First, some similarities. All three have a screen for entering slide information,
with fields for file number, detailed caption information, and copyright info.
They also have fields in which you can indicate whether the photo is film or
digital, original or duplicate, horizontal or vertical, 35 mm. or other format,
etc. These fields use drop-down lists, speeding data entry and ensuring consistency.
Each allows some degree of customizing, and each provides open-ended fields
for entering additional information. And if you have the photo in digital form,
all three let you display it in thumbnail form onscreen.

But while all three programs let you insert keywords for searching, they
differ in how they handled it. There are two major approaches to keywording:
open vocabulary, where you can enter any descriptive term you want when filing
or searching; and controlled vocabulary, where both filing and searching are
limited to a predefined list of keywords. NSCS
and fotoBiz use the open vocabulary approach. This is the easiest system to
set up. In fact no real set-up is needed: just type in descriptive terms as
you enter each slide. Then when you need to find a slide, again, just start
entering appropriate words. But if you assign “house” to a slide,
it won’t show up later if you search for “home” or “building.”

StockView uses a controlled vocabulary: instead of
free-form keyword entry, you choose from three drop-down lists of keywords.
Again, this system ensures consistency. Where do the lists come from? You. You
have to come up with a set of categories, sub-categories within them, and “details”
within the sub-categories. A controlled vocabulary system takes much more thought
and work to set up, but is more efficient, especially if the searcher isn’t
always the same as the person who originally filed the slide.

In addition to searching by keywords, all three programs let you search
any of the fields or combinations of fields displayed on the screen. You can
pull up all your vertical photos, all your waterfalls shots, or all pictures
taken with Velvia film. StockView and NSCS let you do full Boolean searches,
using “and” (all pictures that show waterfalls and are vertical
and were shot on Velvia) or “or” (waterfalls or fountains).
fotoBiz supports “and” but not “or” searches.

Once the information has been entered, all three programs
print very professional-looking labels on readily-available Avery label stock.
In addition, StockView and NSCS can print barcode labels, allowing you to automate
entry of slides in submission sheets, and log them back in when they’re
returned.

Next month we’ll move from the photo side to the business side
of these programs. In the meantime, looking at the screenshots on their website
will give you some feel for how the programs operate.

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