Keywords & Categories

[pmcabinet]

How to force the Keywords panel to keep up with changes to Categories?

The Keywords panel (is that the Thesaurus?) still lists keywords that I have deleted from Categories - and refuses to list the new category into which I copied the files (from the deleted keywords/categories). A restart does not change this.

I freely admit to not fully understanding the relationships (it is particularly frustrating not to be able to merge categories without giving birth to children that are entirely unwanted [no jokes please]!).

[Mario]

How to force the Keywords panel to keep up with changes to Categories?

You don't. Keywords and categories are unrelated.

The @Keywords Category is a data-driven category that is automatically generated from the hierarchical keywords stored for your files in the database. When you make changes to keywords in the Keywords Panel, @Keywords will update accordingly. @Keywords offers some extra keyword-related features, as described in the help topic I linked to above. Worth a read.

The main feature in IMatch for adding and editing keywords is the Keywords Panel. It has tons of features to make keyword input quick and consistent, merging, deleting selected keywords in many files, direct access to the thesaurus, auto-suggestion from your thesaurus, AutoFill integration and more. You don't manipulate categories to edit keywords.

The Thesaurus enables you to store controlled vocabularies for keywords and other tags. In a controlled environment, users only assign keywords from the thesaurus (via the Keywords Panel), to improve consistency.

By design, the Thesaurus and keywords are independent. You can assign keywords to files not in the thesaurus, and you can change your thesaurus without affecting the keywords or other tags in your database.

The Thesaurus offers features to apply changes done to the thesaurus to the actual keywords in your files, for re-organization and similar purposes. See Updating Keywords in the Database from Thesaurus Changes for important information.