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Phaeton Place2
Participant
January 7, 2013
Answered

Lightroom 4 Keywording Multiple Photos

  • January 7, 2013
  • 3 replies
  • 31131 views

I'm in library mode and trying to add the same series of keywords to a group of about 60 photos.  All these photos are highlighted at the bottom of my screen but one photo appears to be highlighted more brightly.  I've typed in a group of keywords in my sidebar and then clicked enter.  I thought that action should tag all 60 photos with the same keywords but it doesn't.  Only the brightly highlighted photo gets the keywords.  Surely there has to be a way to tag multiple photos with the same keywords all at once.  I've watched Cris Orwig's video on Adobe and am following the same steps he demonstrates but the keywords are only tagged to the one photo.  Am I missing something simple here?

Thank you

Mark

Correct answer Phaeton Place2

I knew I was missing something!  Thanks so much!

Mark

3 replies

rninov
rninov
Inspiring
October 28, 2018

The other way around (in Filmstrip mode) is to select the images you want to keyword, select autosync and then enter the keywords, title and/or other meta properties

    BartonGarrett256
    BartonGarrett256
    Inspiring
    October 19, 2015

    ‌I am cursing Adobe, more than usual, after an hour tagging images with keywords I just happened to check and see that only the first image in a string got the keywords.  I am as mad as I can be.  If they are going to pull a sophomoric stunt like this there should be a warning we have to click through.  Now I have no confidence in keywording I've done for who knows how long.  This is criminal.  Who manages these products?  This will cost me hundreds of dollars of labor to fix, and I'll always have doubts about data.  Idiots.

      drclearly
      drclearly
      Participant
      July 20, 2025

      This sort of thing will make be give up lightroom far sooner than the price, etc. WHY? There must be some theory of usage that justifies this. What is it?

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      July 20, 2025
      quote

      This sort of thing will make be give up lightroom far sooner than the price, etc. WHY? There must be some theory of usage that justifies this. What is it?


      By @drclearly

       

      Would you believe people have criticized Lightrrom Classic for the opposite reason, that they have one photo which is the "most" selected and other photos also selected, and they only want their metadata to apply to that "most selected" photo.

       

      There's an option you have to set or turn off, depending on your point of view. It is the menu command "Metadata->Show Metadata for Target Photo Only" should have no check mark next to it in order to have metadata changes apply to all selected photos.

       

      So that's why. Makes perfect sense to me.

        Jim Wilde
        Community Expert
        Jim WildeCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        January 7, 2013

        Yep....you need to multi-select in Grid view, not in the Filmstrip. Then it will work....

          P
          Phaeton Place2AuthorCorrect answer
          Participant
          January 7, 2013

          I knew I was missing something!  Thanks so much!

          Mark

          D
          dmEslinger
          Participant
          April 17, 2014

          mikez93 wrote:

          There must be a reason why this is the case...

          There is - but please don't make me try to state it. It was my biggest complaint when I first started using Lightroom (for a few years actually) - never sure whether what I was doing was affecting one or many. At this point, I mostly remember the rules and the exceptions to them...

          +1 vote for simplified/unified selection/targeting, although I wouldn't get hopes up at this point..

          R


          I just reviewed http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-5/adding-keywords/ in which Chris Orwig clearly shows adding keywords to multiple images in the filmstrip, NOT in the grid view.  Of course, MY Lightroom doesn't allow me to add keywords to multiple images using the method shown in this video.  And just an added note that this is the EXACT same video shown under the label "learn-lightroom-4/adding-keywords/ so I don't know if this could be done in v4 but not in v5 and someone just screwed up by reusing the same video.....  Thanks Jim Wilde and everyone else for your help.  I was starting to pull my hair out. 

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