How to Save Captions in LR2.7

Question

My problem; In the "library" mode I enter captions in metadata, go to the metadata dropdown window and click on "save metadata to file", then export the file to a new folder. When I import that file later the caption does not show up in the caption window unless I open the metadata dropdown window again and click on "read metadata from file", so I know the caption info is attached to the file. If I export the file to another new folder, then later import it again the caption does not show up in the metadata caption box.  AND, worst of all, when I send the file on a CD to my magazine Photo Editor, the caption does not show up.  I do not know what software he uses but I can only assume it is of a professional nature, and he receives many photos with captions from other photographers, so why is my caption information not readable to him???

Answer 1

JohnJay ... it sure would have been helpful, and saved you a ton of time, if you had read the manual, or watched some videos about Lightroom. Approximately two weeks on, and we're still struggling with saving captions. If ever there was a advertisement for reading the help files and watching the videos, this is it.
Lightroom does NOT work like other software programs you may be aware of. There is no SAVE or SAVE AS. It simply isn't necessary. All of your edits, and all of your metadata are saved immediately in the database; you can't even turn off this feature. Ctrl-S saves metadata, it does not save your edited photo (like other editors do), and there are some portions of the Lightroom catalog that are never saved with Ctrl-S, like collection membership. There's a lot more to be said about why Lightroom is different, but you'd be better off watching the videos tutorials. For example, http://tv.adobe.com/watch/george-jardine-on-lightroom/the-lightroom-catalog/ and many many others.
How do I copy to CD from LR without doing an export after I have made all these changes including adding a caption?
This works only for RAW files ... afer you enter the caption(s) and save the metadata via Ctrl-S, you go into Windows Explorer (you can select a photo in Lightroom and then right-click and select Show in Explorer), and find the desired photos and their corresponding XMP files and you copy them to the CD using Windows or some Windows program! By the way, are you 100% sure you have to send RAW photos to whomever it is? And are you 100% sure the recipient can make use of RAW files with Adobe XMP sidecar files ... because if you don't have the right Adobe software, the information about your edits is basically meaningless.
Or are you saying that once I have entered the captions I can just hit alt+backspace removing all photos from catalog and all the changes, including captions will be saved in the xmp file and raw file?
I never said anything remotely close to this. I have no idea what would happen to your XMP files in this instance, as I never looked to see what happens. I can tell you that I do not recommend removing photos from the catalog, except in the case of totally ruined photos. Do not do this.
A little bit ago I imported a raw file that did have the xmp file attached but when I looked in "library" metadata, right above the caption window was "sidecar file" and in the little window next to it was xmp, so to me this meant that even though the file did not show it, the xmp info did transfer or carry across to LR. Does this make sense to you?
Everything seems to make sense except for the part which says "even though the file did not show it". I don't get that part. Pronouns, like "it", must have clear antecedents, and I don't understand what "it" refers to. So, basically, no it doesn't make sense.