P: Custom sort order of keywords (instead of alphabetic).

Hopefully Adobe will finally do fix to this after 11 years. What they are waiting for?

@maumilu, note that the feature added in LR 11 only applies to publishing photos to Adobe Stock and not other agencies:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-custom-sort-order-of-keywords-instead-of-alphabetic/idc-p/12526371#M13291 

@maumilu  Install Lightroom Classic 11.0 or later.  Current is 12.1

@Rikk Flohr: Photography Unfortunately I am not able to find any related updated in den Creative cloud Desktop app when searching for "Max 2021 Photography products". Which term should be entered in order to find the required update to allow Lightroom to export images with keywords in non-alphabetical (original) order? 

My region is btw Germany.

Thanks in advance.

@Al_W_PhotoVideo, you might consider another workaround: Create a virtual copy of each photo you upload to an agency, and keyword the virtual copy just for that agency.

I am just considering entering the Stock Photo-Video market as a contributor.  As a long-time user of LR I want to use it whenever possible.  Based on previous discussions it appears to me that the biggest need is for a TWO TIERED approach to keywords rather than a pure ordering of all keywords.  What I mean is:  I would be happy to have an area for entering PRIMARY keywords (top ten) and SECONDARY keywords (the rest) with the combination of the two also stored behind the scenes together with the PRIMARY keywords listed first.  This may not be practical, but another way for LR programmers to consider how to meet the stock contributors needs.  The challenge is that EACH image needs to be able to have this differentiation.  It would not be sufficient to RANK or WEIGHT the keyword library list (though that could help) because the ranking is based on perceived USE.  As I begin uploading stock images and footage I will have to see which work arounds work best for me.  Thanks for all who have tried to get Adobe to address this important need.

When LRc will have fix metadata handling for keywords? LRc is sorting the metadata keywords alphabetically even if there is a need to keep it in order as written. E.G Adobe stock requires that the most relevant keywords are the first one in the list.  

I have just gone through a pile of photos and used the face recognition feature.  All went fine, however when I look at the keyword tags in Lightroom Classic, or export a file and look at the properties, the order of the keywords looks to be sorted alphabetically. However one of the main reasons I wanted to tag the photos was so that I can share the photos and the names of the people in them with others.

After I export the photos people will know who's in the photo, but not where they are in the photo.  Is there an option to store the keyword list in an order that would relate to the face recognition that's been marked in the photo, for example from left to right across the photo?

Even if I manually change the order of the keywords to match the photo, it goes back to the original order once I come back to it.  Very annoying.

I look forward to discovering a solution.

It occurred to me that you can export the ordered keywords in the industry standard fields (that other apps and services see) by writing a Mac shell script with these lines:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bin/exiftool '-xmp:subject<xmp:weightedflatsubject' '-iptc:keywords<xmp:weightedflatsubject' "$1"

Make the script executable by doing "chmod +x <script>".

In the Export settings Post-Processing, set After Export: Open In Other Applications, and choose the shell script.

You should be able to do the equivalent on Windows with .bat files -- it's left as an exercise for the reader.

LR 11 added a very limited ability to order the keywords for export to Adobe Stock but not other stock agencies. 

In the Keywording panel, if there are existing keywords, delete them and hit return twice (very important). Then re-enter the keywords in the desired order. If you select another photo and then come back to this photo, the keywords will appear alphabetical, but LR has remembered your ordering internally. When you export the photo, the ordered keywords will appear in the newly introduced metadata field, XMP:WeightedFlatSubject.  Evidently, Adobe Stock will read the keyword order from there, but I don't know about other stock agencies.

The implementation of this new feature is extremely limited:

- If you try to reorder the keywords in the Keywording panel without first clearing them and hitting return twice, the new order won't be accepted by LR. 

- LR always displays the keywords in alphabetic order, regardless of the order you entered them.

- LR's Metadata > Read Metadata From File won't read the order saved in the file or its .xmp sidecar, either from the industry-standard fields IPTC:Keywords, XMP:Subject, XMP:HiearchicalSubject or from the new field XMP:WeightedFlatSubject. So even if Bridge wrote that field (it doesn't), LR won't read it.

- Keywords in the existing metadata fields IPTC:Keywords, XMP:Subject, and XMP:HierarchicalSubject are always written in alphabetic order, regardless of the order you entered in LR.  So other stock agencies that don't know about this new field XMP:WeightedFlatSubject won't see your keyword order.