I agree that the existing keywords shouldn't be replaced and that it never should do this when editing a single photo and that's why there is no checkbox for appending: it should always append. I'd like to know how you get it to delete your existing keywords?
Kirk,
Thank you for the reply. I can now see what is happening and why. I have previously only worked with groups of images, using the main Structured Keyword Panel. Today I have been dealing with individual images and the alternative version of the Structured Keywords Panel accessed from the Metadata (IPTC) Info Panel.
I have been using the alternative Structured Keywords Panel to search for and include my hierarchical keywords, with every synonym included (full add path). The typical image I have been working on today has maybe up to 100 keywords, some even more, some of which may be up to 7 levels deep in my hierarchy.
What I have done is this:
1. Search for and include the first sets of keywords/synonyms. These might relate to, for example, the type of animal concerned, its geographical location etc. In other words, the main headings I can think of as a first pass. This creates maybe several dozen keywords, more than enough to be working with for the time being, and good for a first edit because each addition is in the hierarchical order and I can at that stage edit out unnecessary synonyms. Then press ok to close the Structured Keywords Panel.
2. Then I re-open the alternative Structured Keyword Panel, for my second pass at other keywords, such as the landscape, the environment, the weather etc. When I do this, as you say, all the keywords already copied appear in the collection. I had assumed that this was because there were still there from the first pass, so I cleared the collection and start afresh for the second pass. This is exactly what I do when I use the main Structured Keywords Panel on a group of images. I assumed the second pass keywords would be appended, but they are overwritten.
I typically edit some of the keywords out of the collection, because they are easy to find there (because the hierarchy is fresh in mind), then edit the combined collections of keywords in the Metadata (IPTC) Info Panel. This works fine in the main version of the Structured Keywords Panel, but not for the other version, because the behaviour is always to overwrite, not append.
Now that I understand that the alternative Structured Keywords Panel includes previously added keywords, I can get round this. But should not both versions work the same way, so that the collection can be cleared and just contain the further keywords added during that pass, which can then be appended without cluttering up the collection with prior keywords from an earlier pass?
Graham
