P: Add "Is Empty" and "Isn't Empty" to all attribute filters and Smart Collection filters

[Sean Phillips]

Lightroom desperately needs additional filtering (and smart filtering) capabilities. Specifically I want to be able to find all images for which I haven't entered anything in certain metadata fields. It is important to ensure that every image has certain metadata fields completed before releasing those images into the wild, but it's not always easy to find those empty fields....

Only some fields in the Attribute filter or in Smart Collections currently have an available option to filter by "Is Empty" or "Isn't Empty". For example, I can search for Is or Isn't Empty in the "Caption" field, but not in the "Title" field.

[areohbee]

Agreed.

And, if I may tack on: "Is" & "Isnt" would go nicely too (in case you know exactly what you want to include/exclude).

[johnrellis]

I agree with Rob's point: Testing for equality ("is" and "is not") is important for many fields, but most especially keywords. Just look at the postings on the forums about how much effort is expended and how much confusion arises when people try to get exact keyword match. It's more than a little surprising that a digital asset manager doesn't support exact match in its query language (smart collections).

This probably deserves a separate top-level topic.

[Sean Phillips]

This issue buts me in the butt at least once a week. I was just searching for some images that I hadn't completed the metadata entry and had to go through them one by one instead of being able to filter for them using "Is Empty". Please fix this!

[joopsnijder]

And matching and filtering on the contents of smart collections will help too. Now, to my knowledge, we can only use 'normal' collections as a collection source to filter on.

[areohbee]

Joop - I'm not sure what you mean. Would you mind elaborating?

[areohbee]

Joop - I'm not sure what you mean. Would you mind elaborating?

[joopsnijder]

If I have a smart collection A and creating a new smart collection B, it's not possible to select photos based of their existence in smart collection A.

[joopsnijder]

If I have a smart collection A and creating a new smart collection B, it's not possible to select photos based of their existence in smart collection A.

[areohbee]

Ah - gotya. Worthy of a separate 'Idea' me-thinks, lest it be lost in this one.

[areohbee]

Ah - gotya. Worthy of a separate 'Idea' me-thinks, lest it be lost in this one.

[Sean Phillips]

Please tell me that this got fixed in LR4beta??

[J453]

Yes.

[J453]

Yes.

[J453]

Filter and search images by a saved or unsaved metadata property was added in Lightroom 4:

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

[Sean Phillips]

While that's a very good thing, it's not even remotely the same as filtering by "Is Empty"

[Sean Phillips]

While that's a very good thing, it's not even remotely the same as filtering by "Is Empty"

[Sean Phillips]

Hmm, just tested it and no it doesn't. I think you're confusing this feature request with your comment below about how LR4beta now can filter by saved/unsaved metadata. That doesn't help me find empty captions or titles...

[Sean Phillips]

Hmm, just tested it and no it doesn't. I think you're confusing this feature request with your comment below about how LR4beta now can filter by saved/unsaved metadata. That doesn't help me find empty captions or titles...

[areohbee]

Sean, I really think you should try John Ellis' AnyFilter.

He did an outstanding job - Is Empty and Isn't Empty are included...

Also, although a bit tacky, just searching for "contains" 'a e i o u' is an effective way to check empty vs. not empty, unless you don't use vowels in your metadata...

[areohbee]

Sean, I really think you should try John Ellis' AnyFilter.

He did an outstanding job - Is Empty and Isn't Empty are included...

Also, although a bit tacky, just searching for "contains" 'a e i o u' is an effective way to check empty vs. not empty, unless you don't use vowels in your metadata...

[areohbee]

Indeed - this should not be marked "Implemented".

[areohbee]

Indeed - this should not be marked "Implemented".

[Sean Phillips]

"Doesn't Contain: a" definitely works to find an empty field. But it's not obvious and this should be fixed...

[Sean Phillips]

"Doesn't Contain: a" definitely works to find an empty field. But it's not obvious and this should be fixed...

[J453]

Sorry. I was replying way to late at night and working to fast to get things updated. Corrected status of topic.