Smart Collections using keywords with spaces

[thechatking]

Hi,

I have my photos tagged using keywords and some of those keywords have spaces in them (names, for example). If I wish to add a Smart Collection to show all photos containing a particular person, the space in the keyword creates a problem in that the name is interpreted as two keywords instead of one.

For example:

I have three people/keywords: [Bob Turner], [Adam West] and [Bob West]. In a Smart Collection, if I specify 'keywords', 'contains all' and 'Bob West', it should show all those photos tagged with [Bob West], but it treats 'Bob' and 'West' as separate entities, thus including photos that contain both of these words, but not necessarily in the same keyword. If a photo is tagged with [Bob Turner] and [Adam West], but not [Bob West], it will still show in these results.

How do I get around this? Is there an alternative way to set up a Smart Collection based on keywords? Should I not be using spaces?

Cheers

Mark

 

[Brad Snyder]

Mark, I dunno, don't use Smart Collections very much myself right now. But, while we're waiting for the 'Smart' people to arrive, I did want to say Welcome to LR Forums.

 

[Gene McCullagh]

Hi Mark! Welcome to the Forum!

When you create the Smart Collection put your spaced keywords in quotes "Bob West" instead of Bob West. That should solve your problem!

 

[thechatking]

Mark, I dunno, don't use Smart Collections very much myself right now. But, while we're waiting for the 'Smart' people to arrive, I did want to say Welcome to LR Forums.

Thank you.

Hi Mark! Welcome to the Forum!

When you create the Smart Collection put your spaced keywords in quotes "Bob West" instead of Bob West. That should solve your problem!

I tried this previously, thinking it would be the logical way to do things, but it doesn't work and doesn't return any photos. I've also tried single quotes and all brackets, but with no luck.

 

[Gene McCullagh]

Use CONTAINS not CONTAINS ALL and it should work. One other thing to look out for; if you typed BOB WEST manually in the keyword panel by entering comma space bob west then you should search for " bob west" instead of "bob west".

The space after the comma isn't needed but we tend to type it anyway and it causes problems later. LOL

 

[thechatking]

Use CONTAINS not CONTAINS ALL and it should work. One other thing to look out for; if you typed BOB WEST manually in the keyword panel by entering comma space bob west then you should search for " bob west" instead of "bob west".

The space after the comma isn't needed but we tend to type it anyway and it causes problems later. LOL

Neither 'contains' nor 'contains all' works, with or without quotes; how strange! Does it work for you?

I didn't add keywords in the panel, but thanks for the tip anyway.

 

[Gene McCullagh]

Hmm. Interesting.

Yes. For example I have several images tagged with FLOWERS & PLANTS. When I create a smart collection for this I choose KEYWORDS CONTAINS "FLOWERS & PLANTS" and all of those images appear in the smart collection.

Here is an option that may solve your problem. If your keyword is BOB WEST then change it to "BOB WEST". With the quotes is a different keyword. Now create the smart collection KEYWORDS CONTAIN "BOB WEST" and the only those images with "BOB WEST" should show up. Those with BOB or WEST only should not appear.

Keywording with spaces always creates issues. I know I'm certainly guilty of it but I do try and use a separator such as an underscore or dash to avoid the issues.

 

[thechatking]

Hmm. I notice you're using a Mac, whereas I'm on Windows - I wonder if it's a bug in the Windows version only?

I guess the inevitable conclusion is that I should remove the spaces from my keywords and use something else instead. I hoped it wouldn't come to that!

 

[someothername]

I use spaces too. Usually I put quotes around them, but the other day I keworded some shots as "cats and dogs" (without the quotes). I just created a smart collection called "Dogs and Cats" (without the quotes). I found that using "Contains Words" included my cats and dogs photos in the Dogs and Cats smart collection. Adding the rule "starts with Dogs" didn't change it. I think it probably should have.

 

[thechatking]

I use spaces too. Usually I put quotes around them, but the other day I keworded some shots as "cats and dogs" (without the quotes). I just created a smart collection called "Dogs and Cats" (without the quotes). I found that using "Contains Words" included my cats and dogs photos in the Dogs and Cats smart collection. Adding the rule "starts with Dogs" didn't change it. I think it probably should have.

This behaviour is the same as what is happening with mine; 'dogs and cats' matches all photos tagged with 'cats and dogs' because it's treating the search as 'dogs', 'and' and 'cats', which matches on all three.

If there were quotes around your keywords ("cats and dogs"), then you did a search for "cats and dogs" (with quotes), I assume it would search for '"cats', 'and' and 'dogs"', thus matching on the "cats and dogs" (with quotes). If you had a separate keyword of "cats, rabbits and dogs", I assume the search would also pick this up.

I think it's safe to say that keywords are best without spaces, as the software doesn't seem to handle them perfectly.