Export/ Import @keywords categories

[altae]

Is there a way to export/ import the @keywords categories from one IMatch install to another? I have a laptop to work on photos while away from home. I've got IMatch up and running on both machines (desktop at home and laptop) but my problem are the keywords. On my desktop where I have access to the entire photo library the database contains all the keywords that I have used so far to tag my photos. This means that in most cases I can simply assign preexisting keywords to new photographs. On the laptop however these categories mostly don't exist and I don't want to manually create them because when I copy the new photos from the laptop to the existing database on the desktop there are certainly going to be differences between the keywords of the two IMatch databases (e.g. different spelling...) which I am going to have to fix manually.

[Mario]

The @Keywords category is a data-driven category. It is created dynamically from the keywords in your files.
Since data-driven categories are always re-generated from the database, they cannot be exported. It would make no sense to export them, because the other database would have totally different contents.

It seems you are trying to use @Keywords instead of doing it the standard way using the Thesaurus? Why?
The thesaurus is part of the database, directly available for keyword assignments in the Keywords Panel and it can even be exported and imported.

When you assign keywords to files in the Keywords Panel (manually or from your thesaurus), the @Keywords category is updated automatically.

[Jingo]

^^^ MARIO beat me to it!   

The @keywords category is a special category that holds all the hierarchical keywords used in your images (from the help file: When you look at the special @Keywords category you should think about it as a mirror of the keywords stored in your file).  If you import files into the laptop that have keywords, the @keywords category will be auto-built with these entries.

You may wish to look into using a thesaurus instead between computers... you can import all your @keywords into a thesaurus and then share this between computers to tag files... which will automatically update them if you choose to write them back.

[altae]

 I use the categories panel to assign @keywords categories and thus hierarchical keywords. I could use the thesaurus but being able to simply tick a checkbox in the categories panel is far more intuitive. The possibility to copy over a list of all the categories and their child categories would have made it possible to simply pick the appropriate categories out of all the categories that have been used so far in my photo library.

[sinus]

I use the categories panel to assign @keywords categories and thus hierarchical keywords. I could use the thesaurus but being able to simply tick a checkbox in the categories panel is far more intuitive. The possibility to copy over a list of all the categories and their child categories would have made it possible to simply pick the appropriate categories out of all the categories that have been used so far in my photo library.

I do not know, how many keywords you have.
In the past in such cases I added ALL keys to one (or 3-4) image and imported then this image in the second DB.

With this system I had all relevant keywords in the 2. DB, because this one image "transfered" all keys into the DB.
No spelling problems and I had hundreds of keys with mostly only 1 image (this master-image).

I do not know, how many keywords can an image have, but it was a lot, and if I felt hmmm, then I took a second image.
But a single image can hold, I think, a huge amount of keys.

[Mario]

I use the categories panel to assign @keywords categories and thus hierarchical keywords. I could use the thesaurus but being able to simply tick a checkbox in the categories panel is far more intuitive. The possibility to copy over a list of all the categories and their child categories would have made it possible to simply pick the appropriate categories out of all the categories that have been used so far in my photo library.

You can as easily tick a check box in the Keyword Panel - if you use the thesaurus:



And, the thesaurus has supports group levels, synonyms, adding entire batches of keywords etc.
The @Keywords category hierarchy does not "store" keywords - it just reflects the keyword in your files. It's a convenient link between categories and keywords - with some added features on top.

You can use @Keywords to assign keywords to your files. And when you copy the database to another PC, @Keywords stays at it is.
But if you create a new database with new files, @Keyword starts empty, or, if the files have keywords, it is built from the keywords in your files.
If you use the thesaurus instead, you can transfer it to another database. Or import an existing controlled vocabulary - even the Lr keyword list.

[altae]

I do not know, how many keywords you have.
In the past in such cases I added ALL keys to one (or 3-4) image and imported then this image in the second DB.

With this system I had all relevant keywords in the 2. DB, because this one image "transfered" all keys into the DB.
No spelling problems and I had hundreds of keys with mostly only 1 image (this master-image).

I do not know, how many keywords can an image have, but it was a lot, and if I felt hmmm, then I took a second image.
But a single image can hold, I think, a huge amount of keys.

That's actually a brilliant and at the same time simple idea. I will try this and also give the thesaurus solution a try.

Follow up question: Is it possible to extract the thesaurus data from a backup of the database? I ask because I'm not at home anymore but have access to the server where the backups are stored. The desktop PC with the original database on the other hand is not reachable from outside of my home network.

[Mario]

Open the database in IMatch, open the Thesaurus Manager and use the Export command: Exporting Thesaurus Data

[altae]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.