Confusion on categories and keywords (edited)

[greg]

Hi,

This is my first attempt at iMatch, so I'm struggling with some basic operations.

I have hierarchical  keyword trees, many from xmp sidecar files, that originated from Lightroom and another digital asset manager. After reading help I see categories are keywords. Now that I know that I'm still having trouble with thumbnails going missing when I move a category (keyword) to another branch.

How do the categories relate to the keyword manager, as they don't show up there?

[jch2103]

A quick response to part of your post:

The Categories tab includes both @Keywords and 'regular' IMatch categories: @Keywords reflects keywords in your files (including hierarchical keywords, as you've seen), whereas 'regular' categories exist just in the database (that is, not inside the images). Depending on your specific needs, you may want to use one or the other, or both.

Think of the thesaurus as a 'lookup' reference. You can populate the thesaurus from @Keywords; see the Universal Thesaurus entry in the Help (F1), and in particular 'Import from Database'. Note that the thesaurus doesn't automatically reflect what's in @Keywords; instead, it's used to make entry of new items easier. You can also import thesaurus entries from other sources, including controlled vocabularies.

The IMatch Help is very extensive and should provide useful information.

[greg]

I now know why the thumbnails weren't being displayed and it was nothing to do with moving the keyword branch. It just happened that the files that were referenced by the keyword were dng files. I can work on getting dng files displayed.

[Mario]

IMatch supports DNG files by default. Files added to the database don't vanish just because you change the keyword.

Note: Make sure that you have read the help topic on the special @Keywords category hierarchy so you know what happens when you move files around.
The best place to work with keywords is the Keyword Panel, not the @Keywords category hierarchy.

The @Keywords category hierarchy reflects the actual keywords in your files and has some advanced functionality, which is explained in detail in the IMatch help system. Just type @Keywords into the index tab to find all related information.

This topic also explains the difference between @Keywords and regular categories, the additional features available in regular categories etc.
If you have only used Lr or other DAM software before, categories will be new concept. They are unique and other applications support only subsets of the categorization functionality available in IMatch. It is well worth your time to read the introduction topic on categories in the help. Categories may be very helpful for your workflow.

[greg]

Thanks Mario. I will spend some time reading help on categories.
I installed the FastViewer codec Pack which resolved the issues I had with .dng file visisibility

[Mario]

This would have been my next question.
Usually the DNG codec included in Windows handles most DNG formats flawlessly (Windows 8 and later).