P: Find keyword by synonym

Report · May 05, 2011

When searching for a keyword in the keyword list (using the keyword filter) only matches with keywords but not those matching with synonyms are displayed.
In Lr 2 also matches of those keywords were displayed which had a synonym match.
I would like this to be an option in Lr 3, too, maybe user-definable.
Usecases: I've got a large list of keywords with most of them having at least one synonym (my keywords are in German and I use synonyms for english translations and other synonyms). (1) When I look for the existence of a keyword I would like to make sure that I've not included it as a synonym already. (2) While searching for a specific topic sometimes I can only remember the synonym (yes, growing older...). In Lr2 I could find it easily by keyword filter.

Report · Sep 19, 2015

Unfortunately it has become evident over the years that Adobe's philosophy is to ignore its customers. It may improve a product in one area, but often at the expense of a useful tool in another. The recent removal of thumbnails in Adobe Reader is another example.

I was about to add synonyms to my own collection, Latin, French, English to my plants and animals, but it seems it will be useless exercise.

Report · Jan 23, 2016

I can not believe it, that such a simple and important feature, which demanding so many users, is still not implemented since 5(!) years - that ridiculous.

Report · Jan 23, 2016

Yes, I still miss this feature and my current catalog is much more messy then it was before.

Report · Jan 25, 2016

This would be very useful; it's not easy to get to synonyms any other way.

Report · Jan 28, 2016

I'm new to LR and extremely surprised searching for synonyms is not implemented.

Why would you even introduce "synonyms" when you still force the user to remember each main keyword while assigning or editing those tags?

I expected to be able to assign a synonym as well, which would then be replaced by the chosen main keyword. Afterwards, when searching the catalog or exporting, all keywords and synonyms should be available.

Report · Jun 02, 2016

This is very basic functionality which has been missing for years: please reinstate this!

Report · Jul 13, 2016

Lightroom only searches for the keywords itself. I have keyword hierarchies of fauna and flora that end in the scientific name (so for example Animalia → Chordata → Aves → Passeriformes → Icteridae → Amblyramphus → Amblyramphus holosericeus which then has synonyms in several languages, such as "Federal" in Spanish, "Roodkoptroepiaal" in Dutch and "Scarlet-headed Blackbird" in English. So the colloquial names are synonyms. I can now not search for such a colloquial name because Lightroom doesn't search in synonyms, so I can *only* search for the scientific name. I saw other people have suggested this as an "idea" for years already (sigh) but let's be honest: this is not a feature request: it's a bug. There is no reason not to do it that I can think of, and it's simply frustrating that something like that doesn't work. I wish I could always remember the scientific name, but sometimes a colloquial name pops into my head, which is now simply almost useless info for a quick search. Yes, I can create a smart collection to overcome my pain, but I can't quickly search for a specific bird for example. It's not the same to simply type "federal" or having to go to my smart collection and edit the requirements. Very frustrating.

Report · Jul 14, 2016

Great, my comment was merged into a five-year old thread labeled "idea" instead of "problem". I'm sure Adobe will get on it now! /s

Report · Jul 14, 2016

Thanks for speaking up. I keep hoping that someday Adobe will actually address all the keyword and other DAM issues.

-louie

Report · Jul 14, 2016

4 years and two major releases.

Report · Jul 14, 2016

I sure hope so, but if something this simple to fix is simply ignored for such a long time I am not optimistic.

Report · Jul 14, 2016

I am subscribed to a number of threads regarding Lightroom functionality. There is no evidence that Adobe gives a fig about changing these features (or lack thereof). Luckily there are work-arounds for most of these issues.

I think the work-around for this issue is to just export a small jpg and put it back in your catalog. This will add the synonym as a keyword to the catalog, and a search will uncover the jpg, which you can use to find the image you are looking for.

There are, of course, lots of reasons why this is a less-than-perfect solution, but perhaps more useful than 5 years of carping with no response from Adobe. In fact, a great thing would be for someone to start a thread of the easiest way to work-around these long-term deficiencies in Lightroom. For example: "Q: Lightroom doesn't catalog psb files. A: Purchase Anyfile"

Report · Jul 14, 2016

I agree on the assessment that Adobe doesn't seem to care at all about how this affects users. I came to LR because Apple abandoned Aperture and dammit, I feel like I'm being turned over to the next party who doesn't care. An issue like this should be simple to fix yet they don't do it and leave their users struggle? Grrr!

As for this specific issue; I understand your proposed solution, but that would be undoable for me. I've hundreds of species, each with multiple names. Sometimes up to 10 synonyms. Luckily I found and bought Any Tag already that eases the worst of the pain but it's just ridiculous that this is ignored for so long. And then when I submit as bug for this it's just merged without any feedback into this idea thread... It's not an idea, it's a bug! You can't just simply make problems go away by calling it an idea... Very upsetting.

Report · Jul 14, 2016

"my comment was merged into a five-year old thread"

The merged topic has 69 me-toos and a fair amount of activity in the last year, placing it in the top 5% of problems/ideas. Adobe does pay attention to this forum, and they generally pay more attention to topics with more votes and detailed opinions expressed, even long-lived topics. They usually pay less attention to individual feedback from one person, unless it's a catastrophic failure that corrupts images or catalogs or the like. So it's to all of our advantage to have similar opinions aggregated.

Unfortunately, as Alan and others have observed, the Library has received little attention since LR 3. Though I develop plugins to work around such issues, I'd much rather have the functionality built-in and working correctly.

Report · Jul 14, 2016

Sure John, I do understand the advantage of merging multiple threads and I admire you being so Zen about it. I'm not so Zen about it. I am annoyed that this is catalogued as an "idea". I didn't submit it as an idea because I consider it a bug. It's something that is broken, not something that "can be improved". And then unilaterally, some moderator decides my problem is an idea. It's not a bug, it's a potential enhancement! Well, that's one way to fix statistics. "No sir, LR is bug free! Lots of people having ideas though!". This specific issue should be so easy to fix it's disgusting Adobe chooses to force hundreds of people to lose time over instead of just getting their stuff together and fix it already for 4 major releases in a row.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying your Any Tag plugin, so thanks for that, and I've also found that if you search for text using the search bar in the grid it matches synonyms too.

Report · Mar 24, 2019

Thanks, Smit.

While not a bug as such, can you please request that consideration be given to another searching issue.

You create keywords in the keyword list, then you can search/filter those keywords in the keyword list to apply, edit or delete them. Synonyms are similarly created from within the keyword list, but bizarrely, once created, there is no way of searching or filtering the keyword list to find or manage those synonyms. You can search images in collections to find those to which synonyms have been applied, but you cannot filter or search for the source/location of those synonyms in the keyword list. The concept that there is a mechanism for creation of synonyms but not their subsequent management is a significant omission, if perhaps not technically a bug.

On several occasions I have not been able easily to find the location of a synonym I have wanted to change. I have had to resort to exporting my keyword list to Excel and searching there in order to locate it, then go back to Lightroom to open up the relevant keyword containing the synonym I want to edit. Lightroom itself should have this basic functionality built in without the need for such tedious work-arounds.

Graham

Report · Oct 13, 2021

Bonjour,

j'ai créé une hiérarchie de mot clés dans lightroom avec des synonymes et je cherche un mot clés en fonction de son synonyme

par example:

j'ai créé un mot clé "Phoenicurus ochruros" qui est le nom latin de l'oiseau "Rouge queue noir". j'ai mis "Rouge queue noir" en synonyme qui est le nom vernaculaire de cet oiseau mais quand je veux rechercher le mot clé correspondant je préfere utiliser le nom français plutot que le nom latin.

mais quand j'écris Roge queue noir dans la zone de recherche de mot clé, il ne trouve rien

y-a-t-il un moyen pour résoudre mon problème ?

en attente de vos suggestion

Report · Oct 13, 2021

This is a long-standing, fairly popular feature request. (The ability to search keywords by synonym was in LR 2 but removed in LR 3.) One workaround is the Any Tag plugin.

Report · Oct 13, 2021

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography : Please merge with the existing Idea:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/lightroom-find-keyword-by-synonym/idi-p/12249...