Why is there a warning when moving keywords?

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Level 4

1,010 points

Why is there a warning when moving keywords?

Hello all,

I am in the process of applying a hierarchy to some of my existing keywords. To do this, I drag and drop and existing keyword into a new keyword. When I do this, Aperture tells me "Warning: The keyword "x" is in use by y versions." However, this "warning" in no way indicates what I should be warned against. When I think of a "warning", I expect that there will be unintended or undesired consequences if I proceed past the warning. "Warning: Contents explosive" or "Warning: Your computer will self-destruct if you proceed."

Looking at Aperture help, I found this:

'1. If the keyword you are attempting to modify is assigned to any image in your library, a dialog appears, indicating the number of times it’s being used. If you still want to change the keyword, click “Rename in version.”'

Again, this part of the manual does not tell me why I would or wouldn't "still want to change the keyword."

What are the implications of doing this? Why is there a "warning" in the first place?

thanks,

nathan

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Aperture 3.2.2

Posted on Jan 16, 2012 3:12 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,641 points

Jan 16, 2012 4:18 AM in response to Mr Endo

Hello Nathan,

Dragging keywords to another level of hierarchie is similar to renaming, so you get the same warning as you would get, when you rename a keyword.

I found two reasons that a warning might be useful:

If an image already has keywords, this might be, because you imported images tagged by another application, and you are warned, that the keyword name change might result in inconsistencies with your other source of keywords. So your are asked to reconsider if you really want to do it, just in case you did not know that the keyword is used.
Renaming might merge keywords, and they are no longer distinctive.

But renaming will (should) not corrupt your Library ...

It would be nice to be able to disable this warning, since it always is extra work to didmiss this warning 😝

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

Jan 16, 2012 4:18 AM in response to Mr Endo

I noticed that myself, as I'm just staring to use Aperture and Keywords, especally within Groups.

It doesn't seem to cause any issues, at least not that I've found and I've done a lot of moving around. Mostly to test out how Keywords work and to see what happens when I move them.

My guess is that it's probably letting me know I'm changing the grouping of Keywords, which does have an affect. If you have the word Portrait under Photos and then move Portrait out from under Photos, you'll never see Portrait again if you search Photos. While that may be obvious to some, others might not realize this the first time they make the move and then suddenly wonder what happened to Portrait the next time they search Photos.

This is what I have been testing to make sure I understand how Keywords and Groups work. Outside of what I outlined above, I've not run into any issues. However, there are several other Aperture experts who will most likely join in to offer a more comprehensive explanation.

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Answer 3

Mr Endo Author

Level 4

1,010 points

Jan 16, 2012 7:08 PM in response to Mr Endo

Leonie and Open Loop,

Thank you both for your insight. You both provided valuable points for my consideration. I wanted to give you both credit for 'answering' my question, but I can only give it to one of you!

nathan

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,641 points

Jan 17, 2012 1:10 AM in response to Mr Endo

Thank you Nathan, and thanks for posting that interesting question!

Regards

Léonie

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