Keyword vs Category

[xnview]

- "Keyword" > "Category"
In XnView you can assign categories to images. Formerly, these categories were named keywords. But now that we have "category sets", the term "keywords" does no longer make sense. I might be wrong, but atm think that all occurrences of "keyword" should be replaced with "category" (and "keywords" to "categories").

What do you think?

[m.Th.]

Sure it has to be the same therm everywhere.

Everyone else uses „keywords”

We use almost everywhere „categories”.

Do we loose users more than we gain if we change „categories” to „keywords”?

[jadO]

- "Keyword" > "Category"
In XnView you can assign categories to images. Formerly, these categories were named keywords. But now that we have "category sets", the term "keywords" does no longer make sense. I might be wrong, but atm think that all occurrences of "keyword" should be replaced with "category" (and "keywords" to "categories").

What do you think?

I think tags would the word that most user would use for that.

[m.Th.]

Tags is used more in web interfaces (Flickr etc.) whereas keywords in desktop ones (Lr, Zoner, ACDSee etc.)

Also, for us is a non-starter because we have the „Tag Box” and Tagged (selected) files. Another meaning.

[jadO]

Tags is used more in web interfaces (Flickr etc.)

That´s why I believe for most user tags would be easiest approach.

[dandv]

Do we loose [sic] users more than we gain if we change „categories” to „keywords”?

You lose users by having unnecessary complexity. How many users genuinely need a difference between "categories" and "keywords"? I consider myself a power user (worked as a software eng. at Google and Yahoo!, have been using image management software since 1998, and have a keen attention to detail) but never needed this distinction. I also use the most powerful photo management app for Android (F-Spot) and its tagging capabilities are excellent while using only one concept, tags. F-Stop does use a database of tags, but only for performance. It stores the metadata within the images, to avoid lock-in. This is the best of both worlds.

My strong suggestion is to simplify tagging by unifying keywords and categories in the UI, and storing the same underlying metadata in all applicable formats (e.g. both XMP and IPTC). That will ensure compatibility with tools that support either format (e.g. the most popular image viewer on Windows, Irfan, only supports IPTC, while gThumb, F-Stop, Google's Snapseed and many others use XMP). It will also avoid the perplexing situation I'm illustrating in the screencast below (click it to see the animation).

[xnview]

My strong suggestion is to simplify tagging by unifying keywords and categories in the UI, and storing the same underlying metadata in all applicable formats (e.g. both XMP and IPTC). That will ensure compatibility with tools that support either format (e.g. the most popular image viewer on Windows, Irfan, only supports IPTC, while gThumb, F-Stop, Google's Snapseed and many others use XMP). It will also avoid the perplexing situation I'm illustrating in the screencast below (click it to see the animation).

Yes, the IPTC dialog is not usefull if you use XMP in XnViewMP because categories are written in keywords of IPTC, and subject of XMP. But some users need always to edit IPTC data only where we have keywords AND categories.

[m.Th.]

My strong suggestion is to simplify tagging by unifying keywords and categories in the UI, and storing the same underlying metadata in all applicable formats (e.g. both XMP and IPTC). That will ensure compatibility with tools that support either format (e.g. the most popular image viewer on Windows, Irfan, only supports IPTC, while gThumb, F-Stop, Google's Snapseed and many others use XMP). It will also avoid the perplexing situation I'm illustrating in the screencast below (click it to see the animation).

Yes, the IPTC dialog is not usefull if you use XMP in XnViewMP because categories are written in keywords of IPTC, and subject of XMP. But some users need always to edit IPTC data only where we have keywords AND categories.

So it is a compatibility problem?

[m.Th.]

My strong suggestion is to simplify tagging by unifying keywords and categories in the UI,...

If you look everywhere there is just a single engine - Categories. Categories Pane, Categories Sets pane. Keyboard Shortcuts for them, Right-Click menu et.

The only (unfortunate) case is in the IPTC window where the above engine is called „Keywords” and appears a new one called ...Categories which is unrelated to everything from above.

Frankly I don't know how many users use the IPTC window for tagging. Usually they use the above tools.

[Optic]

Hi there,

My thoughts as a new XNView MP user.

I think just using "Category" because it works well with "Category Sets"

"Keyword" to me is confusing and I don't use it - maybe only because my needs are simple. I am only using XnView MP for the tree categories and ratings, with basic folder structure and all my images are on an external HDD (which uses RAID 0 w/2 HDDs) via USB 3. I don't have any existing Lightroom catalog and/or have no need to do IPTC/EXIF/XMP metadata because my images are not camera photos, they're digital asset images, screenshots, renders, posters, etc.