The difference is that when you add the keywords in the
Description field on the right, the keywords are stored in the image's
xmp metadata, but not in the image's
.info file. Then when you reopen the project, if you haven't chosen
xmp as a source under
Advanced > Metadata > Sources, the keywords are "missing."
Finally, image metadata are wiped out when the image file is replaced, so if the
xmp field is the only place the keywords are stored, they're well and truly gone.
I'll leave that one to David to sort out. The keywords should, I think, always be stored in the
.info file, as well as the
xmp field. The
title is stored in both places.
Thanks for the clarification, Jeff, I didn't know about this difference.
In my opinion, in the UI world, it's a good thing to have multiple different paths for the same action (e.g. File/Open using the menu bar or a right mouse click). However, having two similar but different actions (here, entering keywords), without a visual distinction in the UI, can only confuse the user and be a source of problems and/or errors.
The ideal would be either to have the same behavior for both ways of entering the keywords (and probably as you said to modify the
.info file
and the
xmp field), or to have two different actions, but it should be clearly visible in the UI.