Hierarchical keywords to categories

[Aubrey]

Is there a way to move hierarchical keywords to categories? I know the opposite is possible.
Reason:
I'm working on updating my database using hierarchical keywords - having seen the YouTube movie I think this is the way to go, however I would like a belt and braces approach, if I delete a "keyword" then my configuration tree will still exist in the categories.

Thanks,
Aubrey.

[Mario]

All your hierarchical keywords are automatically mapped to the special @Keywords category.
Maintaining yet another category tree with the same information would be redundant, two times.

There is no feature which creates categories from hierarchical keywords - for exactly this reason. Not needed.
If you want some sort of "backup", write the keywords back into your file regularly.

This could also be done with with a purpose-built IMatch App.

[emef]

"If you want some sort of" backup ", write the keywords in your file regularly.

This could also be done with a specially built IMatch application. "

I am looking forward to an application to save all my words contained in my @keywords. 
Thank you in advance.

[Mario]

I am looking forward to an application to save all my words contained in my @keywords. 

No application needed. Keywords are written to the image file (or XMP sidecar) file by IMatch automatically. Hence no need for backing up keywords a 3rd time.

[ubacher]

Is there a way to move hierarchical keywords to categories?

Do you mean you want to convert keywords to categories i.e. remove the keywords and use instead categories of the same name?

I did this when converting from Im3 to Im5 - had a script for this.
However you do the conversion - make sure you update all your files after you remove the keywords else they will show up again
when a file's metadata gets re-read at a later time. I still tend to occasionally find old files with keywords in them which I missed.

[Ger]

Maybe I'm wrong, but would it be a possibility to create a data-driven category based on the Hierarchical Keywords Tab and then convert that data-driven category into a normal category?

Ger

[Mario]

I wondered about this too. The "Convert to normal category" will do this. It's just how Aubrey sets up the dd-cat and how his category structure looks like.

[Aubrey]

A little background to my question, and I think we can close it out - the question resulted from my poor workflow!

After watching video, I decided to go to just keywords, this means that I need to make some changes in how I define categories.
At the same time I looked at various thesauri and found an excellent one for bird descriptions.

Now I can't remember the exact details but:

• I started changing some bird keywords from my Africa category.
  I was then updating my Africa categories using the "category to keyword" script, and I ended up overwriting my better defined bird names. Of course I wrote back metadata to files... 
  If I had I put them into various categories then I would still have new names!
  
  It was only a few 10s of images so easy to fix! 
  
  Anyway, upshot is that I hadn't thought through a proper workflow for such a major task. 
  The change is on my pending list and will get done soon. As my database becomes larger finding items badly catalogued is becoming more of an issue!
  
  

[Mario]

Many users find a "better" way to associate keywords with their files at some point.
Or a simple system breaks down when the image collection exceeds a certain size.

Luckily, IMatch gives you many options and powerful tools.

+ Metadata Keywords, automatically mirrored in the @Keywords category (best of both world, advanced features available in @Keywords).

and then

+ Regular Categories (to organize your files in ways not becoming part of the metadata.
+ Data-driven categories for automatic categorization. These can also be converted into regular categories.
+ Alias categories to link categories into different sections of your category hierarchy without data-duplication or redundancy.
+ Formula-based categories to temporary or permanent combinations of categories.

This is usually sufficient to conveniently manage even very large databases with very large keyword  taxonomies.

A workable but maybe labor intensive workflow for your task is

+ select each category you already have
+ Copy the name into the Windows clipboard with Ctrl+C
+ Click into the file window, Ctrl+A to select all files.
+ Paste the category name into the Keyword panel.

This way you add the images to the same hierarchical level as the original category, but as a keyword.
If you have enabled the option to add new keywords to the thesaurus in the Keyword Panel this will also add the new hierarchy to your thesaurus.
@Keywords will also update accordingly.

Note that @Keywords has some advanced features to move files between keywords or to rename keywords database-wise. I show some of them in the tutorial video.
The Add new Categories command for example allows you to create any number of categories at once, including hierarchies. This can be very helpful if you've got a list of keywords from somewhere.

Would you share a link for your bird controlled vocabulary. I can add the link to the Controlled Vocabulary knowledge base article on my web site.

[Aubrey]

Mario,
I've been travelling hence the delay in replying...

Many thanks for your detailed reply.
I will follow the procedure you've set out for my workflow.

Would you share a link for your bird controlled vocabulary. I can add the link to the Controlled Vocabulary knowledge base article on my web site.

The link is:
http://lightroom-keyword-list-project.blogspot.co.uk/

More specifically:
http://lightroom-keyword-list-project.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/birds-20.html

Within this page there is a link to download a zipped file of the birds. The list is setup with an alias of the Latin name.
http://lightroom-keyword-list-project.blogspot.co.uk/p/get-list.html

[Mario]

Thanks.

I already had a link to the Keyword List Project in the Free Controlled Vocabularies for IMatch article in the IMatch knowledge base.