Search for Photos by Keyword and Date

With iPhoto you can assign keywords to your photos, and later do a search by keyword to find the one you want. Keywords are category labels you add to your photos to help you quickly and easily find all the photos in a specific category. For example, you might assign the keyword "Family" to all of the photos that have family members as subjects, or assign the keyword "Nature" to any photo you take while hiking.

When you want to find photos by date, just click the Calendar button to display the Calendar pane, and then select the year, month, week, or date of the photos that you’re looking for.

Tips

Remove a keyword from a photo

To remove a keyword from a photo, first select the photo, open the Get info window, and choose the Keywords tab. Un-check the keywords you want to remove from the photo, and close the window.

Rename and delete keywords in the keyword list

As you use keywords more often, you will find some words work well and others don’t get used very often. To rename a keyword, select it in the Keywords Preference window, click the Rename button, and then type a new keyword. To delete a keyword, select it in the Keywords Preference window and click the Remove (-) button.

Display keywords in the photo viewing area

To display keywords below your photos in the photo viewing area, choose Keywords from the View menu.

Adding additional keywords

iPhoto comes set up with a few common keywords for you to use. If you would like to add or change these keywords go to iPhoto Preferences, and then click Keywords. From this window you can add keywords by clicking the Add (+) button and typing the keyword you want.

Assigning multiple keywords to a single photo

Sometimes your photos might need to have more than one keyword associated with them. iPhoto allows you to easily add more than one keyword to your photos. Open the Photo Info window, and select the Keywords tab. From this window you can select that multiple keywords are associated with your photos.

Match all or match any keywords

From the Keywords pane, you can click as many keywords as you want. By default, only photos that match all the keywords you select will be displayed. For example, if you have select "Kids" and "Birthday", only photos with both the "Kids" and "Birthday" keywords will be displayed. Hold the Shift key as you select keywords from the Keywords pane, and notice that the keywords are now highlighted in purple. Photos that have either "Kids" or "Birthday" keywords will be displayed.

Steps

Assign and create keywords to search for your photos

In iPhoto, click the Library icon and then select which photos you want to assign keywords to.
From the Photos menu, choose Get info, then click the Keywords tab.
From the Keywords tab, click the checkbox next to the keyword you would like to assign to your photo. You can also assign multiple keywords by checking multiple boxes.
To create your own keywords, open iPhoto Preferences, select Keywords and click the + button.
Notice that the word "untitled" appears highlighted. Simply type your new keyword. Now you can assign this keyword to your photos.
To browse your photos for keywords, click the Keywords button on the bottom of the iPhoto window. The Keywords pane will appear and you can click on the keywords you want to display. When you are done browsing, click the Reset button to view all of your photos.
To search for keywords, type the keyword in the Search field, and press the Return key. All photos with that keyword will be displayed.
To display all photos after you’ve finished searching, click the Reset button in the Search field.