Any structured keyword experts around?

I’ve been introduced to the concept of structured keywords and it’s very exciting…but a little daunting as well. The daunting part is the “synonym/sibling” thing…

I’m really trying very hard to get my photo archive set up as a searchable database, and my dream is to make it hyper-searchable, right down to the smallest detail. Photo Mechanic is brilliantly designed to do this and it has an amazing system for applying keywords and doing it via a structured setup… but I’m just getting a bit lost.

So… anyone really hip to this care to volunteer for a conversation?

I am not hip (i.e. I can see over my pelvis), but I have started using structured keywords on my photo database. I do need to refactor some of the categories, and I still struggle with some relationships - how do I classify my stepchildren, for a start. We don’t share a surname, but they are part of the family. More difficult, how do I classify their partners in a way that indicates a relationship but they don’t have a shared name…

However, I have tried to do things like this…

Person
_Relative
__<Immediate Family Surname>
___<Name1>
___<Name2>
__<Stepchildren Surname>
___<Name1>
____<Partner1>
___<Name2>
_Friend
__<Surname>
___<First Name1>
___<First Name2>
Location
_<Country1>
__<City1>
___<Location1>
___<Location2>
___<Location3>
__<City2>
___<Location1>
_<Country2>
__<City3>
___<Location4>
__<City5>
Content
_People
_Building
_Statue
_Nature
__Animal
___Cat
___Dog
__Plant
___Tree
_Pet
__<Pet Name1>
Event
_Holiday
_Party

It is still a work in progress - you cannot cover all bases and sometimes you just have to go back and rework stuff - this is where a good editor is essential. I can filter back to all the keywords I want to change, and then update them all to the new tag. But I like being able to find all photos that include my daughter, or all our 2005 holiday snaps, or all the tree photos.

Si