Assigning Keywords to Images

Aperture provides several ways to assign keywords to images. Although they all have their strengths, you'll probably find yourself settling in to one or two methods that you prefer. For the sake of example, we're going to switch between all of the different methods in this lesson, so the workflow we use here may be a little more convoluted than what you'd normally use. However, you'll learn all of Aperture's keyword-assigning techniques.

Dragging and Dropping Keywords

The first way to assign keywords to images is to drag them directly from the Keywords HUD to the image or images.

1.	Make sure you're still in Project Management layout (Command-Option-M), that all stacks are open (Option-'), that the Metadata Inspector is open (I), and that the Keywords HUD is open (Shift-H).
2.	Choose Image Date from the Sort pop-up menu at the top of the Browser.
3.	Choose Window > Show Control Bar (Shift-D) to display the control bar. The first stack in your project should contain five images of a man tossing a girl into the air.
4.	Select all of the images in this stack by clicking on the first image on the stack and then Shift-clicking on the last image. Note that while all of the images have a white selection boundary, the last image has a thicker white selection boundary, showing that it's the primary selection.
5.	In the control bar, make sure that the Primary Only button is on. We want to attach four keywords to the primary selection in this stack: Group, the Group subordinate keyword Aerialists, Rehearsal, and the Rehearsal subordinate keyword Aerialists.
6.	Click Group to select it in the Keywords HUD, then press the Command key and click the other three keywords to select them. When all four are selected, drag them to any of the selected images. You can make sure that the keywords were applied by viewing them in the Metadata Inspector.
7.	If necessary, click the Keywords button at the bottom of the Metadata Inspector to reveal the Keyword summary area. The Keyword summary area should look like this: The Keyword summary area shows the keywords that are attached to the current primary selection. The keywords were applied to the primary selection regardless of which image you dragged them to because the Primary Only mode was on. Note that although the keyword Aerialists appears twice, one is a subordinate of the Pickle Circus > Group category and the other is a subordinate of the Pickle Circus > Rehearsal group. Later, we'll be able to search for these separate group and rehearsal shots.

Applying Keywords to a Group of Images

When you clicked the Primary Only button, you told Aperture that you wanted to apply the keywords to only the primary selection in the stack. If you select one of the other images in the stack and look at its keyword list in the Metadata Inspector, you'll see that it's empty save for the original Pickle Circus keyword. Let's now apply the keywords to all of the selected images in the stack.

1.	Press S to turn off the Primary Only option. It should not be highlighted in the control bar.
2.	With the same five-image stack selected, drag the keywords indicated in step 5 of the previous exercise to any image in the stack.
3.	Select each image individually and examine its keywords in the Metadata Inspector. You should see the same keywords for each picture.

Why does Aperture work this way? After all, if I select multiple images, don't I want to perform an action to all of them? Not necessarily. Remember that if you were in the Standard layoutor any other layout that included the Vieweryou might select multiple images in order to view them side by side.

However, you might not want to assign the same keywords to all of those images. By pressing the S key to toggle the Primary Only option on or off, you can immediately change between applying keywords or ratings to all of the currently selected images, or just one.

Creating Keyword Buttons

You might have already noticed the keyword buttons in Aperture's control bar. You can use them to assign keywords with a single mouse click or keyboard shortcut. However, Aperture's keyword buttons are initially configured with a set of default keywords, not the ones we defined in the Keywords HUD. So we have to create a custom keyword button set with our Pickle Circus keywords before we can apply them.

Note

You can edit the keyword buttons regardless of what images are open in the Browser or what layout you're using.

1.	In the control bar, click the Keyword Preset Group pop-up menu and choose Edit Buttons. (If necessary, press Shift-D to activate the control bar.) The Edit Button Sets dialog opens, allowing you to create groups, or sets, of keyword buttons. You can define as many keyword groups as you want, and freely switch between them to perform different keywording chores.
2.	Click the Photo Descriptors button set in the left column to select it. The contents of this setthe keyword buttons it containsappear in the middle column. The right column shows all of your currently defined keywords (your Keywords Library).
3.	Click the Add (+) button in the lower left corner of the dialog to create a new keyword preset group.
4.	Name the new keyword preset group Pickle Circus and press Return. The Contents column will be empty, because the new preset group does not have any keywords in it yet.
5.	In the Keywords Library column, click the disclosure triangle next to Pickle Circus to see all of the keywords that you defined earlier. To add keywords to the preset group, you simply drag them from the Keywords Library column to the Contents column. However, you need to consider how many buttons will fit in the control bar, which will depend on your display. However, Aperture will always be able to show at least eight buttons, and it can assign the number keys 1 through 8 as shortcuts for the buttons, so it's best if your first eight keyword choices are the eight that you'll use most frequently. Tip If you have a particularly large library of keywords, you can use the Search field at the top of the Keywords Library column to find the keyword you'd like to add to your new set.
6.	Click the triangle next to Performance and Rehearsal to reveal the keywords in those categories.
7.	Click Performance in the Keywords Library column, then Shift-click Juggling under Rehearsal. This selects all of the keywords from Performance through Juggling, for a total of eight.
8.	Drag the selected keywords to the Contents column. Note the order of the buttons in the Contents column. The first four are performance related; the next four are rehearsal related. For the sake of our lesson, we're going to assume that your display is only big enough to hold eight buttons.
9.	Click the Add (+) button to create another preset group, and name the new group Pickle Circus 2.
10.	Drag the remaining keywords to the Contents column for the Pickle Circus 2 preset group. These will be Candids, Group with its two subordinate keywords, Aerialists, and Solo with its two subordinates. Again, note the order of the keywords. The Group keywords come before the Solo keywords. You can reorder the buttons by dragging any keyword in the Contents column up or down, but the order is fine for our purposes.
11.	Click OK to create your two Pickle Circus keyword sets. Note You can edit your Keywords Library using the buttons at the bottom of the right column in the Edit Button Sets dialog. All three buttonsAdd Keyword, Add Subordinate Keyword, and Remove Keywordwork just like the equivalent buttons in the Keywords HUD. Now that we've created the buttons, let's use them to apply more keywords.

Applying Keywords Using Buttons

Eagle-eyed observer that you are, you have already noticed that the keyword buttons in the control bar are unchanged. We have to select our buttons in order to use them. Let's do that now.

1.	Click the Keyword Preset Group pop-up menu and choose Pickle Circus. The Pickle Circus keyword buttons now appear in the control bar. The number on the left side of the button indicates the keyword shortcut for assigning that keyword. Before continuing, let's adjust our layout to make it easier to tag images with keyword metadata.
2.	Click the Ratings and Keywords Layout button on the toolbar, or press Command-Option-R. The Browser moves to the left side of the main window, and a large Viewer appears in the center.
3.	Press I to open the Metadata Inspector and, if necessary, click the Keywords button at the bottom of the inspector to show the Keyword summary area.
4.	Drag the Thumbnail Resize slider at the bottom of the Browser so that you can see a fair number of images at once. Because of the large Viewer, you don't need to have a perfectly legible view of your thumbnails.
5.	Select the two images in the second stack at the top of the Browser. Both images appear in the Viewer.
6.	Make sure that the Primary Only button is off (not highlighted) in the control bar. We want to apply keywords to all of the currently selected images.
7.	Press the 5 key to assign the Rehearsal keyword. These images contain aerialists, so we want to tag them accordingly, but there are two Aerialists buttons on the control bar. One is a subordinate of the Performance keyword group; the other is part of the Rehearsal group. Which is which?
8.	Hover the mouse over each Aerialists button to see a tooltip. Button 7 says Aerialists (Rehearsal). This is the keyword we want.
9.	Press 7, or click the button. We also want to tag these images with the Group Aerialists keyword, but that keyword is not in this preset keyword group; it's in the Pickle Circus 2 preset group.
10.	Press the period (.) to change to the next keyword preset group, and then press 4 to assign Aerialists (Group) and 2 to assign Group. The Keyword summary area in the Metadata Inspector should show five keywords assigned to your images:

Applying Keywords Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Now let's try another method to assign keywords: using keyboard shortcuts. Not having to use the mouse will greatly speed your keywording work.

1.	With the aerialist images still selected from the previous exercise, press the right arrow key once or twice as necessary to select the first image in the next stack: a shot of an acrobat vaulting over the head of someone who's jumping rope.
2.	Press Shiftright arrow two times to select all three images in the stack.
3.	Press 2 to assign the Group keyword, then 3 to assign Acrobats (Group). We also want to assign Rehearsal keywords, but those are in our other preset group.
4.	Press the comma (,) to switch to the previous keyword preset group.
5.	Press 5 to add Rehearsal, and 6 to add Acrobats (Rehearsal). Note that the control bar doesn't have to be open for the keyword keyboard shortcuts to work. Excellent. Moving right along, let's learn how to apply keywords using the Lift and Stamp tools.

Applying Keywords Using the Lift and Stamp Tools

You've probably noticed that many of your images need the same keywords. Once you've gone to the trouble of assigning keywords to one image, you can easily copy those keywords to other images using Aperture's Lift and Stamp tools.

1.	Using arrow keys and the Shift key, navigate to and select the six images in the next stack: This is a group rehearsal image. Though there is a lot going on, the key feature is the aerialist in the foreground. We want to apply the same keywords to these images as we applied to the second stack in the Browser (the two images of the woman balancing on her partner's back). Let's use the Lift and Stamp tools to do so.
2.	Select the Lift tool in the toolbar, or press O. As you learned in Lesson 4, the Lift tool lets you copy the metadata from one image and apply it to other images. When you select it, the Lift & Stamp HUD appears.
3.	With the Lift tool, click either thumbnail in the second stack. When you click, Aperture adds the keyword metadata from this image to the Lift & Stamp HUD.
4.	Click the Keywords disclosure triangle in the Lift & Stamp HUD to see the keywords that have been lifted.
5.	Click the Stamp Selected Images button at the bottom of the Lift & Stamp HUD to apply the lifted keywords to the six selected images in the Browser.
6.	Look at the Keyword summary area of the Metadata Inspector to see the keywords you just added to the selected images. Note If you lift and stamp subordinate keywords without their keyword group category, Aperture automatically adds new keywords to stand in for the parent keywords.
7.	Close the Lift & Stamp HUD by clicking the X in the upper left corner or by pressing A to switch to the Selection tool.

Autofilling Keywords

Even though it helps to copy keywords from one image to another, there will still be times when you find yourself repeatedly typing the same keyword tags. Fortunately, Aperture provides an autofill feature to speed you along by automatically completing keywords that you've already entered at another time.

1.	In the Browser, select the next stack of four images:
2.	Press the 5 key to apply the Rehearsal keyword button. These images also need the Acrobat Rehearsal keyword.
3.	In the Add Keyword field to the right of the buttons, type acro. Aperture automatically fills in the word Acrobats, and a pop-up menu appears showing you all of the possible Acrobat keywords.
4.	Use the down arrow key to choose Acrobats (Rehearsal), and press Return. That keyword is applied to your selected images. These images also need an Acrobat Group keyword.
5.	Again, type acro into the Add Keyword field. Let Aperture fill in the rest of the word, and the pop-up menu will appear again. Acrobats (Group) should be chosen. Press Return to apply it to the images. Finally, these images also need the Group keyword.
6.	Type Group in the Add Keywords field, choose Group (Pickle Circus), and press Return.
7.	If the cursor is still flashing in the Add Keywords field, press Return to exit the field.

Mixing Techniques

Because Aperture provides so many ways to assign keywords, you can easily mix and match techniques depending on what's the most convenient method at any given time. If your hand is already on the mouse, you might find it easier to drag a keyword onto an image, while if you're already typing, then using keyboard shortcuts might be the best approach. You'll often find yourself combining techniques and using them interchangeably as productivity dictates.

1.	Select the following two images in the Browser. Let's say you've been busy organizing stacks and want to group these two images into a stack.
2.	Select both images and choose Stacks > Stack (Command-K). Now, while you've got them selected, you want to apply keywords.
3.	With the Pickle Circus keyword preset group selected, press 5 and 6 to assign the keywords Rehearsal and Acrobats (Rehearsal), respectively. Alternatively, click the buttons on the control bar to apply these keywords.
4.	Press the period (.) key to switch to the next keyword preset group. Then press 5 to assign the keyword Solo, 6 to assign Acrobats (Solo), and 1 to assign the keyword Candids. In the Browser, you can see that the next stack of three images requires the same keywords as the stack of four images that we tagged with keywords using the autofill feature.
5.	Press O to select the Lift tool.
6.	Click the thumbnail of one of images that we tagged earlier in the autofill exercise to lift its keywords. As in the earlier exercise, the Lift & Stamp HUD appears and the Lift tool changes to the Stamp tool. (The upward-pointing icon changes to the downward-pointing icon.) Note that we have not changed our selection; we can freely lift and stamp between unselected images, without changing our current selection.
7.	Click each of the three images that need the keywords that we just lifted. The Stamp tool applies the lifted keywords to each image in turn.
8.	Press A to switch to the Selection tool and close the Lift & Stamp HUD.

Copying and Pasting Metadata

Aperture provides keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting metadata, which offers yet another way to copy keywords from one image to another. Essentially, it's a keyboard shortcut for lifting and stamping.

1.	In the Browser, locate the five images of the head-balancing ballet acrobatsa stack of four images and a standalone image. Earlier, we keyworded a stack of three similar images, using the autofill technique. Let's copy and paste those now, using shortcuts.
2.	Select one of the previously keyworded images.
3.	Press Command-Shift-C to copy all the metadata from this image to the Clipboard. This is the same as lifting.
4.	Select the five images of the balancing ballet acrobats that need to be keyworded:
5.	Press Command-Shift-V to paste the copied metadata onto these images. You may have already recognized that these keyboard shortcuts are intuitive variations of the normal copy and paste shortcuts.
6.	Check the Keyword summary area of the Metadata Inspector to make sure that the keywords were copied correctly. If only the primary selection received the keyword, then you need to toggle off the Primary Only option by pressing S, and then pasting again.

Project Task

You've learned so many ways now of applying keywords that we'll allow you some creativity in how you apply them.

Work your way through the rest of the images in the project, applying keywords using any or all the techniques you've learned. Try to follow the keyword organization that we've established (for example, don't tag performance images with rehearsal keywords). Later in this lesson, we'll be using these keywords to generate albums and webpages.