Do you "install" a thesaurus in iMatch 5?

[dadu]

I'm a little confused...
Is the thesaurus in IMatch 5 built word by word from the keywords I (slowly) enter, or do I have to install thesaurus (like the spell checker)?  The help does not explain this clearly for a newbie like me, at least that I can find...

When IMatch launches the splash screen shows that it is loading thesaurus data, but I can't find and under keywords it says "the thesaurus contains no entries"...

Please explain?

[Ferdinand]

The thesaurus in a new database is empty.  You have a range of options.

.  You can create your own entries manually
.  You can import the keywords that are in the files already (see the help file for details)
.  You can import an external thesaurus, such as a controlled vocabulary, provided that the file is in one of the recognised formats.

I created mine by running a script in IMatch 3.6 that exported selected categories in the right file format and then importing it in V5.

Note also that the thesaurus can also contain entries for other metadata fields (e.g.  Country, City, etc), although of course you won't seen them in the keyword panel, but you can use any such entries in the metadata panel when inputting metadata.

[dadu]

Thanks for the reply, Ferdinand,

A couple follow-up questions:
- So, I've entered only three keywords so far (I've only ever used "categories" before this).  Why does the message on the keywords panel say the thesaurus contains no entries?   I thought any keywords that are manually entered show up in the thesarus...  (the three keywords show up under the @keywords category...)

- you say you can import the keywords that are in the files already; my photos are only ones that I have taken (not stock photos from a company with other metadata), and I've never used keywords in IMatch 3.6 or 5; so does that mean my files won't have any keywords to import?  Or will the categories I've directly assigned in the past get imported as keywords into the thesaurus?

- Isn't there some standard commonly-used photographer-friendly thesaurus out there on the web I can import (like for the spell checker)? 

Thanks for helping me get up to speed...

[dadu]

I re-read your reply, Ferdinand.
Is the script you ran in 3.6 already contained in 3.6, or did you write it yourself?
If it is a "canned" script, what is the name of it?

[Richard]

It would be wise to open Help and read about The Universal Thesaurus before you put in much effort. The thesaurus in IMatch 5 deals with a lot more than just Keywords.

Here is the Table of Contents from The Universal Thesaurus topic.

Typical Uses
Use the Thesaurus to:
Using the Thesaurus in the Metadata Panel
The Thesaurus in the Keyword Panel
The Thesaurus Manager
Adding Tags to the Thesaurus
Adding Elements
Editing Data for Other Metadata Tags
Long Text
Working with Synonyms
Editing Thesaurus Elements
Editing Element Properties
ID
Value
Language
Description
Sort Order
Exclude in flat keywords
Group Level
Use sub-elements
Group Level
Hierarchical Keywords from Thesaurus Elements
Using Group Levels
Excluding in Flat Keywords
Tip: Manually Propagating Keywords
Exporting Thesaurus Data
Export to Text
Example:
Importing Thesaurus Data
Importing native IMTHS files
Importing IMatch 3 Thesauri
Importing Category Schemata
Importing Text Format
Import from Database
Keyword Mapping during File Import
Language
The Current Language
The Neutral Language
Tips for Working with Multi-language Content

As you can see it is a broad topic.

[Mario]

When the Keyword panel lists the thesaurus as empty, you have probably entered your keywords for the wrong tag. The Thesaurus in IMatch 5 can hold entries for keywords, but also for all other tags. See the thesaurus topic (press <F1> while you have the thesaurus editor open) to see all the info.

If you have never entered keywords in your files, they will not contain keywords. This means you build the thesaurus by manually inputting data, by importing a pre-defined list of keywords, or by importing existing categories (e.g. from your IMatch 3 database). No script is needed for that, the thesaurus supports a wide range of import formats, including it's own XML-based format, text files (several formats).

When in the category topic in the help, open the Table of Contents at the top and look at the Importing Thesaurus data section. It lists:

+ Importing native IMTHS files
+ Importing IMatch 3 Thesauri
+ Importing Category Schemata
+ Importing Text Format
+ Import from Database

If you have never used keywords in IMatch 3, you can continue to do so in IMatch 5. There is no need to use keywords, unless you want to work with keywords stored in your image files from now on. IMatch 5's categories are even more powerful than IMatch 3's so unless you have reasons to switch using keywords stored in the files instead of categories, you don't need to change anything.

When you have converted your database from IMatch 3 all your categories will be available and you can continue using them.

[dadu]

Thank you all for helping to answer my question.  I am not new to IMatch, but I am trying to exploit it's abilities more and more and so some features are completely new to me.

Until now, categories have sufficed for my purposes.  However, increasingly frequently, I have photos with subject matter that don't warrant a new category; by that I mean I don't want my category "tree" to become too large and cumbersome.  I don't want to add a category if it will only be used for a handful of photos.

It is for these photos that (I think) keywords would help me; a good example is the photo I just was looking at.  It has an American flag in it.  Well, I don't want a category for "flag" (how many photos would have that category?!), but the keyword "flag" would serve my purpose.

Exporting my categories from my 3.6 database and importing them into my 5 database as a thesaurus serves me no purpose...I don't need them as keywords.

- I would like to ask again, isn't there a photography-friendly open source thesaurus I could import that would have many common keywords?  It seems like that would be more useful than slowly building a thesaurus manually...Wouldn't it also be better for consistency among other keyword libraries...Does such a thing exist?

Thx!

(BTW, I did figure out how add my keywords to my empty thesaurus...)

[Mario]

If you want to import keywords into your thesaurus, you have many possibilities.
Some organizations have their own thesaurus, others rely on commercial controlled vocabularies etc.
Often thesauri cover only specific topics, e.g. scientific taxonomies or keywords used by stock photo agencies.
Thousands of articles and blog entries have been written on the topic of how to add keywords to images, which keywords to add etc.

Start with a Google search like:

https://www.google.de/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=2gvQU4GxMIam8wfn0IHADQ&gws_rd=ssl#q=photo+keyword+thesaurus

to get an impression.

[dadu]

Eek!
Obviously no consensus out there.

Thx, Mario.

[Richard]

I don't want to add a category if it will only be used for a handful of photos.

Rather than Keywords you may want to consider Attributes. Which is best depends on the user but Attributes (Properties in IMatch 3) are stored in the database. Whereas keywords get added to the image file or to a sidecar.

[dadu]

I appreciate that suggestion, Richard!  I'm seriously considering using attributes instead after reading about them in the Help file.  Very interesting! Thanks again.

[Ferdinand]

A couple of additional comments.

My own view is that it's better to use categories (or keywords) than attributes for this sort of information.  Categories are central to IMatch, and they're easier to work with than attributes.  I use attributes for numeric or textual information, and categories for qualitative information.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the size of the category tree, there's real no performance cost to it, and with category filters it's easy to find what you want without having to scroll.  I think you'll find it confusing to have this sort of information split between categories and attributes, because then you won't know where to look.

I wouldn't use keywords unless you really want to insert this information in the file.  It won't save space in the category list, since keywords are listed there too.

I wasn't aware than you could import category schema into the thesaurus, so you learn something new every day.  So there probably isn't a need for my script for this purpose, except that it can do a few things that the basic import can't, like take extracts of branches in the category structure rather than whole branches, and mark Group nodes (see the help file for an explanation of this slightly advanced topic) .  So you probably won't need it, but the script is located in these places:
V3.6 version:  http://ptforum.photoolsweb.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=70339#Post70339
V5.1 version:  https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=312.0
In your case you MUST leave all the keyword export options unchecked, or it will write categories to your files.

[Richard]

My own view is that it's better to use categories (or keywords) than attributes for this sort of information.  Categories are central to IMatch, and they're easier to work with than attributes.  I use attributes for numeric or textual information, and categories for qualitative information.

To each his own but I can't imagine creating a "Flag" category for one or two images. In IMatch 3 I reserved Categories for a many to one situation and used Properties for things closer to 1:1. It makes it easy to find a file by searching for "Flag". Since Attributes are the replacement for Properties, I intend to use them in a similar way. If I find I have more "Flag" images than expected, it is easy to make a "Flag" Category.