Hierarchy of @keywords

Started by DigPeter, July 17, 2013, 10:26:11 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

DigPeter

My post, https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?t opic=356.0 , which has been moved to the Bug Board, outlines a problem I have with arranging @keywords in hierarchical order as defined by my Thesaurus.

It would be interesting to know of other testers' experiences and how they are dealing with @keywords and the arrangement of keywords in metadata, particularly for files which had keyword metadata already embedded, for eaxample by IM3.6.

ChrisMatch

Talking about the Thesaurus - I don't mind how the keywords are ordered, how many there are and so on. I type in a keyword - get an autosuggestion from the Thesaurus and use it or not - very efficient.
But maybe I have not worked long enough with IM5 to have already noticed a problem with my workflow.

Mario

IMatch offers a lot of tools and features to "map" flat keywords into hierarchical keywords or to change existing keywords to other keywords:

The thesaurus allows you to re-map flat keywords already in your files to hierarchical keywords as defined by your thesaurus.

Another quick way to re-map files with flat keywords is a Value filter in combination with the Keyword Panel and/or the category panel.
Select one or more files (or entire folders) to see all keywords already in these files listed in the value filter. By clicking on the check boxes you can isolate/group files by their existing keywords and then change them in batch in the Keyword Panel.

If you have only flat keywords in your files, you can also produce a data-driven category for the corresponding classic IPTC or XMP tag. This groups your files by their flat keywords. You can then, for the keywords you want to re-map to a hierarchical keyword, select the category corresponding to the keyword, select all files, and then add/remove keywords via the Keyword Panel as needed. You can just <Ctrl>+<Left-click> the flat keyword you no longer want and type in or select from the thesaurus one or more replacement keywords.

I just did a similar task over the weekend, and it took me less than one hour to update 7000 commercial stock photos to use hierarchical keywords instead of the old flat keywords. This makes managing the files much easier. IMatch 5 takes then care than the new "real" hierarchical keywords are flattened back to IPTC/XMP according to my thesaurus and the options I choose for flattening.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
http://www.photools.com  -  Contact & Support - Follow me on 𝕏 - Like photools.com on Facebook

Mario

PS.: I have moved your other post into the bug report forum because it sounded like a bug report. I'm currently working at the bottom of the bug list and a number of DUMP files I have received over the past week. I will look look at your posting as soon as possible. If you find out other details, just append them to your original post.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
http://www.photools.com  -  Contact & Support - Follow me on 𝕏 - Like photools.com on Facebook

DigPeter

Quote from: Mario on July 17, 2013, 11:07:49 AM
PS.: I have moved your other post into the bug report forum because it sounded like a bug report. I'm currently working at the bottom of the bug list and a number of DUMP files I have received over the past week. I will look look at your posting as soon as possible. If you find out other details, just append them to your original post.
Thanks Mario.  I will update as necessary.

DigPeter

Quote from: ChrisMatch on July 17, 2013, 10:56:14 AM
Talking about the Thesaurus - I don't mind how the keywords are ordered, how many there are and so on. I type in a keyword - get an autosuggestion from the Thesaurus and use it or not - very efficient.
But maybe I have not worked long enough with IM5 to have already noticed a problem with my workflow.
There are many different needs which Mario has catered for in IM5, so punters can just about tailor it to their taste.

For myself, I have a moderate sized library of images (c. 40,000) of which a large percentage are of plants.  Being an amateur botanist, I use scientific names arranged in a taxonomic hierarchy.  For example:

Division                         Flowering Plants
  Family                           Asteraceae
    Species                           Bellis perennis 
                                         Leucanthemum vulgare
  Family                           Ochidaceae
    Species                           Ohrys apifera
                                         Orchis maculata
Division                         Ferns   etc

I have not counted how many different species I have in IM3.6's categories, but it numbers several thousand.  It is very easy with this hierarchy for me to look up a particular species by expanding the family and selecting the species.  If they were not so arranged, it would take a long time to scroll down an alphabetical list of species.