Datewell™
Change Log

Newest first.


0.9.15  (24 October 2026)
  - Starts faster: the app opens its window right away, and reading date stamps and borders gets under way sooner.
    The dates it reads are exactly the same.

0.9.14  (24 October 2026)
  - The User Guide now has step-by-step instructions for getting an API key from Claude, Google Gemini or OpenAI to
    read hard date stamps online, with a note on what each service does with what you send.
  - User Guide: a new Updates section; the License and Help sections now match the other Picture Org apps.

0.9.13  (23 October 2026)
  - Date stamps that are hard to read now give the same answer every time you run Datewell on the same photos.

0.9.12  (23 October 2026)
  - Behind the scenes: Datewell now shares its license, update and setup code with the other Picture Org apps, so
    fixes reach every app at once. License messages now use Datewell's full product name.

0.9.11  (23 October 2026)
  - Lightroom Classic: if Datewell's helper can't start, you now get a message instead of a wait that never ends.
  - Mac: saving an online-reading API key is a little safer.

0.9.10  (23 October 2026)
  - A new Datewell icon: the photo behind the calendar page now shows The Picture Org camera in front of the hills.
    Your Start menu and desktop shortcuts pick it up after the update.

0.9.9  (23 October 2026)
  - Faster reading of date stamps and printed borders: each photo is now opened once instead of twice.
  - Lightroom Classic: large selections get started sooner.

0.9.8  (23 October 2026)
  - Optional: date stamps this computer can't read can also be read online, with your own Claude, OpenAI or Google
    Gemini API key. Only the bottom right corner of the photo is sent, never the whole photo. Turn it on in
    Lightroom's Plug-in Manager, or in the app under the date stamp setting (Read hard stamps online). The app and
    the plug-in share the same settings.
  - Windows app: Choose a folder and Choose photos now open their window reliably. If the window can't open,
    Datewell says so and points you to the box where you can paste a folder's path.
  - Lightroom Classic on Windows: a run no longer risks stopping while Lightroom is showing its progress.

0.9.6  (22 October 2026)
  - Thin, faint date stamps from quartz date backs are now read, even over a busy background.
  - When part of a date stamp is hidden, Datewell compares what it can see with the stamps of the photos next to it,
    and uses their date if exactly one fits. These photos are flagged so you can check them.
  - Lightroom Classic: the preview now shows pictures. Each photo has the date found and a close-up of the stamp or
    border it was read from, and the thumbnails can be made larger or smaller. The text list is still there in its
    own tab.
  - Photos with a date stamp Datewell could not read now show a close-up of the stamp, so you can read it yourself.
  - In Lightroom's Plug-in Manager, the License section is now last, just above Status.
  - Once a license is entered, the License section says thank you.
  - The Plug-in Manager and the app now show the Datewell icon beside the description.
  - Windows: Settings > Apps shows the Datewell icon, and Setup has a new picture.

0.9.5  (22 October 2026)
  - App: check the dates before writing them. A slider makes the thumbnails bigger, a click shows a photo large (and
    at full size), and for dates read from a camera's date stamp or a print's border the part of the photo Datewell
    read is shown beside the date.
  - App: paste or type a folder's path instead of clicking through folders; on Windows the folder dialog now has an
    address bar you can type into.
  - Download files are now named ThePictureOrg-Datewell-…

0.9.4  (22 October 2026)
  - Photos with a camera date stamp Datewell can't fully read (say, something red crosses it) are now flagged so you
    can check them: the app has a "Date stamp not read" filter, and in Lightroom Classic they get the keyword
    Datewell > Check date stamp, which is never exported.
  - The app's progress bar now shows which photo it is on and about how long is left (reading date stamps and
    borders takes a few seconds a photo).

0.9.3  (22 October 2026)
  - New: reads the orange date a film camera printed in the corner of the picture (91 1 27, 30 10 '97) when the file
    name has no date, or only the year. The stamp gives the full date; with a year in the name, it must be from that
    same year.

0.9.2  (21 October 2026)
  - Reads seasons: "1971 Summer" or "Fall of 1965" gets the middle month of the season (winter January, spring
    April, summer July, fall October).
  - Reads European month names (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Scandinavian, with or
    without accents), such as "4. Juli 1987" or "4 juillet 1987".
  - Day first or month first for dates like 07-04-2004 now starts out matching your computer's region.
  - New: reads the month and year a lab printed on a print's white border (JUNE 1956, JUL · 57) when the file name
    has no date, or only the year.

0.9.1  (21 October 2026)
  - Lightroom Classic: after writing the dates (or undoing a run), Datewell now has Lightroom read the new dates
    from the files for you (Metadata > Read Metadata from Files). On a Mac, allow Lightroom under System Settings >
    Privacy & Security > Accessibility the first time.

0.9.0  (21 October 2026)
  - First version, for testing: sets each photo's Date taken from the date in its file name, in the Datewell app
    (Windows and Mac) or the Lightroom Classic plug-in.
  - Reads phone and camera names (IMG_20190312_142310), year-month-day names with any separators, US or day-first
    dates, two-digit years, month names (July 4 1987), month-and-year and year-only names, the folder's name, and a
    custom pattern of your own.
  - Always a preview first; nothing changes until you click Write dates. Each photo is read back to check the date,
    and every run can be undone.
  - Writes the EXIF, XMP and IPTC date fields together; camera raw files get an .xmp sidecar. The pictures
    themselves are never re-saved.
