A more advanced Keywords List Panel question

[evan.sante]

Lightroom Version Number

LR Classic Current Uptodate

Operating System

1. macOS 13 Ventura

I have an extensive Keyword List Section and I’m in the process of redoing a vast majority of my keywords, and I have run into a few incredibly annoying problems...

The first question is how do you search for compound words? by that I mean how do you search for "WordOne WordTwo"and ONLY show results for that phrase. (See attached)

Secondly, is there a shortcut key combination that allows you to quickly access the search box when you’re way down the list of keywords?

Thanks for the transfer your help - CES

 

[John R Ellis]

The first question is how do you search for compound words? by that I mean how do you search for "WordOne WordTwo"and ONLY show results for that phrase. (See attached)

It's weird that Adobe never implemented exact keyword match. There are several ways of doing it:

1. Use a Keyword column in the Metadata browser of the Library Filter bar. The column is really fussy to scroll and find keywords, but there's a more convenient way to configure the column: Search for the keyword in the Keyword List using the Filter Keywords box. Then hover the mouse over the keyword and click on the right arrow that magically appears to the right of it. Alternatively, use the Filter By Keyword command of the Any Tag plugin.

2. Use the filter/smart collection criterion "Keyword starts with WordOne WordTwo". That will often get you close enough. If you're still matching unwanted keywords, then use a smart collection with the criteria "All of: Keyword starts with WordOne WordTwo; Keyword ends with Word One WordTwo". In rare cases that still won't get you exact match, but it's usually good enough.

3. Use the Any Filter plugin.

 

[Califdan]

Personally, I got so frustrated with this problem that I am now "abusing" keywords by making the actual name of the keyword "Fred-Jones" and adding a synonym of "Fred Jones". Then set the checkboxes to not export the keyword but do export the synonym. Now I can filter for "Fred" to get all the Fred's, or "Jones" to get all the Jones or "Fred-Jones" to get just "Fred-Jones". Has made my life much easier but it's a long process if you have a lot of KW's (which I'm still in the process of doing) to put the dashes in all my KW phrases. Many people think this is a terrible idea but it works for me.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

The filter method mentioned by John works in pretty much every situation. Keyword ends with ‘Fred Jones’ and keyword begins with ‘Fred Jones’ will only find ‘Fred Jones’, and not ’Fred Smith’ and ‘Mary Jones’ together in a photo.