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Keyword hierarchy mechanics

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Gene_mtl

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Joined
Mar 9, 2012
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172
Location
Amherstview, Ontario, Canada
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Am attempting to convert my mostly flat and not very well organizd keyword listing into something a bit more organized. I have difficulties at time getting my head around how to actually structure the hierarchy.

Case in point: Cars

I have placed car in the following structure:

- Transportation (non exportable)
-- By Land (non exportable)
--- car (syn. cars, auto, autos, automobile, automobiles)


So here is where I start running into trouble.

I want to add manufacturer (make?), i.e. Ford, Mercedes, Desoto
I also want to indicate model, i.e. Powermaster, Belair, E340

No big deal, just continue like this:

...
---car
----Ford
-----Fairlane
-----Thunderbird
----Chevrolet (syn. Chevy)
-----Belair
-----Corvette

That works.

But how do I account for body style, i.e. 2-door, 4-door, hatchback, convertible, hardtop? Do I need to repeat keywords for each make and model?

-----Fairlane
------convertible
------4-door
-----Thunderbird
------convertible
------2-door
------4-door

And what about Sedan, Coupe, Roadster, Touring, etc.?

Or body elements, i.e. steering wheel, hood ornament, trunk emblem?

Appreciate any insights and clarity the very knowledgeable members of this forum can bring to this issue.

Thanks
 
I would put those in separate hierarchical branches.

A child keyword has to fit under a parent in some logical way, since it inherits all the parents. If it doesn't fit (or if you don't want it to inherit all parents), it's probably a sign that it should go under some other parent instead.

I would put Sedan, Coupe, Roadster, Touring under a top keyword called... something... style?
- style
- - coupe
- - roadster
- - sedan
- - touring

And the body elements under "body elements":
- body elements
- - hood ornament
- - steering wheel
- - trunk emblem

This way you can find all photos containing a steering wheel, no matter what car make. Or you can search for steering wheel on just Fords. Or just Ford coupes. And so on.

Personally, I also make all multi-word keywords into one word by using the _ character, so steering wheel for me is stering_wheel. Lightroom will allow you to enter "steering wheel" as a keyword (key-phrase rather), but when you search for steering wheel it actually searches for steering OR wheel.
 
Here the data is multi-dimensional and you would definitely need separate hierarchies or branches to represent all the different ways of categorising a car. Models fit well under a "manufacturers and models" structure, which would also need to be split into subversions such as Audi TT Mk I, Audi TT MkII. Unless you travel outside N America you probably won't need to worry about different names or regional variants. 2 door or 4 door might be a branch in itself, separate from variants such as "sedan" or "coupe", though conceivably these could all fit together. Elements are again a distinct dimension of the photo.

I'd never recommend underscores or other fake characters. You wouldn't think of using them if LR didn't have search weaknesses and one day Adobe will fix that problem (OK, I live in hope).

John
 
Thanks Robert & John for the comments and suggestions.

When we create Keyword categories, we have the option to not "Include in Export", thus in my example above, I would not export 'Transportation' or 'By land'.

Can we do the same for sub-categories? For example:

[Transport]
--[By land]
---Car
----[Make and Model]
-----Ford
------Fairlane
------Focus
-----Volkswagen (VW)
------Beatle
------Passant
----[Body Style]
-----Sedan 2-door
-----Sedan 4-door
-----Cabrio (cabriolet, convertible)
----[Body Element]
-----Trunk elblem
-----hood ornament

In the above, elements in [] would be not exportable. Elements in () are synonyms


So could I export a image of a hood element on a Volkswagen Beetle convertible that would contain the following keywords:

Car, Volkswagen, VW, Beatle, convertible, cabrio, cabriolet, hood ornament, but not include 'Make and Model', 'Body Style' and 'Body Element'?

Again, TIA.
 
Correct Gene. Just keep in mind it can be a pain in the xxx to remember exactly what keywords you have chosen to export or not. There is no simple way to sort or display all exporting or non-exporting keywords. And they are not "inherited", so export/not-export is strictly individual per keyword.

As far as _ go me and John always disagree :) If you are only keywording for your own sake (as I am) then I see no problem in using the _. If you on the other hand are looking to submit photos to stock agencies, I suppose you should not use the _.

By the way, sub-categories - as you put it - is notheing special. They are keywords just like the rest. It's just that with hierarchies we can use them to create categories.
 
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I'd never recommend underscores or other fake characters. You wouldn't think of using them if LR didn't have search weaknesses and one day Adobe will fix that problem (OK, I live in hope).

John

Me too but I am not terribly optimistic. The Better keyword management topic in the feedback forum is one of highest rated topics but has been basically ignored for 3 years now. Searching with imbedded spaces and several other enhancements are sorely needed.
 
Thanks everyone.

I'm not a big fan of the underscore (Probably because I too often forget to use it. <Grin>) My use of keywords are more for personal use locally and to help populate keyword fields on my SmugMug & RedBubble sites to aid in increasing search results.

Being able to use keywords as labels/categories & sub-categories while ensuring they do not get exported is probably all I'll need for my purposes. At least until I realize I overlooked something. <Smile>

Again, thanks for all the help.
 
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