Application Guide

The main interface for this project will be a desktop application, although it’s still a work in progress. Soon this will be packaged into more convenient platform-specific builds, but for now it must be installed and launched from the command line.

To launch, run:

python -m naturtag.app.app

Image Selection and Tagging

The Photos tab is the main interface for selecting and tagging images:

1. Select images:

   • Drag & drop images or folders into the window

   • Or, select files via the file browser (from the toolbar, or Ctrl+O)

2. Select iNaturalist metadata:

   • Enter an iNaturalist observation ID or taxon ID

   • Or paste an iNaturalist URLs with Ctrl+V

   • Or search for a species from the Species tab (see details below)

   • Coming soon: search for observations from the Observations tab

3. Click the Run (▶️) button in the top right (or Ctrl+R) to tag the selected images

Mouse actions:

• Left-click an image for a fullscreen view

• Middle-click an image to remove it

• Right-click an image for a context menu with more actions:

Species Search

The Species tab contains tools to search and browse species to tag your images with:

Basic Search

You can start by searching by name, with autocompletion:

Full Search

Or you can also run a full search using additional filters:

• Categories filters by iconic taxa (Birds, Amphibians, etc.). Ctrl-click to select multiple.

• Rank filters by taxonomic rank (Family, Genus, Species, etc.).

  • Select an exact rank, for example to search only for species

  • Or select a minimum and/or maximum rank, for example to search for anything between a species and a family.

• Parent uses the selected taxon as a filter, and searches within children of that taxon.

For example, a search for flies (Diptera) with ‘ornate’ in the name will look like this:

Navigation

• After selecting a taxon, you will see a list of its Ancestors and Children

• The Back and Forward buttons (or Alt-Left/Right) navigate through recently viewed taxa

• The Parent button (or Alt-Up) selects the immediate parent

• View on iNaturalist will show more details about the taxon on inaturalist.org

• Click on a taxon photo (or the thumbnails to the right) for a fullscreen view

Species Lists

The additional tabs next to search results contain:

• Recent: Recently viewed taxa

• Frequent: Most frequently viewed taxa

• Observed: Taxa observed by you, sorted by observation count

Settings

See the Settings menu for some settings to customize the metadata that your images will be tagged with, iNaturalist info used in search filters, and other behavior:

Note

The settings in the Metadata section also apply to the CLI.

Image Directories

Under the File menu, there are submenus with shortcuts to commonly used image directories:

• Open Recent Will show the most recently used directories

• Open Favorites Will show the directories you have marked as favorites

Adding and removing favorites

To add a directory to favorites select Add a favorite from the favorites submenu. You can also Ctrl-click a directory from the recent submenu.

To remove a directory from favorites, Ctrl-click the directory from the favorites submenu.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Some keyboard shortcuts are included for convenience:

Key(s)	Action	Tab/Screen
Ctrl+O	Open file browser	Photos
Ctrl+V	Paste photos or iNat URLs	Photos
Ctrl+R	Run image tagger	Photos
Ctrl+Shift+X	Clear selected images	Photos
F5	Refresh photo metadata	Photos
⠀
Ctrl+Enter	Run search	Species
Alt+Left	View previous taxon	Species
Alt+Right	View next taxon	Species
Alt+Up	View parent taxon	Species
⠀
Left	View previous image	Fullscreen image (local photo or taxon)
Right	View next image	Fullscreen image (local photo or taxon)
Escape	Exit fullscreen view	Fullscreen image (local photo or taxon)
Del	Remove image from selection	Fullscreen image (local photo)
⠀
Ctrl+Tab	Cycle through tabs	All
Ctrl+Shift+F	Add a directory to favorites	All
Ctrl+Shift+T	Toggle toolbar visibility	All
F11	Toggle fullscreen	All
Ctrl+Q	Quit	All