Author Topic: Keyword right click drop down list (Read 2207 times)

bbelk · « **on:** 2016-12-15 08:23:28 »

It would be very handy if the keyword right click drop down list would filter out repeats. Having the same keyword many times on the same list confuses things.

Thanks
Brad - Thumbsplus user & Fan for 17 years

Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #1 on:** 2016-12-15 13:05:52 »

> It would be very handy if the keyword right click drop down list would filter out repeats. Having the same keyword many times on the same list confuses things.

What sort of repeats do you see - are you sure the words are 100% identical? I see no duplicates in mine, but that might be just coincidence.

You can edit the list using Database | Edit Keywords.

bbelk · « **Reply #2 on:** 2016-12-17 18:48:44 »

The key word list is good, just the helpful dropdown window when I make assignments

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Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #3 on:** 2016-12-17 19:26:35 »

OK, that's a real mess :-)

I'd try this: Go to Options | Preferences | Keywords and turn 'Create drop-down lists' off. Press Apply. Then turn it back on and press OK. Then check your drop-down list to see if it is still like that.

And if this didn't help. I'd try Database | Advanced | Compact & Repair, and then repeat the above.

bbelk · « **Reply #4 on:** 2016-12-17 21:39:21 »

No change.

Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #5 on:** 2016-12-18 07:19:58 »

> No change.

In that case I suspect that there's a keyword in your database that is somehow triggering a bug in ThumbsPlus, causing it to behave erratically.

For a programmer, the easiest way to avoid duplicate entries in a list is by sorting the entries alphabetically and then deleting any that are identical to the one preceeding it. Where this might go wrong is if the sorting algorithm was made to deal only with regular alphanumeric characters, but the data includes different characters such as accented letters, linedrawing signs, etc. Do you see anything unusual like that in your keyword list?

One possible fix might be to find all images in your database that have the '00 Brad' keyword (which seems to be duplicated a lot). Then assign an alternative keyword to them that has the same meaning, for instance just 'Brad' or '00Brad'. Then go to Database | Edit Keywords and delete the old '00 Brad' keyword from the list, repeatedly if it occurs more than one time. That should leave you with just one 'Brad' entry in the keyword list and it would still be assigned to all the images that first had the '00 Brad' keyword. From there, you could edit the 'Brad' keyword back into '00 Brad' if you want to.

bbelk · « **Reply #6 on:** 2016-12-18 09:42:56 »

This has been a most interesting exercise. The keyword 00 Brad is somehow different. It was one of the first keywords I used and it has been used over 6,000 times in the database. The oddness is likely to be in the blank space between 00 Brad and the following comma visible in the screen shot:

As you suggest, I can probably locate all the 6,000 files, add a new unique keyword to them, delete 00 Brad from the database, locate all the files with the new unique keyword and add 00 Brad back to them.

This might clean up a problem in the database, but it will not fix the dropdown list. Deleting a keyword from the database will not remove it from the dropdown list.

Using any keyword other than 00 Brad will move it from its current location on the dropdown list up to the top of the dropdown list. If I add 00 Brad to something, it gets added to the top of the dropdown list, but is not removed from any other location on the dropdown list.

I need to clean up the weird keyword and then find a way to reset the dropdown list. Any suggestions?

Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #7 on:** 2016-12-18 10:33:51 »

> I need to clean up the weird keyword and then find a way to reset the dropdown list. Any suggestions?

Yes, that's what I hoped to accomplish in one of my previous messages:

"Go to Options | Preferences | Keywords and turn 'Create drop-down lists' off. Press Apply."

This should delete the current drop-down list.

"Then turn it back on and press OK."

This should generate a new drop-down list from the keywords in the database.

Yes, I think it's best to avoid using keywords that have leading or trailing spaces. When you assign multiple keywords at once to a photo, use only semicolons (no spaces) to separate the keywords (e.g. "bike;car", not "bike; car").

If you have often-used keywords that you want to appear at the top of the list, maybe you can put an exclamation mark or an underscore in front (!Brad or _Brad) but you'd have to be consistent and use that all the time, or you'll get multiple keywords for the same Brad.

bbelk · « **Reply #8 on:** 2016-12-18 13:55:19 »

I have tried a couple times to turn off the drop down list for keywords. I unchecked the box, hit apply, and nothing changed. I tired again and exited and restarted the program, without change.

Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #9 on:** 2016-12-18 16:59:40 »

> I have tried a couple times to turn off the drop down list for keywords. I unchecked the box, hit apply, and nothing changed. I tired again and exited and restarted the program, without change.

That's strange. When you turn it off, select a thumbnail and press Ctrl-K to get the Assign Keywords dialog, do you still get a list when you click on the pull-down arrow?

bbelk · « **Reply #10 on:** 2016-12-18 17:11:40 »

I just figured out we are not talking about the same dropdown list. The one I use most frequently is the right click - keywords - slide right and hover.

Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #11 on:** 2016-12-18 17:56:15 »

> I just figured out we are not talking about the same dropdown list. The one I use most frequently is the right click - keywords - slide right and hover.

Oops! Apologies, my fault. Well, those are the Most Recently Used keywords and they're stored in thumbs10.ini under the [MruKeywords] header. If you think it's worth your trouble, you could edit the current list there using Notepad (but do so when TP is not running, or your changes will be overwritten when the program exits). The location of thumbs10.ini is shown as 'preferences path' in Help | System Info.

bbelk · « **Reply #12 on:** 2016-12-19 07:27:17 »

You are an amazing wealth of knowledge. Your suggestion for how lists are sorted led me to finding my corrupt, but still functional keyword. I purged and replaced it in the data base and in the metadata for 6,000 pictures. Finally cleaned up the thumbs10.in file as you suggested and everything is working as it should. My keyword list is shorter and contains no repeats.

Thank you very much for the help and for sticking with it through the weekend even.

Brad

Daan van Rooijen · « **Reply #13 on:** 2016-12-19 08:25:01 »

My pleasure, and I'm happy to hear that you managed to solve it, Brad!

Could you say what was wrong with the corrupt keyword - did it contain any strange signs, or was it preceeded or followed by one? As you may know, ThumbsPlus can generate keywords automatically (from EXIF info, folder names, etc) and in my experience that's how most bad keywords find their way into databases. They shouldn't cause any problems like this, though.

bbelk · « **Reply #14 on:** 2016-12-24 09:59:06 »

There was one or two blanks at the end of the bad keyword. The space was evident in any sort of list that was comma separated. I suppose there could have been some unprintable character in that spot, but I doubt it.

Thumbs plus would find the keyword when I would select it off a list or when I typed it in without the following blanks.

The keyword was one of the first that I created and I have never had a problem with it that I recognized until now.