Adding hierarchical keywords

[AndyL]

I have just started playing with keywords and I'm seeing some unexpected behaviour.

I have a couple of hierarchies of keywords. e.g. People|Names. If I double click on the keywords row in the metadata panel I get a nice tree of pre-defined keywords. If I then follow the hierarchy of the tree to find a keyword I want to add and click on it, what I get is just the child, not the full path. So for example if I find People->Peter and click on Peter, I get the keyword "Peter" added not "People|Peter". This then creates a new keyword which isn't in the hierarchy.

Is this the intended behaviour or am I doing something wrong?

And yes, I know I can use the keyword panel and the thesaurus and stuff. I'm just interested in this particular way of adding keywords at the moment.

Regards

Andy

[Mario]

The Metadata Panel remembers the last n entries made for the corresponding tag (via the thesaurus). Also for keywords. But also for titles, descriptions, copyright notices, legals, ...

The "double-click" feature is implemented for this purpose. It allows you to select one element from a list. The hierarchy in the drop-down is only used for easier navigation between the thesaurus entries. It uses the thesaurus hierarchy.

This is how it must work for elements like titles, descriptions and suchlike. But This is not designed to support hierarchical keywords.
It does not know about synonyms, group or ignore levels and all the other features linked with keywords.

I recommend you use the keyword panel or one of the many other features which have been designed to work with keywords.

[AndyL]

Thanks for the quick reply.

If this is the way it has to work, then I'd be tempted to remove the double click feature from keywords as it can easily lead to something you aren't expecting. The other metadata you mention don't seem to support double click. They all have the drop down menu at the right that gives the most recent history.

Of course, if it could be made to work as (I at least) expected, then that would be even better. I quite like the hierarchical display similar to categories.

I am also using the keywords panel, as you suggest, but sometimes other ways fit better with a particular workflow.

Regards

Andy

[Mario]

The double-click is enabled for all metadata tags for which you have data in the thesaurus. That's a core feature.
You probably have no data in the thesaurus for the other tags you have tried.
You can remove the keyword tag from the Metadata Panel layout you use (I assume you are using the Default layout).

I am also using the keywords panel, as you suggest, but sometimes other ways fit better with a particular workflow.

Do this only if you know what you are doing. The tag editors in the Metadata Panel don't know anything about advanced keyword features or options you have enabled in your thesaurus (like, synonyms or group levels...).

[AndyL]

So how are you supposed to use the current double click behaviour for keywords?

Currently you get a nice hierarchical tree, which you can walk down, click on a child and get something added to the keywords metadata. What you get added isn't the full hierarchy. So I don't see how this is useful. Am I missing something?

[Mario]

This just works for all metadata tags with thesaurus entries. It adds the leaf element. If this is not what you want, use the Keyword Panel. Which also has a nice tree, and 50 other features for keywords.

If you want me to schedule time to explicitly remove the drop-down double-click features for the hierarchical keyword tag so you don't get it anymore, please add a feature request. This is now in place for three years and you are the first user ever who commented on this. Not a high prio issue. I think most users don't even use the double-click ever.

[AndyL]

What I would rather is that it is made to work properly. The way it works now is counter intuitive. It results in something unexpected and to my mind, wrong.

The sign of a good user interface is that it does what is expected without having to read the manual. In this case I think it fails.

Yes, there are other ways and now I know this doesn't work how I expected, I shall use those others. It just seems a shame that this added flexibility is essentially useless. I'm sorry, but I can't imagine any situation on any of the metadata tags where I would navigate a hierarchy, select the leaf, and expect only the leaf to be entered.

Perhaps you could add a feature request to make it behave as I expected.

Regards

Andy

[Mario]

The only hierarchical entity in the thesaurus are keywords. For all other metadata tags, only the leaf level is ever needed. All other (potential) levels are just for grouping data. It is much quicker to remove the drop-down entirely. Add a FR and then we'll see how many other users support it. I will look into it for a release following IMatch 6 and IMatch WebServices 2017.3. I'm at 150% load right now.

[sinus]

Perhaps you could add a feature request to make it behave as I expected.

Regards

Andy

Andy, we have here a section for feature request, here
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?board=12.0

You should add there a post, what you want to have.

I see your point.
Since I neve use keywords on this way (I always use the keyword panel) I did not see this.

It can be irritating, that is true.
But you can see it also the other way round.
There are situations, where I want only add some single keywords, for example for images, what I do deliver my clients.
Here I do not want, that they have the whole path, but only single keywords.
And no synonyms.

Hence you could see it also as a feature 

If you want add the whole path and synonmy and all stuff, use the keyword-panel.
If you want only add some single keywords, use the metadata-panel.

So a user has both possibilites.

I do also not know, how many usesr uses this way, like you work.
To be hones, I did not know this.
But if I think about it, it is a good way for some images, what I usually delivers for clients or even family members, and I want show them only some minor keywords, not the whole branch.

But feel free to add a Feature request.