Searching, keywords and keyphrases

Table of Contents Introduction to keyword searches How to add keywords to your images How to search in Pixaria Multiple word keyphrases Some examples of search terms Using the and operator Using the or operator Using the not operator Using parentheses Using quotes

Introduction to keyword searches

Pixaria allows users to search for images by entering keywords into a site wide search form. When keywords are entered and saved for an image, Pixaria looks them up in an index to see if there are any images that match the search. Pixaria looks for matches against the image title, caption, copyright holder and a special keywords field.

Whenever you create an image in the Pixaria library, you can add keywords to that image by entering them into the keywords field on the image management forms. Keywords and keyphrases should be entered separated by commas and they are not case sensitive.

How to add keywords to your images

Pixaria allows you to import IPTC metadata when you add images to your library and any keywords or keyphrases entered into your images in applications such as iView Mediapro, Aperture or Lightroom, will automatically be imported and be made searchable.

You can also add keywords to images from within Pixaria itself and each item should be entered in separated by a comma character. Because searches are not case sensitive, it doesn't matter whether the keywords you enter are upper or lowercase.

By way of an example, you might enter keywords for a photo of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris like this:

monument, arc de triomphe, paris, france, arch, place charles de gaulle, 
champs elysees, outside, urban, neoclassical, historic

How to search in Pixaria

Boolean searching makes it easy for users to run complex and very specific searches which can be useful if you have a large library of images. For example, searching for 'dog AND cat' will return images with both of the keywords dog and cat while a search for 'dog OR cat' will return any image that has the keyword dog or cat or both.

In addition, you can use the 'not' operator to exclude search results. For example, 'dog NOT cat' will find all images which have the keyword dog but not the keyword cat.

To extend this even further, you can also group your search terms together and use parentheses to specify how a search is performed.

Multiple word keyphrases

From Pixaria 2.0 and above, there is full support for multiple word key phrases like 'American football' or 'Palma de Mallorca'. To find these phrases in your library, you can enter the keywords enclosed by single or double quotes which will force the search engine to match the exact phrase.

Some examples of search terms

Using the and operator

Search term: dog and cat

Will return images with both of the keywords and cat.

Using the or operator

Search term: dog or cat

Will return any image that has the keyword dog or cat or both dog and cat.

Using the not operator

Search term: dog not cat

Will return any image that has the keyword dog but not the keyword cat.

Using parentheses

Search term: dog and (cat or mouse)

Will return any image that has the keyword dog and cat or dog and mouse.

Search term: dog not (cat or mouse)

Will return any image that has the keyword dog but not cat and dog but not mouse.

Using quotes

Search term: dog and 'mexican hairless'

Will return any image that has the keyword dog and the exact phrase Mexican hairless.

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Created: Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Last edited: Wednesday, March 5, 2008