Data Tags On Photos

Iphoto does a great job saving details of the photos in iphoto, is there anyway to add details to the actual file so that any program that uses this data can see it.

I ask because I did an experiment with my original files and they use the data that i had to change (from photos I scanned in years ago, basically the scan in date).

If I understand you correctly, you want to edit EXIF data. You can do that in iPhoto this way.

EDIT: having a little trouble viewing the screencast...here's a text version:

1) select a picture with date you'd like to change
2) open Info drawer (lower left-hand corner of app)
3) click Date text and enter new data.

If you have several to many files you want to change date on:
1) Shift-select or Ctrl-select your pictures to change date on
2) right-click on the group and select Batch Change...from the context menu
3) select Date from the drop-down. Change options as you see fit.

Its a really really good idea to NOT change any EXIF data, even if its a scan. Because if somebody steals your picture and it ends up in a law suit you can prove its yours by not chaning the data. Changes can be tracked.

The problem is that my recent pictures with a digital camera have the correct dates in the "exif data" its the older pictures (scanned) or pictures from others who have their date screwed up on their end.

It stinks to think I have put this time to go and track down the dates for all my pictures in iphoto and it is organized, but if a crash happens where I need to rebuild the library all the data I have added will be lost. I tested this where I deleted some pictures whose data i put into iphoto then added them back from the original photo only to find the data is gone (or set to the original scan date).