keyword separator change?

[Joe Austin]

In Imatch3.6, using the IPTC editor, I never worried about keyword separators.   When I converted to Imatch5, I used ';' as my keyword separator.   I recently had a client ask for ',' to be used as the keyword separator. 

What are the ramifications of changing the keyword separator in 'Metatdata' preferences?   Will Imatch automatically convert all of my ';'s to ','s ?

Currently , Photoshop sees keywords in my jpeg versions as a continuous list separated by ';'.   Breezebrowser displays keywords as a list , one line per word.  I'm not sure how Breezebrowser utilizes the separator.

I am wondering how these may change if I switch to ',' .

Does anyone have insights or experience with this?

[Erik]

There is a lot of info in the help topic, so what I say below may not be entirely consistent with it (in which the help file would be right).

For regular keywords (IPTC Keywords or XMP Subject), the separator is only for display purposes and not actually stored in the file.  As you've described, different software will show different separators.  You can configure IMatch to display a different separator depending on where you display items through the variable formatting (look up variables in the help file).

For Hierarchical Keywords, the | symbol separates levels of the hierarchy, but individual keywords will be displayed with the ; in IMatch. 

Ultimately, how any other users or clients of your files see the keywords may depend on how they are using the files and the software they use.  In that regard, the separator may be beyond your control.

[Mario]

Keywords are stored as a list in your files, each keyword is a separate element. That's part of the XMP and IPTC standards.
I'm not sure where you are using a  keyword separator...keywords are not written into the file as a string or something. They don't need a separator. For what could a client request list separators? When you send them keywords in a text file?

When displaying keywords, IMatch uses the list separator configured under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. By default, this option is set based on the list separator for your Windows user, which depends on your language/locale. It's usually , or ;
But that is used only for display purposes, these are not stored in the file with the keywords.

Hierarchical keywords in XMP use | to indicate hierarchies, e.g. "location|country|Germany".

[Joe Austin]

When displaying keywords, IMatch uses the list separator configured under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. By default, this option is set based on the list separator for your Windows user, which depends on your language/locale. It's usually , or ;
But that is used only for display purposes, these are not stored in the file with the keywords.

Ok, that is what I was wondering.   So the separator is really a display item in Imatch and does not get written into the jpegs that I create in Camera Raw. 

Are the ';'s that I see when opening an image in PS, and looking at the IPTC data keywords, also just a display element in PS?

I guess I will have to wait and see how the clients software interprets the separator.   If it is just a display element then changing it in Imatch won't make any difference in what the client sees embedded in the jpeg.

[Erik]

When displaying keywords, IMatch uses the list separator configured under Edit > Preferences > Metadata. By default, this option is set based on the list separator for your Windows user, which depends on your language/locale. It's usually , or ;
But that is used only for display purposes, these are not stored in the file with the keywords.

Ok, that is what I was wondering.   So the separator is really a display item in Imatch and does not get written into the jpegs that I create in Camera Raw. 

Are the ';'s that I see when opening an image in PS, and looking at the IPTC data keywords, also just a display element in PS?

I guess I will have to wait and see how the clients software interprets the separator.   If it is just a display element then changing it in Imatch won't make any difference in what the client sees embedded in the jpeg.

Right... The software will determine what is displayed.  I'm not sure about Camera Raw, but I believe LR lets the user configure the separator like IM does.

I would note that if the client is used to seeing commas, his software may already display the keywords with commas, and you may not have to worry about it at all.  I know many web pages use commas by default.

[Joe Austin]

I would note that if the client is used to seeing commas, his software may already display the keywords with commas, and you may not have to worry about it at all.  I know many web pages use commas by default.

I'm thinking that is probably the case based on what I've read here.  At least I'm hoping so.