Keyword separator limitation not backward compatible

[donc61415489]

Somewhere along the line, Lightroom imposed a new limitation on keywords preventing the use of either commas or spaces in keywords, because they now say commas or spaces are used as a keyword separators.  (What was the separator character when these characters WERE allowed?)

For years now, I have created hundreds of keywords using both commas and spaces to tag people by last name, first name and towns by city, state.  Do I now have to manually change all of those keywords to eliminate commas or spaces?

I would like Adobe to add more keyword separator options.  For example, "." and "/" can be treated as keyword separators when reading metadata.  Why are these characters not allowed as separators for keyword entry?

[John R Ellis]

At least as far back as LR 3, commas have been the keyword separator in the Keywording panel and not allowed in keywords. If you tried to create a keyword with a comma, LR would complain. 

However, due to longstanding bugs, LR sometimes creates keywords with commas; e.g. when you import photos containing such keywords, LR doesn't alert you.

Spaces have always been allowed within keywords.

"...they now say ... spaces are used as a keyword separators. "

Where do you see that?  

[donc61415489]

In preferences you have an option to choose comma or space as keyword separator.

Regardless of how long it’s been done that way, the need remains.

[John R Ellis]

"In preferences you have an option to choose comma or space as keyword separator."

True, but comma is the default, and the choice of comma or space has always been there.

"For years now, I have created hundreds of keywords using both commas and spaces to tag people by last name, first name and towns by city, state."

Did you do this in another app and then import the keyworded photos into LR?  You could never have entered such keywords in LR.

[donc61415489]

Yes.  I entered them in Lightroom.

[richardplondon]

Regardless of what kinds of keywords may have been possible to create, the syntax used when searching for images by keyword makes, and always has made, it unwise IMO to include spaces in keywords.

Thus, for example, "John_Waterson" can be treated as one exclusive searchable item / searched on inclusively by its parts (looking for all keywords that include the characters 'John' for example) - depending on whether you set the Filter bar to search by Keywords "contains" or "contains words". That control is not available if the keyword is in the form "John Waterson". Because then a search on "John Waterson" will either way find not only "John Waterson" but also "John Adams" and "Linda Waterson" and "Waterson Falls" and only (for example) "Ted Johnson" could be excluded, by setting the search to "contains words" instead of "contains". 

I am not aware of any recent change of search behaviour or of practical implications, in these respects.

IOW: say a fragmented keyword is technically permitted by the software - is that going to be a good idea?

Incidentally, if one did decide to change (for example) keyword "John Waterson" to "John_Waterson", that can be done by simply editing each keyword that has already been assigned. Immediately the searching results will react accordingly.

As a bonus, if you use a dividing character scheme rather than just running the first and last names together, this lets you search on (say) "_Waterson" and have this report everyone with that same surname, without picking up images tagged with "Waterson Falls" and suchlike too. I might suggest reserving a particular dividing character just for people tagging; and have a different strategy with other kinds of keywording.

[John R Ellis]

@donc61415489: "Yes.  I entered them in Lightroom."

I tested LR 6.14, LR 10.4, and LR 14.0.1, and none allow keywords to be created containing commas, regardless of whether commas or spaces are selected as the keyword separator in Preferences:

I also tested Metadata > Import Keywords in all three versions, and it doesn't allow keywords with commas either.