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Remove hierarchy?

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dbvirago

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
34
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
10.0
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Is there a quick way (or any way) to move keywords out of the hierarchical structure? I created some temporary placeholders and now I have a ton of keywords that look like this. I know they don't show when exporting, but it's difficult to tell what I have, and I can't cut and paste into other software. Totally my error. I'm not sure I have a backup that's old enough, but I could try that if there isn't a better way. Thanks

america < ~PHOTOGRAPHY, american < ~PHOTOGRAPHY, banner < ~PHOTOGRAPHY, blue < _ZZZToBeWorked, countries < _ZZZToBeWorked, country < _ZZZToBeWorked, flag < _ZZZToBeWorked, flags < _ZZZToBeWorked, glory < _ZZZToBeWorked, history < _ZZZToBeWorked, independence < _ZZZToBeWorked, liberty <
 
Drag the child keyword from under its parent to the top of the list (a line will appear between the top go the panel and the first keyword. From the keyword there and they should sort automatically.
 
Yeah, I was doing that. Problem is, I put a ton of them under that temp holding parent. Then, for whatever reason, many of them are also at the top level, so grabbing a bunch of them and dragging them doesn't work.

I am testing a (somewhat tedious) solution where I export all the images in each folder, delete the originals and copy them back in. I think this is working, but it's still early in the process.

It would be nice if there were an editable list or database somewhere. I keep looking for software that let's me manage my huge library of keywords the way I want, but afaik, it doesn't exist. Many of them place this hierarchical structure in the keywords rather than simply adding them, i.e. building, architecture rather than building<architecture or something similar.

Thanks for your help.
 
Then, for whatever reason, many of them are also at the top level, so grabbing a bunch of them and dragging them doesn't work.
You probably are not doing it correctly. It worked for me.
I had several nested keywords within child keywords. I expanded the hierarchy completely then selected ALL that were under neath the top most parent. As a group I did the "drag and drop" to the position above the top most keyword. Not only were the children promoted to the top level, but every keyword select including grand children was promoted to the top level.
 
Yeah, I get that, but let's say, one of the child keywords is building, but I also have building at the top level outside of any hierarchy. Then, the drag and drop that includes building just fails, no warning or message.
 
I am not home, so I cannot give the exact steps.
But in your case, you need to rename building under the top level.
Copy building from the child level to the top.
Then do a bulk assignment or use a tool like John B. Search and Replace.

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
 
You can't have a duplicate keyword at the same level. Which is why this fails. Either move the child keywords leaving the two "building" keywords as a both a nested keyword and a parent or rename one of the "building" keywords to something unique (like "NewBuilding")
 
....or use a tool like John B. Search and Replace.

It won't help at all in this scenario.

.... "building" keywords to something unique (like "NewBuilding")

Maybe better to add the difference afterwards - eg Building-New. This will mean that the duplicate keywords will sort next to each other and be easier to correct.
 
Ok, guys, here's what I did. A little painful, but I don't have that many folders, just a lot of machine grinding. Since the top level keywords I wanted to get rid of were set to not export, I exported a copy of all images per folder, deleted the originals, then copied them back. Strangely, there were a lot of random top level keywords still showing in keyword list that didn't appear in the keywords of the image. Rebuilt a new library and that took care of it.

Lesson learned. I wish I liked one of the non-library processors better, but I've been with Adobe too long to change now.
 
@dbvirago

You lose the original image, plus the history of all changes. I would not recommend this solution.
 
Sorry, I should have clarified upfront. These were all final output jpgs. Raw files, Tiffs, PSDs, etc. are all safe on external drives.
 
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