Last week, I did a post about the caveat that comes with using Aperture's hierarchical keywords. Today, I post a solution to the problem - a handy little AppleScript that expands the keywords. And it's called ... wait for it ... Expand Hierarchical Keywords. Hey ... I save my creativity for my photos, ok? :)

The script does what you expect - expand the assigned keywords so their parents are also explicitly added. My usage of the script is for temporary expansion of keywords when sharing images to sites like 500px, Flickr, or anywhere you're licensing your photos. The extra tags in the photo to increase hits in search engines. 

However, knowing that not everyone has the same workflow, or the same keywording strategy, the script is customizable. You can:

• Turn on/off the creation of a new image version for expanding keywords (default is on)
• Specify a keyword blacklist, for keywords you do not want applied
• Add a flag to the image with expanded keywords
• Add a color label to the image with expanded keywords

The latter two customizations make it easier to find the versions created by the script and are very useful in conjunction with creating new versions.

Expand Hierarchical Keywords is free in my store. The package includes instructions on how to install it and how to customize it to best suit your workflow. Here's a short video of the script in action. And a big thanks to Frank T. for beta-testing the script. Enjoy!