keywords confusion

[timoteo]

I'm using imatch 2020. I imported tens of thousands of files  (over the years) from disk that had been edited and keyworded with Capture One. imatch shows all of my keywords from C1 images in the Categories->@Keywords list. When I select an image and select the Keywords panel on the right side of the screen it shows "Recent",
Top 50, "Favorites", etc. 

I have a hierarchical keyword "architecture" I used in C1 but I don't see my "architecture" keywords here. 
I can open the  Categories->@Keywords list from the tab at the top of imatch, but am I supposed to just select all keywords i want to use for an image and drag-and-drop them onto an image? If that's how it works, what is the Keywords panel supposed to do - just offer shortcuts to recently used keywords or something? It seems like there are two different ways to approach keywording(?).

Has this changed in imatch 2023?

[Mario]

The main feature for working with keywords is the The Keywords Panel.
It shows all hierarchical keywords assigned to your files (at the top) and allows you to add, edit and delete keywords, it makes suggestions from your thesaurus and a lot more. It is very powerful. See Frequent Tasks for a start.

The @Keywords category is dynamically built from the hierarchical keywords in your files. It automatically organizes your files by their hierarchical keywords. It also offers a number of keyword-related functions, which make it easy to replace keywords in a large number of files, "move" files between keywords etc.

The Thesaurus is where you (if you want) create and maintain your controlled keyword vocabulary.

If you have assigned a keyword in C1 and this keyword does not show in IMatch:

1. Make sure C1 has written the keyword into the image
2. Run the Metadata Analyst for the problem image to check for problems.
3. Provide a download link for the image so we can have a look and see what the problem is

Many C1 users use IMatch as a DAM and it generally works just fine.

[thrinn]

I'm using imatch 2020

But keep in mind that IM 2020 is several years old. A lot has changed in IM 2023 (and IM 2021 before). The descriptions in the IMatch help might not exactly match what you are seeing.

[Mario]

Might be similar enough. Just as a note: support for IMatch 2020 has ended years ago.

[timoteo]

Attached is screen capture of the imatch screen with keywords panel on the right and the Categories "tab" showing keywords on the left.

I have a zillion keywords that were imported from my images from C1 when i first started using imatch. From the keywords panel on the right, I don't see any obvious way to select a keyword from the entire keywords list. For example, I don't see a way to search my entire set of keywords for a particular keyword like "animals|camel". 
I only see "Recent", "Top 50", "Favorites", and "Suggestions". 

I've attached an example from C1. I type in "cam", it searches for a keyword containing "cam" and returns all matches: "camel<animals". I have a hierchical keyword "bluebonnerts<wildflowers<flowers". I can type "blueb" in the search field shown in the attached screen capture and C1 will show this hierchical keyword. I'm wondering how to do this in imatch.

[PandDLong]

If you type in the box with the orange letters saying "Enter new keywords here ..." you will have about the same effect that you describe for C1.   The other tabs you reference are some additional options iMatch provides for you to select from a list.   (My experience is based on iMatch 2021 and 2023 and I am assuming 2020 is the same for this function).

Good luck.

Michael

[Mario]

The Keywords Panel makes suggestions while you type from the keywords in your Thesaurus

The Keywords Panel tells you that your thesaurus contains no entries.
Hence all advanced IMatch keyword features related to the thesaurus are not available to you.

Since IMatch comes with a well-filled default thesaurus, why is your thesaurus empty? Did you delete all keywords from it at some point in time?

Fill your thesaurus (by importing the default IMatch thesaurus, by importing a controlled vocabulary of your choice or by filling it from the keywords in your database.

How to import the default thesaurus, vocabularies and how to fill the thesaurus from the database is explained in Thesaurus

If all of this is new to you, I suggest you watch the thesaurus tutorial video (and the keywords tutorial video) in the IMatch Learning Center to get you started quickly.

[timoteo]

I was able to populate my thesaurus from the keywords in my files by importing keyword tags from the thesaurus manager. I have no idea why my thesaurus didn't populate when I created my imatch database - I've never looked at the thesaurus before. Thanks for your help, everyone!

[Mario]

Very good.
The "risk" of just importing keywords from files into the thesaurus is of course some kind of "disorder", al least some clean-up is usually required.

The thesaurus should contain a "good" (aka controlled or curated) keyword vocabulary. Keywords you really need and in the hierarchical order you want. Once you have that, you just assign keywords from the thesaurus and this ensure optional keyword quality and, important, consistency (using the same keyword for the same thing).

It is normal to occasionally assign keywords not in the thesaurus to files, e.g. for specific objects or places.
If you see that you repeatedly assign keywords not from the thesaurus to files, you can consider adding the keyword to the thesaurus.

I suggest you make yourself acquainted with all the keyword-related time-saver features in IMatch. Links and Favorites and AutoFill. Adding keywords to files is kinda boring and often feels like work - do doing it quickly and consistently is best. IMatch can help you with that.