I would like the ability to compare keywords across multiple selected images, with the ability to see which keywords are included in some (but not all) of them, and to add to all the images selected keywords which appear in only some of them. In other words, partial synchronisation, of selected keywords, as opposed to all of them.
In Lightroom, for example, if a keyword appears in some of the selected images, but not all of them, it is shown with an asterisk, and deleting the asterisk adds that keyword to all the selected images. In another DAM I use, the keywords which are not in all of the selected images are shown in italics, with a ctrl-click adding them to all the selected images (a much better implementation than Lightroom’s actually, visually effective and very easy to use, much easier than hitting a tiny asterisk in Lightroom’s keyword list).
The trouble with copying keywords via the metadata panel in PM is that it is a whole or nothing approach which does not work well if you want broadly similar keywords to be added to a number of images but with a few minor per-image variations.
That is the concept I would like to see PM have, to save having to keep on dropping into other applications to deal with this, but I have to confess I cannot see how it could be implemented within PM’s current interface. Maybe others with better imagination than mine could envisage a way in which this could be implemented and added to the interface, were Kirk et al to be prepared to consider it. But if it were possible, it would be incredibly helpful for keywording workflow, working with groups of related images with minor variations between them.
Graham
