What delimiter should I use for Lightroom keywords to stay compatible with other software?
Asked 12/15/2016
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I’m adding keywords to my photos in Lightroom and want them to remain portable to other software later. When I type multiple keywords, Lightroom inserts commas between them, and I’ve noticed spaces are treated differently. Is there a standard delimiter I should use for separate keywords? Also, are there any delimiters I should avoid if I want to keep metadata platform-agnostic, especially when using hierarchical keywords?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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A comma is probably the most common delimiter. Lightroom recognizes it by default. It can also treat a period (.) or slash (/) the same way but this is optional which suggests that it is less standard.
A space is not usually a delimiter since people can use names such as 'John Smith' as keywords. Do not use a vertical bar (|) either since that is usually considered a hierarchy separator.
Speaking of which, you can structure keyword as a hierarchy which shows as a tree in Lightroom but is flattened when Metadata is exported. For example, I have locations as [continent]|[country]|[city], so for example, asia|thailand|bangkok. In Lightroom it looks like a neatly organized tree:
asia
|-> thailand
|-> bangkok
That makes it easy to find photos of Asia, Thailand or Bangkok without having to explicitly add all three keywords. When adding bangkok, Lightroom automatically knows what the parent keywords are.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Use commas to separate individual keywords. That’s the most common convention, and Lightroom recognizes commas by default.
A space usually should not be used as a delimiter, because many valid keywords contain spaces, such as a person’s full name or a place name. If you type words separated only by spaces, software may treat them as one keyword phrase rather than separate keywords.
Avoid using the vertical bar | as a normal delimiter, because it is commonly used to represent hierarchical keywords. For example, asia|thailand|bangkok can represent a keyword tree in Lightroom. That can help organization inside Lightroom, while exported metadata is typically flattened for compatibility.
Some software can also treat periods or slashes as separators, but those are less standard. If your goal is portability across platforms, commas are the safest choice for separating keywords.
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