Library module Search for exact phrase in the library filter

[thommy]

Hi

How do you search your library for keywords using an exact phrase with space in between the words?
E.g. "Thommy Andersen" in the library filter, without getting all that contains only andersen or thommy.
I know you can use Keyword list and Smart collections, but the question is just concerning the library filter option.

Thommy

 

[Jim Wilde]

Doesn't Keywords>Contains All work in the Library filter? It does for me.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

This is a well known problem, that we have discussed here at length. 'Contains all' will indeed only find images with Thommy as well as Anderson, so it answers the question, but you will also find pictures of Lucy Andersen and Thommy Jones together in one picture, because Lightroom will see the space as a separator.

 

[thommy]

This is a well known problem, that we have discussed here at length. 'Contains all' will indeed only find images with Thommy as well as Anderson, so it answers the question, but you will also find pictures of Lucy Andersen and Thommy Jones together in one picture, because Lightroom will see the space as a separator.

Ok, understand!
Tried to find posts regarding this problem without success.

Thommy

 

[LouieSherwin]

Thommy,

This is a pet peave of mine. I simply cannot think of a good reason why any of the search terms do not allow you to specify imbedded spaces. All the more confusing since the LUA language supports full regular expressions.

In the meantime I can suggest using John R. Ellis's AnyFilter plugin in any instance where you can't crowbar Lightroom to do what you need.

Here is a big topic with a lot of requests for making keyword management more effective.

Lightroom: Better keyword management

There are many excellent ideas there most of which Adobe has so far ignored. I encourage you to add your voice to this discussion.

-louie

 

[Johan Elzenga]

'Contains All' will work fine, except if you have photos like the example I gave. If so, you can use the following work arounds:

1: If you click on the arrow behind the name in the keyword list, you will get only that person. Even in the situation where you have two people whose combined names include both words.

2: You could use a (non exporting) synonym for each name, where you replace the space by an underscore. Then you can search on the synonym.

 

[Umberto Cocca]

As Johan highlighted, if there is one keyword that is defined as "Thommy Andersen" in the Library module you can use either the keyword library or the filter bar Metadata; the latter is much more flexible and for example you can chose the keyword "Thommy Andersen" and then further refine your search with the other filters available (date, location, camera, lens, aperture, etc.).

IMHO John R. Ellis's AnyFilter plugin is great, but a bit of an overkill for this case.

 

[Hoggy]

I ended up just redoing all my keywords to replace spaces with either of these 3 characters: ". - _"

Of course not an option for those needing to use controlled keyword lists.

Maybe someday Adobe will get off their butt and finally fix up these types of minor usage issues... Maybe about the same time that evolution starts giving us humans a third eye in the back of our heads. ldman:

 

[thommy]

Thommy,

This is a pet peave of mine. I simply cannot think of a good reason why any of the search terms do not allow you to specify imbedded spaces. All the more confusing since the LUA language supports full regular expressions.

In the meantime I can suggest using John R. Ellis's AnyFilter plugin in any instance where you can't crowbar Lightroom to do what you need.

Here is a big topic with a lot of requests for making keyword management more effective.

Lightroom: Better keyword management

There are many excellent ideas there most of which Adobe has so far ignored. I encourage you to add your voice to this discussion.

-louie

Hi

Thanks for the answer!
I did add my voice to the discussion - hope it will be solved some day!

Thommy