Moving keywords in the hierarchy

[jln]

The photos I have put in my database were imported with keywords, but not hierarchical keywords. For example, I have photos labelled "George," and this keyword appears by itself in the list in @keywords. I would like those photos to be tagged People|George. I tried just renaming "George" to "People|George," but I got an error window "Invalid Category." This happened whether or not I had created a "George" category to "People."

I guess my essential question is how keywords can moved to a different category in the set or hierarchical categories.

Thanks for your help.

[thrinn]

This is in fact quite easy: Just drag "George" onto "People" in the Categories Panel @Keywords tree. Drop it there. Done.
This is one of the nice features of keywords: They are part of the picture metadata, but can be handled in many respects like regular IMatch categories.

[Mario]

The @Keywords Category category mirrors the actual keywords in your files. It combines the power of IMatch categories with hierarchical XMP keywords.

When IMatch ingests your files, it matches flat keywords via your thesaurus to hierarchical keywords (if found). If your thesaurus contains a People|George keyword, IMatch would map the flat George keyword to this hierarchical keyword. If your thesaurus is empty or contains no matching keyword, IMatch cannot do this.

To change the flat George keyword to People|George:

1. Create a People category under @Keywords
2. Drag the George category onto People

This changes all keywords in the files accordingly.

Or:

1. Switch to the Category View and click on @Keywords|George. This shows you all files with that keyword.
2. Select all files with Ctrl+A.
3. In the Keywords Panel, Ctrl+Click  George to delete it.
4. Add the keyword People|George
5. Commit the changes.

This stores the keyword People|George in these files.
The @Keywords category will be updated to contain the keyword
@Keywords
  |-- People
    |-- George

Another way to do this would be:

1. Add a People category under @Keywords (select @Keywords and press <Ins>).
2. Select People and press <Ins> again to add George
3. Now select the flat George category directly under @Keywords, select all files and drag them to the new People|George category.
This changes "George" to "People|George"

In General:

If your files have only flat keywords and you want to change these keywords into hierarchical keywords, the easiest way is to

1. Get your thesaurus right.
For example, add People on the top level, and below that George and Alexander and Elizabeth and...

2. Now select your files and press Shift+Ctrl+F5 for the advanced rescan options. Select "Reload Metadata".
This will reload the metadata from your files again and also maps the flat keywords in your files again.
If your thesaurus has the shape you want, IMatch will know where in your new hierarchy to place the flat keywords.

See The @Keywords Category for more features available for the special @Keywords category. There is also a video in the IMatch Learning Center

[PandDLong]

This is a very helpful thread.  While I have not yet experienced this need: I am confident I will in the near future.  I am going to bookmark this one.

Thanks for the describing multiple ways to do this as it further illustrates some of the capabilities of iMatch.

[Mario]

This is a very helpful thread.  While I have not yet experienced this need: I am confident I will in the near future.  I am going to bookmark this one.

Thanks for the describing multiple ways to do this as it further illustrates some of the capabilities of iMatch.

If you read The @Keywords Category in the IMatch help system, you will learn about this, and all the other features available for @Keywords.
This is one of the most important features for working with keywords. And, especially, for cleaning up and reorganizing keywords.
There is also a related tutorial video in the IMatch Learning Center