Great information.

I can't write you an app, but I think that with some well created smart albums, you can easily accomplish the task you're looking to perform.

Toine

Toine, the app is called Aperture Assistant, and I wrote it specifically because of situations like this. Looks like I was being a bit too subtle...

Ian

Ian -- I can't find anything about custom tags in Aperture or the Aperture manual. How do I apply them?

I just had a quick look through the manual and can't find it anywhere in there!

Try http://www.apertureprofessional.com/showthread.php?t=15931

Ian

Ah, very cool. Thanks! I'm going to adopt your tip...

Ian,

This is a great solution for the reasons you point out. Unfortunately I only view it as a work-around after having used and instructed some group workshops on Lightroom 2's keywording features. Lightroom 2 took all the stuff invented by Apple Aperture that we know and loved, fixed some nagging issues, and upped the ante quite a bit with keyword functionality - like synonyms and the ability to specify export/no-export at a keyword by keyword level, etc, etc. We all need to band together and tell Apple to get on the stick and really through some innovation into Aperture 2.5 or 3 sooooon. While Aperture 2 was "nice" a lot of the all projects view, et al. I found to be total fluff - where is my meat?

RB

"Lightroom 2 took all the stuff invented by Apple Aperture that we know and loved"

Oh come on, Pinocchio! Aperture didn't invent these metadata features but lifted them straight from Extensis Portfolio (after all, the Aperture PM came from.... Extensis). But leaving that invention porkie aside, Lightroom's keywording features is overdeveloped in some ways. All those options, and the absence of custom fields, means many LR users are putting information into keywords which really should be in private custom fields.

Gio,

You have a point regarding LR and custom tags.

But - Extensis is and always has been a heavyweight solution, I wasn't referring to concepts or data structures. I was referring more to how it is all put together and the UI that allows you to interact with the software. If you don't think Aperture was a revolutionary product you maybe a little too much on the "there is nothing new in the world" side of things ;-)

RB

Well, Robert, when you post on a topic re keywords and custom fields, and your contentious phrase was preceded by a sentence about keywording features, is it any wonder that one thinks that is what you were talking about?

Aperture was certainly revolutionary in being a database-driven application which married raw processing and management. In its metadata and management UI, it's not revolutionary and former Portfolio users readily see the origins of features. Of course, Macheads will recognize smart albums as being like smart folders and probably be unaware of Portfolio's smart galleries, and the palette-based keywords design could have come from a number of products - but resembles none as much as it does Portfolio. I could list other aspects too, have already said where Aperture's product manager was in that role for Portfolio, but it's also worth stating that I only point out evolution in this area and see nothing sinister. I actually wish Aperture's designers had learnt more from Portfolio, particularly the more extensive functionality behind custom fields, reading and writing XMP namepsaces, and writing metadata directly back to non-raw master files.

As for Extensis Portfolio "is and always has been a heavyweight solution", that is factually incorrect. Portfolio is and always has been a scalable solution. You choose either the relatively inexpensive standalone, or the big multi-user SQLServer or Oracle application. In either case, the front end is the same. You would be on firmer ground if you had said that Extensis are increasingly targeting the high end market.

It's also worth adding that LR2 can actually have custom metadata fields, but currently that's only via the SDK/