At the moment I use BreezeBrowser Pro to add keywords to my images before further processing, and wondered if I could use PhotoLab 4 instead. I already use PL2 for other things.
I see that when you process a folder, PL4 (Windows) reads the keywords from the EXIF data and builds its own database. If I add a keyword to an image within PL4 it is stored in the database, but not the original file.
Is there any option to write the keywords back to the original file, as I want the keywords to be visible in any program that can read the EXIF data. I guess not, as PL is non-destructive.
This is an often discussed topic. PL currently is 100% non-destructive which includes not writing keywords back to the original files. That, perhaps, doesn’t stand as an excuse for not writing to the sidecar files, but I can see how both might be treated the same.
Personally, while I agree that the image data in the RAW files should remain untouched, I would certainly prefer I could write the keywords to the files, and I have campaigned for this. Not everyone agrees, of course.
Where PL does put the keywords is in any exported files, so if you use BB Pro to add keywords, then you can search in PL based on those keywords, and export your final output also retaining the keywords. This is the approach I take currently, although I use Lightroom (the Library module can be used for free) to apply the keywords, which I have it write back into my DNG originals.