Skip to Content

Mac 101: Keywords in iPhoto

It's easy to fill your iPhoto library with pictures. However, the task of finding the ones you're after isn't. The Events feature of iPhoto '08 is helpful, and you can improve it with Keywords.

Think of keywords as tags. You can assign any keyword(s) to any photo, like "Suzie," "Summer" or "Beach." Then, simply search "Suzie" to find relevant photos, sorted by event. Here's how to do it.

From the "View" menu, select "Keywords" (or hit Shift-Apple-K). Next, click beneath your photos to reveal the keyword text field. Enter as many comma-separated keywords as you like; previously used keywords will auto-complete.

Here's an added bonus. You can also search by keyword via the Image Browser in Pages (see above).

Categories

iLife Mac 101

It's easy to fill your iPhoto library with pictures. However, the task of finding the ones you're after isn't. The Events feature of iPhoto...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

14 Comments

Filter by:
William

I have always thought it was unfortunate [and somewhat short-sighted] that iPhoto couldn't embed keywords in IPTC or XMP metadata. Additionally, it would be so awesome if we could then search for those tags on our iPhone too. Having to manually find a single picture among thousands is kind of painful.

September 19 2008 at 2:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nedward

Sorry, here is the link: http://nedward.org/2007/12/11/two-essential-iphoto-plugins

September 19 2008 at 1:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nedward

@Kerry, I can’t recommend Bullstorm’s Keyword Manager enough – it fills a big hole in iPhoto’s functionality. More here »

September 19 2008 at 1:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Caitlin

It's neat to combine keywords with the smart albums.

For example, I have keywords "Link", "Kagome", and "Knox", for my cats. I also created a smart album called "Kittens" that pulls photos with those three keywords. I never have to manually keep up with updating my kitten album.

September 19 2008 at 1:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Richard

iPhoto/Aperture keywords exported as IPTC are found by Spotlight. That is, when the files are not in the iPhoto Library.

September 19 2008 at 12:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rick

Is there a way to batch key word pics in the same event?

September 19 2008 at 10:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kerryn

I use Keyword Manager (from Bullstorm) for iPhoto and find the add-in to be excellent. Events and keywords in iPhoto8 was a step in the right direction but Keyword Manager near perfection (if only it could also update IPTC data it would be perfect).

September 19 2008 at 10:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ed

What I really want is something to sync spotlight comments to iPhoto or Aperture keywords and viceversa. With Apple's push for spotlight, it's amazing to me this isn't supported natively.

September 19 2008 at 10:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
William

Gotta love the shout out to Scranton! It's even complete with pictures of the tree house in Nay Aug Park! Rock on tuaw, show your Scranton roots.

September 19 2008 at 9:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

When I tag keywords using iPhoto or even Aperture, looking for those keywords using the Media Browser doesn't find them. It only finds pictures I've keyworded and embedded in the jpg a long time ago using other programs.

I think iPhoto and Aperture keep the keywords in their own internal database, and don't embed them directly in the picture files.

Or is there a way to tell iPhoto and Aperture to embed the keywords in the master files?

September 19 2008 at 7:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Anthony's comment
Richard

9-19-2008 @ 7:50AM
Anthony said...

Or is there a way to tell iPhoto and Aperture to embed the keywords in the master files?

Aperture will copy its keywords to the IPTC keywords field on export if you ask it to.

September 19 2008 at 11:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Richard

iPhoto will also add its keywords to IPTC on export.

September 19 2008 at 11:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.