Let me start by stating that keywording photos in LR is a pain in the rear. No one's gonna argue with me on this one. However, my main complaint is that the keywords are just mashed together in a list that's displayed using a tiny font. Typing in each keyword, trying not to misspell, is painful enough on the eyes but how about REMOVING unwanted keywords? Ever tried that?
For many years I've been compiling and editing my keywords OUTSIDE of Lightroom. For keywording a new photo I would open up Notepad, type in (or copy & paste) my keywords and then transfer them to Lr via copy & paste. It's been the only way to get the keywords "in front of me", "black on white", not tucked away in a corner, listed using a tiny font.
I know there are all kinds of "keywording assistants" out there. However, that's not at all what I'm looking for. I can keyword my own photos just fine, without paying someone to trash my keyword list with an extra 150 trivially-relevant words or phrases that no one searches for anyway.
So far I've just been waiting and hoping that Adobe would address this issue. But from what I see, the keywording tools REMAIN largely crippled in the latest version of Lr.
I've done an extensive search on the net, and nope... No one's got a decent keywording plugin. Or maybe I just didn't look hard enough?
Now... I have a whole ton of old photos to go over. For most of them I will need to EDIT the associated keywords. Copying and pasting the list into Notepad and then trying to make a sense of it is (unfortunately) the only way I can do it right now. I am literally looking at 'months of work'.
Basically what I (and many people like me) need is:
The ability to select any photo in the catalog and pull up a dialog box with the list of the keywords that are ALREADY associated with that photo. The font has to be large enough and the keywords should be arranged in the alphabetical order, in a list that runs both horizontally and vertically. Next to each keyword there must be a CHECKBOX, which would allow to conveniently remove any given keyword with a click of a mouse by simply "unchecking" that keyword.
At the bottom of the dialog box there should be a field where new strings can be input (typed in or otherwise). It should work like this: Make the field active, type in a word or a phrase, press Enter, type in another keyword, press Enter.. and so on. The additions to the list must be displayed immediately in the dialog box (in the list with the other keywords).
As a bonus, the dialog box with all the keywords should have a nice preview of the photo that's being keyworded.
I am not describing anything new or unusual. Many of the photo-stock agencies made similar tools available to their contributors YEARS ago.
I am disdained by the blunt lack of attention from Adobe to addressing this extremely important issue.
Enough is enough. I am not editing my keywords the way I've been doing thus far. If there is a Lr plugin - great! If not (probably not), I'll have to think outside the box. What external software can I use to do what I described earlier? I can copy the keywords from Lr, paste them into a new window and work on them in that 'other software'. As long as I have a neat list right in front of me and as long as I can simply "uncheck" anything I don't want - I'm cool. When I'm done I should be able to copy the list and insert it back into Lr, overwriting the (now) old keywords.
So what is out there? I know I'm not the only one who would pay $$$ for a (simple) tool like that, so there's gotta be something.
For many years I've been compiling and editing my keywords OUTSIDE of Lightroom. For keywording a new photo I would open up Notepad, type in (or copy & paste) my keywords and then transfer them to Lr via copy & paste. It's been the only way to get the keywords "in front of me", "black on white", not tucked away in a corner, listed using a tiny font.
I know there are all kinds of "keywording assistants" out there. However, that's not at all what I'm looking for. I can keyword my own photos just fine, without paying someone to trash my keyword list with an extra 150 trivially-relevant words or phrases that no one searches for anyway.
So far I've just been waiting and hoping that Adobe would address this issue. But from what I see, the keywording tools REMAIN largely crippled in the latest version of Lr.
I've done an extensive search on the net, and nope... No one's got a decent keywording plugin. Or maybe I just didn't look hard enough?
Now... I have a whole ton of old photos to go over. For most of them I will need to EDIT the associated keywords. Copying and pasting the list into Notepad and then trying to make a sense of it is (unfortunately) the only way I can do it right now. I am literally looking at 'months of work'.
Basically what I (and many people like me) need is:
The ability to select any photo in the catalog and pull up a dialog box with the list of the keywords that are ALREADY associated with that photo. The font has to be large enough and the keywords should be arranged in the alphabetical order, in a list that runs both horizontally and vertically. Next to each keyword there must be a CHECKBOX, which would allow to conveniently remove any given keyword with a click of a mouse by simply "unchecking" that keyword.
At the bottom of the dialog box there should be a field where new strings can be input (typed in or otherwise). It should work like this: Make the field active, type in a word or a phrase, press Enter, type in another keyword, press Enter.. and so on. The additions to the list must be displayed immediately in the dialog box (in the list with the other keywords).
As a bonus, the dialog box with all the keywords should have a nice preview of the photo that's being keyworded.
I am not describing anything new or unusual. Many of the photo-stock agencies made similar tools available to their contributors YEARS ago.
I am disdained by the blunt lack of attention from Adobe to addressing this extremely important issue.
Enough is enough. I am not editing my keywords the way I've been doing thus far. If there is a Lr plugin - great! If not (probably not), I'll have to think outside the box. What external software can I use to do what I described earlier? I can copy the keywords from Lr, paste them into a new window and work on them in that 'other software'. As long as I have a neat list right in front of me and as long as I can simply "uncheck" anything I don't want - I'm cool. When I'm done I should be able to copy the list and insert it back into Lr, overwriting the (now) old keywords.
So what is out there? I know I'm not the only one who would pay $$$ for a (simple) tool like that, so there's gotta be something.