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Just Add a Touch of Synonym!
Keywords in Lightroom are at the very foundation of organizing your images. If you ever want to find those images again you had better add some keywords now!
Of course, as your collection of images grows, so does your list of keywords. In a previous article I talked about using hierarchies in your keyword list. This helps bring order to your collection and unclutter your list so you can find things. To further help you organize and unclutter, Lightroom supports synonyms. Let's take a look at this powerful feature.
When you click on the + at the top of the Keyword List panel you are presented with the following dialog:
Here we are adding the keyword dog. But we can also refer to a dog as canine, puppy, or pet. We could add all three of these as keywords in their own right but that would clutter up the list and make it more difficult to find things. So far so good. But what is the advantage we've gained?
The advantage is that we can filter/search our collection for canine and all images keyworded with dog will be found! But wait! It get's better!
Now all you cat-lovers out there are saying, "Hey! Cats are pets too!" And you are correct. No problem with synonyms! When I create the keyword cat I can make pet a synonym. Now that both dog and cat have the synonym pet I can filter/search on pet and all my images keyworded with either dog or cat will show up! Now I only have to add one keyword to an image but can search on two! This can save you time.
If you export your keywords (or are working on them outside Lightroom) your synonyms show up indented under their keyword and enclosed in braces { }.
So for that added Lightroom taste just add a touch of synonym!
Gene,
Very Nice! Thanks
Good stuff!
Wow. I didn't know synonyms even existing inside of LR. This will seriously change the way I keyword my photos from now on (for the better).
I've begun to use keyword synonyms extensively -- they're really useful. And the tips about editing keywords externally are great. What a nice way to quickly get an overview of all my keywords.
Gene,
You stated:
"If you export your keywords (or are working on them outside Lightroom) your synonyms show up indented under their keyword and enclosed in braces { }."
Does the reverse hold true? When editing externally in Excel if you add { } around a word these entries become synonyms?
Thank You for this post,
Bob
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Yes, Bob! It works both ways.
--Gene
Ok, so then what happens if your search than finds dogs, canines puppy and pets (which includes cats), but what you really want is an adult dog? Won't the use of synonyms then expand you search hits such that you may not be able to narrow them down to what you are really looking for? If you search for dog, and get dogs/canines/puppies and pets, is there a way to further narrow it down? I'm not sure if my thinking is clear on this, but I'm trying to follow it through to it's conclusion. And how might synonyms interact with hierachies, like Canine/dog/puppy?
TIA,
Dawn in NJ (newbie)
Hi Dawn! All images will carry their hierarchies and synonyms with them. If you search on "pets" that will include dogs and cats. But if you search on "puppy" you'll only get dogs back (unless you have a very strange cat, LOL)
Synonyms allow you to search on terms other than the main keyword. If you attach a synonym of "feline" to the keyword "cat" searching on either will yield the same set of images.
Where you search in the hierarchy will determine what images you get. For example if you have one image in the hierarchy animal | mammal | dog and one in the hierarchy animal | mammal | cat, then searching on cat yields one image while searching on mammal will yield two images. In either case the images bring their entire hierarchy with them.
I'm sure that's as clear a mud LOL! I'd recommend you set up a test catalog with a few images and experiment to see what your searches give you. Keywords are sometimes an immersion experience and can be hard to explain!