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Creating and Assigning Hierarchical Keywords

You can keyword your files in a hierarchy and maintain these groups in the Keyword tree. Select the Organize tab in the Properties pane to create, rename, delete, and move your keywords.

You can also access the Keywords pane by choosing Panes | Keywords.

You can view all images assigned to specific keywords by clicking specific keywords in the Keywords group in the Catalog pane.

Creating Keywords

To Create Keywords:

In the Properties pane, located to the right of the File List pane, do one of the following:

In the Organize tab, at the bottom of the Keyword group, right-click Keywords, and then select New Keyword from the context menu.

Type a keyword into the field at the top of the Keyword group and press Enter.

To Keyword Files with Existing Keywords, Do One of the Following:

Select one or more files, then check the box next to the appropriate keyword.
Select one or more files, then right-click the keyword. Select Assign items from the context menu.
Select one or more files, then drag them onto the keyword.
Select one or more files, then select a keyword from the Quick Keywords set. The keyword will be assigned to your file and also added to the tree.

In the Keywords group in the Catalog pane, you can:

Select one or more files, then drag the keyword from the tree onto them.

To Establish a Hierarchy, Do One of the Following:

In the keyword field, type the lesser or more specific keyword, followed by the less than symbol, followed by the greater or more general keyword.

Example:

Owl < Bird

or

Madrid < Spain < Europe

Right-click an existing keyword, then select New Keyword. The new keyword will automatically become a child to the existing keyword.

When assigning multiple keywords to a file, it is important to note that separating keywords with commas will not generate a hierarchy.

Managing Keywords

To Manage Your Keywords:

Select a keyword in the Organize tab, and do one of the following:

To unassign a keyword from a file, right-click the selected keyword and choose Remove Items or uncheck the box.
To edit the keyword, right-click the selected keyword and choose Edit.
To delete the keyword, right-click the selected keyword and choose Delete.
To duplicate a keyword, right-click the selected keyword and choose Copy, then Paste where desired.

In the Keywords group in the Catalog pane, you can do any of the management actions above, as well as:

To edit the keyword tree, click and drag the keyword to other parts of the tree.

Creating Quick Keywords

You can use Quick Keywords to keep organized and to streamline your workflow by creating a group of related keywords that hold an association for you. This is ideal for keywords you would like to be easily accessible, rather than buried in the hierarchical tree. You can create multiple groups and choose between them based on the photos you are viewing at the time. ACDSee comes pre-loaded with a variety of usable sample Quick Keyword sets. You can also add these keywords to your tree.

Example:

Italy

Florence Venice Lake Como

Rome Milan Verona

Genoa Bologna Naples

To Assign a Keyword from Quick Keywords:

Select one or more files, then click the keyword.

To Create Easy-Access Quick Keywords:

On the Organize tab, in the Keywords group, select New Quick Keywords Set... from the drop-down menu. The Quick Keywords dialog box opens.
Customize the number of rows and columns for your set by selecting values from the Rows and Columns drop-down menus.
Enter up to 250 associated or commonly-used keywords in the open fields. To create a hierarchy within a field, use the pipe key. Example: A|B|C.
Click the OK button.
In the New Preset dialog, enter a name for your set. Click OK.
Apply keywords from your set by selecting a file and clicking the applicable keyword from the Quick Keywords Table. The keyword will be added to the tree. If you specified a hierarchy in the keyword set, the parent keyword will appear in the tree with the child under it. The text of the keywords in the table will change color to indicate that the keyword is assigned to the currently selected files, and will display in italics if assigned to only some (but not all) of the currently selected files.

Quick Keyword sets are saved in the Presets folder under ACDSee in your AppData folder, which you can find using the following path: C:\Users\<Your Name>\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Presets

Importing and Exporting Keywords

You can import keywords into ACDSee from other users. You can also share your keywords by exporting them. Keywords are imported and exported as .txt files.

You can import Adobe® Lightroom® keywords.

To Export Keywords:

Choose Tools | Metadata | Export Keywords...
Browse to the location of your keywords file.
Enter a name for your keywords file.
Press Save.

To Import Keywords:

Choose Tools | Metadata | Import Keywords...
Browse to the location of your keywords file.
Select your file and press Open. The keywords within your file will be loaded into the ACDSee keywords tree and listed alphabetically. Conflicting keywords will be merged.