Tagging and Multiplatform.

[Avatarshark]

While tagging is great, I have found it works best with files that are I am not editing on another computer, aka locally and files that only work with Mac platform (iWorks or iLife suite files) only.

Say I were to save a file (Microsoft Office docs in particular), save it to Dropbox, edit it on my Windows machine or edit it while in Parallels, save it, have it transfer back to my Mac.

My question: Does editing files in Windows then back in Mac alter/remove the tags I have placed while in Mavericks?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

The answer is Maybe - but usually yes.

It depends on how you transfer the files - that determines whether or not the extended attribute that stores the tag data gets preserved. For example: If you compress the file with OS X's built-in ZIP utility, then send it via whatever method, metadata is preserved... unless you try to edit it, notice the hidden dot underscore file, and delete that on Windows. Then the metadata goes poof.

 

[robgendreau]

Thing is that the metadata of Mavericks tags is dependent on the format of the disk storage system. But perhaps you could find a way to store the data in the file. Images do that via IPTC or exif or sidecar files. But I haven't seen such a utility.