credit panel so every archive carries identical fields. Keep the exported files beside your ExifToolGUIV6.ini backup, and a rebuilt machine returns to your exact working layout in minutes.
Keep Panels Small Enough to Actually Use
Resist rebuilding the entire tag universe into one panel. A workspace earns its place when every field on it gets touched regularly; fields added for completeness slow the tab order, crowd the panel and get skipped mentally, which is when errors slip into the fields beside them. If a tag matters twice a year, it belongs in a specialist panel loaded for that job, not in your daily definition.
Version your exported definitions the way you would any configuration: when you change a panel, export the new version under the same purpose name and keep the previous export until the new one has survived a real batch. Panels are small files, and the ability to return to yesterday’s layout after an experiment is worth more than the disk space the old export occupies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are workspace definitions stored?
In ExifToolGUIV6.ini beside the program, and they can also be exported and imported as named definition files, for example MyWorkspace_XMP.ini.
Does switching workspaces change my photos?
No. A workspace only defines which tags are shown and edited. Files change only when you edit a value and save it to the selected files.
How do I name a tag that exists in several groups?
Field definitions accept qualified forms: G0:G1:Tag, G1:Tag, G0:Tag, or a bare Tag when no qualification is needed.
A personal set of small, purpose-built panels is the difference between a generic metadata viewer and your metadata workshop. Build them job by job via the Tutorials hub, and every later task in ExifToolGui gets faster.