LIBRARY - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process - page 122

Purging unused keywords
h is command allows you to remove all the keywords from the catalog that are
not applied to any photos. Library module ➔ Metadata menu ➔ Purge unused
keywords.

3

Finding keywords in the list
At the top of the Keyword List panel
is a text search box you can use for
i nding keywords within the list (see
Figure 3-52). By default, the search
box says “Filter Keywords”. As you
type in the i eld, the keyword list
dynamically updates to show only
those keywords containing that string of text. To remove the i lter, click the X at
the right side of the box.

Figure 3-52

Keyword hierarchies
In the Keyword List panel you can create keyword hierarchies, which are multi-
level groupings constructed of parent and child keywords. h ink of keyword
hierarchies like folders and subfolders in a i le system: you have one “top level”
folder, with multiple “subfolders” underneath. Same with keywords in Lightroom
(see Figure 3-52).

In the Keyword List, hierarchies
are indicated by a triangle arrow
at the let (see Figure 3-53). Click
the arrow to expand or contract
the hierarchy.

Figure 3-53

Keyword hierarchies provide several very signii cant benei ts. For one, hierarchies
allow you to keep your keyword list clean and orderly by grouping keywords into
larger categories.

Using hierarchies also greatly speeds the application of groups of common
keywords to photos, all at one time. When you drag-and-drop a lower-level
child keyword onto a photo (or multiple photos), all the keywords above it in the
hierarchy will also be applied.

You can also set the options dif erently for each keyword within a hierarchy. For
example, within a single hierarchy, you could have some keywords that won't
be included on export. h is approach provides ini nite possibilities for using
keywords as organizational tools.