Batch Keyword Removal Advice

I'll put the steps in sequential order

1. Press shift-D if necessary to show the keyword controls in the control bar.
2. Select the photos with the unwanted keyword in the browser
3. Put focus on the keyword entry field in the control bar either by clicking in it or by pressing option-`. You could also select "New Keyword" from the Metadata menu.
4. Slowly begin typing the unwanted keyword in the field. Aperture autofills the keywords. I usually type only the first few letters; Aperture presents a list and I use the up and down arrows to select the keyword. Note that you haven't pressed enter or return yet.
5. Press shift-return to remove the keyword from all of the selected photos. If you had pressed just return, then Aperture would have added the keyword to the photos. Shift-return does the opposite.
6. Notice that focus is still on the keyword field. Press enter or escape to exit the field. It can be frustrating to forget the focus is in there as you press keys to do other things. I do that all the time.

I'm pretty sure there is no penalty for selecting photos that don't contain the keyword you want to remove; in other words, if your selection process includes some photos without the keyword, nothing bad will happen when you do this batch keyword removal.

You can verify that you have removed all usages of a keyword by using the Query HUD. The keyword list in the Query HUD shows only keywords that have been assigned to photos in the library. If you remove the unwanted keyword from every photo, that keyword will disappear from the Query HUD keyword list.

That keyword entry field is pretty useful, especially thanks to auto-fill, which acts as a verification that you are using existing keywords, in addition to being a kind of shortcut. I have found it best to add keywords in the keyword HUD, organize them in a hierarchy, and then lock the keyword HUD. This keeps me from inadvertently adding a keyword. If you add a keyword on the fly, Aperture puts it at the top level of the keyword hierarchy, which is never the right place in my system.

Alternatively,

1. Bring up the Keyword HUD (Shift-H) and double-click on the mis-spelled keyword.
2. Type in the correct spelling and hit Return.
3. You'll get a dialog window warning you that the keyword is in use in x-many versions, do you really want to change it?
4. Click 'Rename in all versions'.
5. There is no step 5.

Ian

I have slightly different situation:

There are around 100 images with slightly different keywords. But there is one (actually a year) which I put wrong and I'd like to remove or replace it in all images. The other keywords should not be unchanged.

I mean it will be a waisted time to retag everything again. And there are a lot of other images tagged with the same year keyword not in this batch. So renaming keyword in keyword HUD will add much more mess.

Any advice?

Thanks!