P: Better Support for Keyword Synonyms

[L. Hagen]

Dear Adobe-LR-Team,

I really love LR for many years now, but keyword management is still a horror and applicable for professional use.

Why aren't synonyms exported to the xmp file?

Why can't I search for synonyms in the keywording sidebar?

Why can't I search for "words in the middle" in the keywording sidebar? E.g. keyword "Test Case". I need to enter "Test" to get suggestions. But I also want to enter "Case" to get the suggestions.

SDK: why isn't there a direct function to get a dedicated keyword? Every time it is necessary to parse the entire keyword object path to find just a single keyword by its value. 

How about a REST-API to access the catalog of LR? Lua might be a nice programming language, but is not flexible and easy/fast to use. A REST-API could solve all issues!

In general, please take a look to otehr software, e.g. Photo Mechanic, which provides a much more professional keyword handling. Please Adobe, do someething here!

[johnrellis]

Adobe asks "One request per thread: When creating an Idea or Feature Request thread, please keep requests for features to ONE request per thread. Doing this will allow others to vote on the single, specific feature and not confuse Upvotes amongst a list of feature requests."

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/how-do-i-write-a-feature-request/idi-p/123863... 

[johnrellis]

"Why can't I search for synonyms in the keywording sidebar?"

Please add your constructive opinion to this feature request:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/lightroom-find-keyword-by-synonym/idi-p/12249...

and be sure to click the Upvote button at the top-right and Follow at the bottom of the first post. That will make it a little more likely that Adobe will consider implementing the feature and you'll be notified when they do.

That feature request is 10 years old and has 76 votes, making it relatively popular. Given that it hasn't been implemented, you might consider the Any Tag plugin, which lets you search for synonyms while keywording photos.

[johnrellis]

"E.g. keyword "Test Case". I need to enter "Test" to get suggestions. But I also want to enter "Case" to get the suggestions."

The Any Tag plugin is designed for fast keyword entry using the keyboard, and it does prefix match on all the words you enter in the search box, e.g. "t c" will match "Test Case", as well as "ca" and "case".

[johnrellis]

"Why aren't synonyms exported to the xmp file?"

LR does include synonyms in exported photos. Can you give give more details about your workflow and why that would benefit from having synonyms in photos' XMP?

[L. Hagen]

I know that LR does include the synonyms in exported files. But often I need to share raw files accross multiple catalogs. In this case I don't have exported files and the synonyms are gone. Furthermore, it seems to me logical that the synonyms are part of the xmp files. So I can't see any reason why they are handled different as keywords - and keywords are part of the xmp files.

[johnrellis]

"But often I need to share raw files accross multiple catalogs."

Got it.  Check out this related feature request:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/lightroom-better-handling-of-exporting-and-re...

Unfortunately, only 18 votes in 8 years.

[L. Hagen]

I see. So in the end LR is and will stay a pure consumer product which is not really applicable for agency photographers. Very pity! I would have liked LR to take into account the wishes and requests of professional press photographers over time.