Save hours on every assignment by automating roster file creation. Follow our step-by-step tutorial and go from zero to ready-to-use file in under 2 minutes.
Code replacement in under 2 minutes. No account required — follow along and create your first file now.
Click Create File in the navigation bar. No account needed — you can start building roster files immediately. The Roster Builder works with Photo Mechanic, GalleryID Desktop, Lightroom, Capture One, and any software that reads TSV files.
The Roster Builder has four sections. Take a moment to orient yourself:
Roster Configuration — pick your league, teams, and shortcode prefixes
Column Configuration — choose how many columns (2–10) and what each column contains
Download & Export — download, copy, or email your finished file
Roster Preview — live preview updates as you configure
Pick a league (e.g. NFL), then select your teams. Set a prefix for each team — like h for home and a for away — so jersey #24 becomes h24. Your roster loads automatically and the preview table populates with shortcodes, names, positions, and whatever columns you've configured.
Click Load Standard Codes to add sport-specific shortcodes — touchdowns, field goals, interceptions, and more for football, or assists, rebounds, and fouls for basketball. These appear at the bottom of your file so you can caption game action, not just players. You can also create and save your own custom code sets for referees, venues, or anything you use regularly.
In college football, multiple players often share the same jersey number. SnapCaption automatically detects duplicates and resolves them — for football it uses position-based suffixes like h15o (offense) and h15d (defense). For other sports, it uses letter sequences (a, b, c).
This matters because Photo Mechanic, GalleryID Desktop, and similar tools use the first matching shortcode they find. Without unique codes, the wrong player gets captioned.
When you're ready, Download the TSV file, Copy to clipboard, or Email it to yourself for on-location access.
This tutorial shows you how to update IPTC data and use Photo Mechanic's shortcode replacement feature to cut time out of your photo management workflow.
While SnapCaption is software-agnostic, it's designed to work perfectly with industry-standard tools like Photo Mechanic. The generated roster file can be easily loaded into Photo Mechanic's IPTC editor via Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements.
Once loaded, the IPTC editor lets you type shortcodes to quickly and accurately caption images — automatically replacing each shortcode with the full player information. This powerful combination of SnapCaption and Photo Mechanic ensures that you're always delivering accurate, professional-grade work on deadline.
The same file loads into GalleryID Desktop as a roster bound to the folder you're working in, so you're not tied to one application.
Get up and running in minutes
Choose your league and pick up to 4 teams for your roster file.
Configure shortcodes, columns, and add your commonly used shortcode sets.
Export your TSV file and load it into Photo Mechanic, GalleryID Desktop, or whichever captioning software you use.
SnapCaption generates TSV roster files compatible with Photo Mechanic, GalleryID Desktop, Adobe Bridge, and Capture One.