LR4 vs. PSE

[Sue]

I have played with this some more. I have figured out what LR is doing and where it is getting the information. Here is what I did:

1) created an LR4 test catalog and imported one picture(LR4.pdf)

LR4 has created keywords from previous catalogs the picture has resided in and previous keywords the picture has had. I looked at the metadata and the keywords are not there. LR4 also has not created keywords from the catalog the picture came from.

2) I created a PSE8 catalog and imported the one picture. Lo and behold, there were keywords attached to that picture that were from past catalogs. My guess is that sometime or the other tags were written to the file and are kept someplace within the file that PSE and LR recognize.

OK. I have part of the answer. Next question is why didn't LR import the tags from the PSE8 catalog? I thought the tags needed to be written to the file for import only for PSE9 and PSE10, apparently not so.

What this means to me:

I cannot convert from PSE8 to LR4 with my current catalogs without major keyword confusion. Does anyone have a utility to strip off the keywords that are on the file currently. I would need it for psd's. Explorer can strip off tags for other types of files.

Before converting to LR4 all tags will need to be written to the file so the tags carry forward as keywords.

FYI: These keywords only show up in Explorer metadata, not in the metadata shown in LR4.

Can I use LR4 as an alternative editor from PSE8? I will need to try that but doubt it due to the catalog structure incorporated into LR4.

Conclusion: LR4 is usable to me but only as a alternative editor or for new catalogs. Conversion from what I have in my PSE8 catalogs is not viable.