Attaching Keywords

[Niglit]

Hi. I am after some help with Adobe Lightroom 1.4.
I have all my photos stored on a network drive and have Adobe Lightroom installed on 2 computers that I use. I have been tyring to attach keywords to all my photos so I am be able to search photos from either computer by keyword.
I have found how to import and export my key works but the photos dont seems to keep the keywords attached.
I may be wrong in thinking I can even do this with Lightroom.
Can anyone advise me?

 

[Brad Snyder]

Niglit, you're going to have to tell us more.

OK, first Mac/PC? What OS? What file formats/cameras? The file formats are particularly important in this case, because that does affect handling of keywords to some extent.

Second, Adobe has withdrawn LR1.4 from public release. LR 1.3.1 is the release you should be using.

Thirdly, how's your performance/speed? Many people find keeping their photo files on a networked drive too slow to tolerate.

Fourthly, how are you synchronizing catalogs between the two machines? This can be quite complicated and problematic, and is the subject of a great deal of discussion here.

It's possible you may have been misled by the import/export keywords functions. This is simply a tool for moving the 'available' keywords between catalogs, it has nothing to do with which keywords are assigned to which photos.

In general, which keywords are assigned to which picture is information which is maintained in the LR catalog database. If you do nothing else, that's the only place the information is held. If you're using RAW formats, you can elect to also save various adjustment information and metadata, which includes the keywords, in XMP 'side car' files, which are written with the same filename next to the RAW files. If you're using RGB file types, JPG/TIFF, etc, you can elect to 'embed' that same information in the picture file.

Keeping all this synchronized between two catalogs/computers is doable, but it's not trivial, you really have to stick with your workflow.

Tell us more about your setup and exactly what you're doing and trying to accomplish. Then we can give better instructions.


If this is your first post, welcome aboard. Many folks create a signature block with the appropriate system/setup/photography details, similar to mine.
This will help potential responders. See User CP upper left.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Welcome Niglit!

Wow Brad, detailed post! Yep, quite right, a better understanding of how you're currently trying to work would be a great help.

 

[Richard Earney]

Try selecting all your images and doing a Cmd/Ctrl S, which saves the metadata to the file or sidecar.