LR2 CS3/4 Bridge - Keeping CV sync'd...best way?

[agillanders]

Hi folks,

OK...my hierarchical keyword list is growing and I need to move beyond the manual hacks I've been using to keep Bridge and LR keyword lists in sync. So what is the best approach do we think?

1. Master keyword list in Bridge; export from there to Lightroom
2. Master keyword list in LR; export from there to Bridge
3. Master keyword list in some 3rd party app.; export from there to both LR and Bridge

If option 3 what 3rd party app? Or I could even write my own DB...is there a good spec on the exported file formats for the added value features? That way at least I would know what was happening and could control the behavior of Bridge vs LR where there are differences. This is very tempting I must admit since the built-in keyword management is a tad clumjsy to put it mildly.

Anyway, because of my current DAM workflow I do most of my initial bulk keywording in Bridge before anything get into the catalog so my initial response was option 1. BUT when I import the keyword list into LR I find that the Include/Exclude settings from Brdge are not making into LR's Include on Export setting.

One possible advantage of option 2 is that LR supports 'Export Containing Keywords' and Synonyms which provides for greater flexibility in the setup of the list. However since Bridge does not support those what will happen if I move to option 2? Or would that leave me stuck having to do keywording in LR only? Or do they co-exist reasonably? If I use the richer functionality in LR will the export to Bridge keep the Include/Exclude working properly? In short is there a reasonable fail-safe working as the list is moved into Bridge.

At the moment I have avoided using the sysnonyms and 'Export containing keywords' feature because of this...I see MUCH more value in having the CV sync'd between the two than in those features.

Basically, they are all Adobe...why can't they enable a single shared vocabulary across all their applications? Or is that coming?

Any thoughts, suggestions, wisdom gratefully recieved!

Alistair

[agillanders]

OK..more experiments and I'm niow intrigued as well as concerned; with LR anyway...Bridge actually seems to behave precisely as advertised.

LR and Bridge export formats appear to be identical, meaning they both put [] around a keyword that should not be included/exported. BUT LR does not seem to read these reliably. The file I exported from Bridge is well formed and has all the [] where they should be; but LR seems to be randomly deciding which ones to honor on import!

I also note the LR uses {} to flag synonyms as a child of the defining keyword; but I cannot see anything that indicates the 'export containing keywords' so that seems to be locked in to LR and any text backup is going to lose the settings.

Ouch!!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Alistair