Keywords problem using Adobe Bridge CS5

Question

Hi,
I've a great many photos in numerous folders all found under one master folder.
Don't know if this is a flaw in the program or a fault on my part, but what I'm trying to do is keep my keyword list as I continue to add to it...regardless of when I happen to come back to Bridge...'and regardless of what photo I select.
Problem is, when I close out of Bridge and come back to a particular image, Bridge will show me only a portion of all the keywords I'd entered previously. My workaround involves browsing around to older images which happen to have all the keywords listed. (not meaning that all those keywords are applied to that photo, BUT, they're available). After doing so, the full list of keywords I've added in the past will now be available to any other image I select thereafter.
I hope I explained that correctly.
I always figured Adobe Bridge to be pretty intuitive and self explanatory but just now had a look at the CS5 Manual just to be sure I wasn't overlooking something. I couldn't find a solution.
Would appreciate any help in this regard.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Glad the problem is clear now
When I say at their disposal, I mean keywords from which to be applied to each file. When you create a brand new file, from where would I get the keywords? I certainly don't expect to enter each one individually over and over again for every file. At their disposal in my book would mean: available as a keyword to be applied to the image.
In the Bridge book this would mean they should be present in the keyword list that shows in the keyword panel. Like Curt stated the keywords that are already saved to a file but are not persistent to the list show in italic, usually at the bottom of the list under 'other keywords'.
When you need to save keywords to files (whether brand new or old) you only have to select the files you want to have those certain keywords and put a checkmark in front of the keyword from the keyword panel (persistent or italic both work but for the italic to show you have to have files with those keywords in the folder as you have found out yourself by now) and let bridge finish its task to save the data to the files.
You can create your own keyword list on the go when working and use the menu or right mouse menu in the keyword panel to create a new keyword or nested sub keyword. If you have created this word it will stay present in this list (persistent) but you can also create or edit your list in a simple text editor. A main keyword starts at the beginning of the line, hit return for a new line and 1 x tab to create a sub keyword to nest in the parent. Further nesting in done by return and an extra tab for each nested keyword.
You can also export the current keyword list using the little menu icon top right to the keyword panel and choose export. Save it with a proper name and open this file in a text editor to get the idea of tabs and lines.
Sadly enough I don't know a way to export non persistent keywords (italic) but maybe the scripting has a solution for you, if you want to make it persistent to the list you have to do so one by one.
If you have created your own keyword tree it is also wise to every now and then back it up using the export function. You can also import a new list either to add to your existing words or to clear current and use only the new one.
btw, going back to what you mentioned originally in as far as bridge needing time to apply a keyword and finish its task...that doesn't even exist on my end. I'm running off 16 gigs of memory and have allotted a huge number for bridge to work with.
But still, multitasking is not a Bridge gem, if you start assigning keywords from the keywords panel after a few seconds the arrow starts rotating and you have to wait for it being finished, no matter what specs you have (and I use 32 GB RAM on a 12 core processor using SSD…) as soon as the first task starts the keywords that are getting applied need time to save to the files. If you start a new job before it is finished only half of the keywords will be saved.