# A plugin to update keywords



## eddjames (Jan 24, 2012)

Hi there, I require the ability to export, update and then import an images metadata so that it can be edited externally.

LR/Transporter is brilliant and is so close to being perfect for my needs however as Timothy Ames has stated "Lightroom doesn't allow plugin's any access to the keywords. As a result, LR/Transporter is unable to add new keywords to images"

I can currently export the keywords in a file and reimport them into a special LRTransporter metadata field but I cannot set the Keywords value.

My question for the community is: Is this still the case, has there been any changes in this area in Lightroom 4?

I expect not, if so are there any other processes that can be used for setting keywords in lightroom other than manually?

Thanks for your advice - these forums are brilliant.


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## DawMatt (Jan 25, 2012)

Hi,



eddjames said:


> Hi there, I require the ability to export, update and then import an images metadata so that it can be edited externally.
> 
> LR/Transporter is brilliant and is so close to being perfect for my needs however as Timothy Ames has stated "Lightroom doesn't allow plugin's any access to the keywords. As a result, LR/Transporter is unable to add new keywords to images"
> 
> I can currently export the keywords in a file and reimport them into a special LRTransporter metadata field but I cannot set the Keywords value.


Can you please give an example of your workflow? I'm not quite sure what you are asking for.

Lightroom 3 gave us the ability to work with keywords for a photo, so we can read and write photos and even add them to the Lightroom keyword list. The key here is you are reading and writing keywords for your photo in your catalog, not the photo exported to disk during an export or publish. Your quote is from the section on metadata while exporting images and I suspect it means he can't add keywords to the exported image without adding them to the catalog's copy of the image as well. It sounds like you are asking for something different and your feature request might be possible to implement with Lightroom 3.

Matt


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## eddjames (Jan 25, 2012)

Hi Matt, thanks for taking the time to respond. Here's a different approach to my first post:

*Problem: *I have 20,000 photos I need to keyword (mostly keywording of peoples names)

*Ideal Solution #1:* Lightroom implements facial recognition in Lightroom 4 and does the job for me (or at least 80% of it)

Unfortunately they haven't added this and unlikely to in this latest version. 

Of course other products do provide facial recognition. Additionally I have lots of unutilised time travelling to work, if I could spend this time keywording photos on my smartphone it would save me lots of time at home. 

*Ideal Solution #2: *Adobe release a lightroom app for the phone which allows you, amongst other things, to keyword your catalog.

I don't believe this is in the pipeline either.

*Ideal Solution #3: *I export the image and filename from Lightroom and either import into another program for facial recognition or write an app for my smartphone where I manually set keywords. Either way I end up with a file containing a list of filenames and associated keywords. I would then import this back into lightroom updating the catalog - HAPPY DAYS!

Unfortunately that last bit does not seem to be possible as indicated by Timothy Ames. You can add the keyword data into another metadata field but NOT the keyword field, allegedly.

*Question: *Is the above true, is it also the case in Lightroom 4.

*Ideal Solution #4: *???

I'm more than happy to be told there's a really simple way of doing this!

Edd.

P.S. I have a decent workflow for all new photos that get added into lightroom so the problem is with photos taken before I got lightroom. The problem therefore is not getting worse, but I would like it resolved!


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