Today’s Question: I was following your advice to correct the spelling of an existing keyword in Lightroom, and in the dialog I noticed the “Include on Export” checkbox. What does this checkbox do?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The “Include on Export” checkbox enables you to establish “private” keywords. These are keywords that are included within Lightroom, but will not be included as a keyword for images you export, even if you include keywords and other metadata when exporting images.
More Detail: When you export a photo from Lightroom, you can choose which metadata is included. With this feature it is possible to exclude all keywords from the image. You could accomplish this by excluding metadata altogether, for example, or by choosing the “Copyright & Contact Info Only” option from the Include popup in the Metadata section of the Export dialog.
However, it is also possible to include keywords among the metadata for exported photos, while excluding the keywords you designate as “private”. To make a keyword private so it will not be included in exported images, simply turn off the “Include on Export” checkbox.
You can turn off the “Include on Export” checkbox for a keyword either when creating the keyword or when editing the keyword. In both cases, the checkbox is turned on by default. To add a keyword and turn this setting off in the process, click the “plus” (+) icon to the left of the “Keyword List” header on the right panel in the Library module. In the Create Keyword Tag dialog you can add the keyword, and then turn off the “Include on Export” checkbox to make the keyword private.
You can also change this setting after creating the keyword. On the Keyword List locate the keyword you want to change, and then right-click on that keyword and choose “Edit Keyword Tag”. In the Edit Keyword Tag dialog you can then turn off the “Include on Export” checkbox and click the Save button to save the change.