# Keywords: CAPITALS or lowercase?



## PatrickC (Feb 26, 2008)

Some of you might have followed my 'Keywording Woes' thread. The upshot is that, having worked through the problem, I need to create a hierarchical system, and this has made me look again at my entire keywording policy. I will be starting several threads on the topic.

The software we used to run our picture library automatically created keywords ALL IN UPPER CASE, so most of the keywords on most of our images are in caps. One agency we supply objects and wants them all in lower case.

There doesn't seem to be any consensus on this subject, but I'd be grateful for your views. What do you use, what do your agents and customers want? What do the experts suggest? Is there any move towards standardisation?

Patrick Cunningham


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## theturninggate (Feb 26, 2008)

I like to capitalize first letters, lower-case the rest of the word, sort of like a book title or a city name. But that's because I'm a Grammar Ninja ... er, English Teacher. Plus, I'm an aesthetic person, and I think it looks better in my Keywords pane, on Flickr, etc.

Ian, can I have a GN (Grammar Ninja) badge too?


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## Microscopia (Feb 26, 2008)

Personally, I prefer the use of capital letters in all captions, for the following reasons:-

a) Capital letters are easier to read when scaled down for use on small prints.
b) They avoid the confusion of whether or not the initial letter of every word should be capitalised or not. My own opinion for what it's worth, is that a capital letter for the start of certain words especially prepositions and indefinite articles, are not artistically pleasing to look at:
Consider this book title as a caption:-

which one looks best?

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUPER TRAMP
The Autobiography Of A Super Tramp
The Autobiography of a Super Tramp

Scaled down (all same size font):

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUPER TRAMP
The Autobiography Of A Super Tramp
The Autobiography of a Super Tramp

Just for the record I am the proud owner of a broad Norfolk dialect and as such I am known to be grammatically incorrect on most occasions!!!


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## HerrB (Feb 26, 2008)

> Just for the record I am the proud owner of a broad Norfolk dialect and as such I am known to be grammatically incorrect on most occasions!!!


That'd make a cool addition to your sig, no? 

I like the third forms best. Isn't this also the proper way for headings and captions: capitalizing all words but insubstantial ones?

No matter what size, I personally find all-capitalized words extremely hard to read.

Cheers,
Joerg


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## Microscopia (Feb 26, 2008)

Winston said:


> I also use mixed case. I don't have any external constraints (yet).
> 
> You need to be aware that keywords that differ only by case are treated as different keywords in Lightroom. I have no idea why as the Find function is not case sensitive.


 
That *is* the reason why the find function is not case sensitive. If it were so, then it would be a hard job trying to find words that contain letters of different case! Hence the use of case sensitive passwords. 

I believe this may suit some users of LR who use capitals for some words and lower case for others, to indicate the importance within their hierarchical system (in many ways similar to botanical labelling).


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## Bruce J (Feb 26, 2008)

No external constraints.  I use keywords only so that I can remember/retrieve my own images.  But, I do have a fairly extensive hierarchical keyword system.

I use essentially sentence case; leading capital on all keyword phrases, the rest lower-case except for proper nouns.  Personally, whenever I see something in all caps, I think someone is yelling at me.  And, I definitely don't find it easier to read.  If it was easier to read, wouldn't we be printing books in all caps?


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## PatrickC (Feb 26, 2008)

Winston said:


> I also use mixed case. I don't have any external constraints (yet).
> 
> You need to be aware that keywords that differ only by case are treated as different keywords in Lightroom. I have no idea why as the Find function is not case sensitive.



...and this has been adding to my problems! If I have ADOLESCENT in my Lightroom keword hierarchy and I am keywording a new image within Lightroom, if I type "adoles.." in the Keyword box, Lightroom offers me ADOLESCENT. Even if I type "adolescent" and press enter, Lightroom will assign ADOLESCENT. But if I import an image with "adolescent" as a keyword in the xmp, Lightroom creates a new top-level keyword "adolescent". An then another has "Adolescent", that makes yet another keyword.

I haven't investigated what happens in this situation if I search from the Find pane.

Patrick Cunningham


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## Bruce J (Feb 26, 2008)

Patrick,

I really feel your pain here.  This is a really difficult problem to deal with if you have a lot of images.  You might consider straightening out the keywords in your images before importing them into LR.  Use an external tool like EXIFTool to make sure all of the images have keywords that meet your standards first, and your experience with importing into LR will go a lot more smoothly.


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## Denis Pagé (Feb 26, 2008)

> There doesn't seem to be any consensus on this subject, but I'd be grateful for your views. What do you use, what do your agents and customers want? What do the experts suggest? Is there any move towards standardisation?


No standard here Patrick. :| The only rule being that keywording is a very personnal thing. So think about your very own needs first.


> *theturninggate*I like to capitalize first letters, lower-case the rest of the word, sort of like a book title or a city name. But that's because


I do the very same here. So third choice from Macroscopia's comment.


> You need to be aware that keywords that differ only by case are treated as different keywords in Lightroom. I have no idea why as the Find function is not case sensitive.


Winston, it is different because it is the way SQLite is built. And I agree with the others that the "find" should not be case sensitive. The following concern from Patrick is a good reason.


PatrickC said:


> ...and this has been adding to my problems! If I have ADOLESCENT in my Lightroom keword hierarchy and I am keywording a new image within Lightroom, if I type "adoles.." in the Keyword box, Lightroom offers me ADOLESCENT. Even if I type "adolescent" and press enter, Lightroom will assign ADOLESCENT. But if I import an image with "adolescent" as a keyword in the xmp, Lightroom creates a new top-level keyword "adolescent". An then another has "Adolescent", that makes yet another keyword.
> 
> I haven't investigated what happens in this situation if I search from the Find pane.
> 
> Patrick Cunningham


In this situation, don't panic; It is easy to correct. Given you are now stuck with the three forms; Choose one to your liking (_Lets say Adolescent for the demonstration)_. Click on adolescent in the left pane and overwrite with Adolescent in the right pane then press the Enter key. The adolescent keyword in the left pane should now count ' images. Do the same for the capitalized one. Once done, delete the two keywords having a count of zero images.

I did the same with success at home because of some typos for the same word.


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## PatrickC (Feb 29, 2008)

I've had a few personal views based on readability etc. but I still haven't managed to find enough information to make a final decision, based on what my sub-agents and picture research customers will want or require.

At the moment, my instinct is for all lower-case keywords except for Proper Names, which should be capital initial letter then lower case for the rest of the word.

Patrick Cunningham


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## Richard Earney (Feb 29, 2008)

David Riecks, who runs the controlled vocabulary site suggests lowercase unless it is a proper noun.

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/metalogging/ck_guidelines.html


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## Brad Snyder (Feb 29, 2008)

Richard Earney;95'6 said:
			
		

> David Riecks, who runs the controlled vocabulary site suggests lowercase unless it is a proper noun.
> 
> http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/metalogging/ck_guidelines.html



And, he additionally suggests that non-exporting functional header keywords be in ALL CAPS, e.g. you need a parent WORLD REGIONS & COUNTRIES to organize, but clearly that is useless as an actual exported hierarchy keyword.

There's a tremendous amout of info available on that website, in addition, there's a moderated, almost by invitation only, discussion group at Yahoo. PM me if you want the details......


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## PatrickC (Feb 29, 2008)

Thanks. I've already been in contact with David and I've been reading up the stuff on his site. I guess that my instinct was correct, though he did reply confirming there is no standard.

I'm also waiting for a reply from Alamy.....

Patrick


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