I'm curious about this statement:

"Following Scott Kelby's sage advice I NEVER work in the Catalog File."

I'll have to admit up front that I am not a Scott Kelby fan but do admire his success of course. Why not work in a folder? (I think that's what you meant, folder rather than catalog file...I am unaware of anything called a "catalog file" other than the document that holds the catalog itself. You seemed adamant about this as it was in all CAPS.

Thanks.

Why use a nested system? Because this allows you to have a very short list to choose from at any given time and prevents having to scroll down, while seeking a specific word, a long list of keywords. A nested system also allows you to quickly, within seconds, find a specific subject image, such as birds, or a family member. This also saves time. I like to work quick and easy so I try to stay organized. Keywords are also very easy to alter by choosing the keyword and then using the right click, so you fix errors quickly and easily. I do not keyword upon import unless every single image is the same subject, then I would keyword at import. I generally keyword at some point after I've imported the images and played with them to process (I shoot RAW). There are many ways to keyword, I think I counted seven in all but there could be more. I cannot include text from the Nikonian article that I wrote as they now own it or I would. If you have been key wording and want to find the images that do not contain a keyword you can do that in the included Smart Collection that is standard in LrC. It's easy to keyword, for me, in the morning with a cup of coffee in hand and it goes very quickly. Your keyword list must match what you shoot in general and should be designed to grow as needed. Again, doing this on paper first is the best approach. Keywording can save countless minutes/hours of time when you are working on a special project or looking for images for a competition or to sell. I've included a few screenshots to clarify.

That may be, but as I stated, each person must determine what keywording system works for them and the way their brain thinks. Also, images can have multiple keywords as determined by the user. For example, I could put a keyword on an image for both nature and landscape and that way I don't miss an image. In my mind for my key wording system "nature" means that intimate close up shot and "landscape" means that wider, more inclusive shot and that works well for me, but maybe not for you. You would need to determine what works for you personally. While you may not feel inclined to use a keyword system thousands of people do this and find it useful. I'm not sure why you are reading this particular thread if you don't want to learn more about key wording. I've found it incredibly useful and a great time saver to find images for all kinds of reasons. Good luck with your image organization.

Lightroom is just a database with a bunch of pointers. It does not import your original photos. It just has a database that points to it on your hard drive. When you edit the photos again, this goes into lightroom's database the original photo is unchanged. If you go to your browser and go look at that photo outside of Lightroom it's untouched. Collections again, are just pointers back to the original catalog file in Lightroom. Any change you make to that photo in Lightroom can be done from The collection or the original and it will show up anywhere that photo appears in Lightroom. A photo can be in several collections anywhere you change it it will appear in all of them. I hope this clears things up a little bit a lot of people get confused but your original files are never repeat never changed.

I hope this makes sense, sometimes I have a hard time explaining things but the point is you're original file is never changed.

I only have about 5,000 photos to manage.

I use all the tools for data base management that LR Classic provides. When I download from camera, LR creates a file on my system drive by download date. When I get over the lazyies (not a real word) I cull, key word, adjust white balance and and assign to a Collection. Following Scott Kelby's sage advice I ALWAYS work in the Catalog File never work in the Folders Panel. Key words are added as Birds>Mockingbirds and Thrashers>Curve-billed Thrasher, if I take the file to Topaz Studio 2 I may add something like >Abstract to the key word list.

Probably not a reasonable procedure for everyone but it works for me.