Search Replace Transfer

The custom fields

This plug-in adds 16 custom fields to Lightroom, so instead of having to use (or misuse) a built-in IPTC field to store custom information about your photographs, you can store it in a field dedicated to whatever you may need.

The custom fields are accessible by Search Replace Transfer's main functions, so you might use Transfer to temporarily populate a custom field by copying data across from a standard field. For example, you might copy the copyright field, which isn't searchable, to a custom field which can be searched or filtered for specific entries.

To enable the custom fields, go into File > Plugin Manager and the Custom Fields section. The extra fields are then available in:

1. Metadata panel (see right)
2. As columns in the Library Filter panel
3. As criteria in Smart Collections
4. Search Replace Transfer's menus
5. As fields in my ListView plugin

You can enter any information in these fields, but unfortunately dates or numbers will always be stored as text (a limitation of Adobe's plugin architecture).

Field names are Custom01-16 by default, but you can change these in the Plugin Manager.

Also, do read my words of caution about custom fields in general.

Library Filter columns

 

Smart Collection criteria

 

Changing the field names - for "experts"

If you don’t like the custom fields to be named Custom 01 etc, the Plugin Manager provides a way to choose your own field names. Note that this applies to all catalogues - you can't vary custom field names for each catalogue.

Here I have changed the name of Custom 01 to “My Custom Name” and will then press the Save button. For the changes to take effect, press the Reload button in the Plug-in Author Tools section.

Caution about custom fields

Custom fields are stored in the Lightroom catalogue, the .lrcat file, and are never written to images themselves, to xmp, or into exported files.

That is good in some ways, bad in others. It's great as it means that they can be used to store information which you may not want others to see, and you can be sure that those details will not be in a JPEG that you may send to someone, for instance. But that also means the information is locked inside Lightroom and only a plugin can access the fields.

So before you go ahead and enter information in custom fields, just be aware:

• The custom fields' data remains stored in the catalogue even if Search Replace Transfer is uninstalled or deactivated or if the catalogue is moved onto another computer on which the plugin is not installed
• The names of custom fields are stored in LR's preferences, and the best way to move them to another computer is using the backup and restore feature in Plugin Manager.
• Search Replace Transfer needs to be active to see these custom fields and change their data.
• Other plugins could read Search Replace Transfer data, if designed to do so, but they can never change it.
• If you ever leave Lightroom, it's not easy to get to the data without this plugin.
• I’ve deliberately not encrypted the plug-in file where this metadata is defined.

This caution should not make you avoid using custom fields, but I hope it is informative.