Lightroom 2.4 question

[mal from cessnock]

It occurs to me that "Smart Collections" would be a hell of lot smarter if you could copy them.

It's so tedious having to rewrite from scratch when half a dozen (or more) queries have the same criteria all but one.

I'm doing collections of tafe students and am using Keywords to extract images from various folders of different colleagues. Each query may have four keywords that are common to all - the only variable being the persons name and this is the fifth keyword. Here's an example of the Keywords; all identical in each "Smart Collection" but the last. portfolio/tafe/studio/student/cecil

Does anyone know if "Smart Collections" can be copied and then renamed so the final keyword variable can be altered?

[Allann]

This is very possible...

1. Create your "parent" smart collection
2. Export the collection settings.
a. Right click on the parent collection
b. Export Smart Colelction Settings.
3. Now click on the "Collections +" on the header to create a new one
4. Add addtional criteria.

Hope this helps.

[mal from cessnock]

Thank you very much Allann. Not even LightRoom help on the web could tell me that!

[Allann]

No probs... learnt heaps from this site http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/ worth subscribing too.

[clm738]

Thanks for the lesson Allann, and the web site.

[mal from cessnock]

Allann

When I alt click on a "smart collection" I choose "export smart collection setting" and explorer opens looking for where I want to export it to.

Is this routine?

Where do I save this?

I think I'm missing something here...

[Allann]

It's just a file it needs to save, so yes it's normal. I save my "settings" to my documents directory in a new folder I created called "Lightroom Settings". But it's up to you to store your files where you remember where they are. Another friend saves these into where he has the catalog files.

[mal from cessnock]

Allann

I've got it working, but not quite how you described.

I found that after exporting and saving the file - I need to "import" it back from that folder. It creates a new "smart collection" and numbers it "smart collection 1". I can then go ahead and change the name and one or all of the cirteria.

Does this sound right to you?

[Allann]

opps, missed the import step, sorry. Glad you worked it out. Yep, sounds perfect.