How to limit Aperture 3 Keywords (duplicates)?

[jman995x]

I'm new to Aperture and have started Keywording my library.
However, I've noticed that when I'm adding a Keyword into the "Add Keyword" slot in the Control Bar at the bottom of the screen, that if I happen to mistakenly capitalize a letter or omit a character, that Aperture just takes that entry as a new Keyword instead of assuming that I just mistyped the word.

For Instance:
One of the keywords I use is "Meta" (to let me know if the picture has MetaData info). However, sometimes I get typing pretty fast and mistakenly type the word "MEta". Instead of Aperture defaulting to "Meta" (which I want it to do), I now have both Keywords (Meta and MEta).

Is there a way to lockdown the current list of Keywords so that no more can be entered (and thus if I mistype something it won't show up in the picture's keyword panel and I'll know that I mistyped it)?....or better yet, even if I mistyped the word METa, Aperture would know what I meant to type and just make the keyword the default spelling "Meta" (regardless of how badly I screwed up the spelling)?

Another thing that Aperture 3 does that kind of irritates me is that if I'm typing one keyword and it happens to end with the same letter that another keyword starts with, Aperture will sometimes add that second keyword to the end of my first keyword. Why does it do this?...why would it combine two totally different keywords into one (totally useless) keyword?

For instance...I have the keyword "Meta"....but if I also have another keyword "Apple"....sometimes if I don't catch it fast enough (i.e.: before I hit the Return button), Aperture will autopopulate the keyword box with "MetApple"...which I obviously don't need, and will screw me up later when I'm looking for anything tagged "Meta" (as MetApple won't qualify during the search process).

Any thoughts or suggestions on both issues?

Thanks,

J.

 

[emorydunn]

The first issue is solved in a slightly different manor. You can't stop Aperture from accepting new keywords nor have it autocorrect to already existing keywords, but you can edit the keywords.

If you bring up the Keywords HUD you can see a list of all your keywords (and even try to organise them if you want). If you double click on a keyword you can edit it to the correct spelling. Unfortunately, you can't change it to the correct spelling, thus merging the correct and incorrect keywords. You'll have to go into the photos and lift and stamp the correct keywords into the photos and then remove the bad keyword from the Keyword HUD which will remove it from all the photos.

Your second issue is Aperture trying to be helpful. There's no way around this other than to catch it in the act and don't accept its suggestion. You can of course use the same process as above to correct any bad keywords.

 

[jman995x]

The first issue is solved in a slightly different manor. You can't stop Aperture from accepting new keywords nor have it autocorrect to already existing keywords, but you can edit the keywords.

If you bring up the Keywords HUD you can see a list of all your keywords (and even try to organise them if you want). If you double click on a keyword you can edit it to the correct spelling. Unfortunately, you can't change it to the correct spelling, thus merging the correct and incorrect keywords. You'll have to go into the photos and lift and stamp the correct keywords into the photos and then remove the bad keyword from the Keyword HUD which will remove it from all the photos.

Your second issue is Aperture trying to be helpful. There's no way around this other than to catch it in the act and don't accept its suggestion. You can of course use the same process as above to correct any bad keywords.

I've been going into the HUD and deleting the misspelled Keyword, but as soon as I mistype that keyword again, it's back in the mix.

As for the second problem (joining two different keywords)...what on earth would be the purpose of this function? If I wanted a Keyword such as MetApple, then I'd add it. For such a great program, this seems like a really stupid feature...helpful it is not.

Thanks for the feedback.

J

 

[emorydunn]

I've been going into the HUD and deleting the misspelled Keyword, but as soon as I mistype that keyword again, it's back in the mix.

As for the second problem (joining two different keywords)...what on earth would be the purpose of this function? If I wanted a Keyword such as MetApple, then I'd add it. For such a great program, this seems like a really stupid feature...helpful it is not.

Thanks for the feedback.

J

Well, yeah, if you mistype the keyword it doesn't matter if you removed it before.

Personally I think it's a good idea, helping you fill in previously used keywords, but poorly implemented. The whole keyword system is kind of odd and not well done. But that's what updates are for.

 

[jman995x]

Well, yeah, if you mistype the keyword it doesn't matter if you removed it before.

Personally I think it's a good idea, helping you fill in previously used keywords, but poorly implemented. The whole keyword system is kind of odd and not well done. But that's what updates are for.

Agreed...I like the fact that it automatically starts anticipating what I'm going to type based on passed input...but it is poorly implemented.

If they won't allow us to "lock" the keyword list, it would be nice if they'd let us go in and do a "Find-and-Replace" so that we could do a F&R, type in "MEta" and replace all of them with "Meta"....thus making typos irrelevant.

Thanks again for the feedback.

J.

 

[emorydunn]

Agreed...I like the fact that it automatically starts anticipating what I'm going to type based on passed input...but it is poorly implemented.

If they won't allow us to "lock" the keyword list, it would be nice if they'd let us go in and do a "Find-and-Replace" so that we could do a F&R, type in "MEta" and replace all of them with "Meta"....thus making typos irrelevant.

Thanks again for the feedback.

J.

They actually have that almost implemented. If you edit a keyword in the HUD it changes all instances of it. The only problem is they won't let you have two of the same keyword (so having "Meta" and "MEta" won't let you edit "MEta" to "Meta").