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Photoshop Elements >

Organizer > 1 - Basics

Also go to Organizing Your Photographs and Deleting & Sorting.

Windows, & Mac, Too

The Organizer is only found in all Windows versions of Photoshop Elements, and in Mac versions starting with 9.0.

Mac versions of Photoshop Elements previous to 9.0 have Bridge.

Clean the House, First

Before you organize your photographs, you may want to find and delete duplicate photographs.

Go to Duplicates: Find & Delete.

Like a Card Catalog

The Organizer is like a card catalog.

The Organizer contains "cards," links to your photographs.

Your photographs are not located in the Organizer.

Your photographs are sitting in the "stacks," your folders in My Pictures.

Once You Start Using the Organizer . . .

. . . use it for just about everything.

Use the Organizer to delete and move your files.

Don't go to My Pictures and delete or move files between folders.

If you do, the Organizer won't know what you've done.

If you need transfer your photographs to a flash drive for class, go to How to Move Photographs to a Flash Drive.

Open the Organizer

You can open the Organizer from the welcome window.

or, you can click the Organizer icon at the top of your screen.

Experiment with a Few Photographs

You may want to experiment with the Organizer with just a few photographs.

Go to File > Get Photos and Videos > From Files and Folders.

Select a folder that has just a few files.

Use these photographs to:

• Become familiar with how the Organizer works.

If you make a mistake, it's just with a few photographs.

• Figure out albums, tags, and captions, all of which will be described below.

By doing some "drafts," you'll find the best configuration for your needs.

Then, start to bring the rest of your photographs into the Organizer.

Get Your Photographs -

Those Already in My Pictures or Pictures

You probably already have photographs located in folders in My Pictures or Pictures.

How do you get them into the Organizer?

Select by Searching

The Organizer can search your computer for photographs.

Go to File > Get Photos and Videos > Select By Searching.

However, you may be flooded with thousands of photographs.

You may want to move your photographs into the Organizer folder by folder.

From Files and Folders

Go to File > Get Photos and Videos > From Files and Folders.

Get Your Photographs -

From Your Camera

Using Your Current Downloading Method

You can continue to use your existing method for transferring photographs from your camera to your computer.

After transferring the photographs, in the Organizer, go to File > Get Photos and Videos > From Files and Folders.

Navigate to the folder containing your newly downloaded photographs.

Then, click Get Media.

Using the Organizer

You can use Photoshop Elements to transfer your photographs from your camera.

Let's say you're a travel photographer.

You've just returned from photographing many restaurants in France.

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Connect your camera or card reader to your computer and turn the camera on.

The Photoshop Elements Photo Downloader window will open.

If other windows appear, close them by clicking Cancel.

If the Photoshop Elements Photo Downloader window doesn't appear, go to File > Get Photos and Videos > From Camera or Card Reader.

The Photo Downloader will open.

Photo Downloader

There are two areas on the Photo Downloader window, Source and Import Settings.

Source

The source for your photographs can be your camera, a CD/DVD drive, or a flash drive.

Select your camera from the menu.

Import Settings

Location

Click Browse to select the destination folder for your photographs.

Create Subfolder(s)

You can choose to create a subfolder in the destination folder.

Rename Files

If you wish, you can rename all of the files.

For example, DSC_123 can be renamed as Paris_123.

Delete Options

The default setting is After Copying, Do Not Delete Originals.

This setting allows you to confirm that the photographs have transferred successfully.

After checking, reformat your memory card in your camera to delete the files.

Advanced Dialogue

If you click Advanced Dialog in the lower-left corner of the window, you can:

• Fix red eyes as the photographs are transferred.

This slows the transfer, so if you know there are no photographs with red eye, deselect the option.

• Suggest grouping of photographs into stacks, which will described below.

• Tag all of the photographs with the group custom name, if you created such a name in the Create Subfolder(s) box.

• Enter your name and copyright into the metadata of each photograph.

• Import into an album.

Once you've made your choices, click Get Photos at the bottom of the Photo Downloader window.

Automation with Watch Folders

You can set the Organizer to automatically get new photographs that appear in folders you specify.

By default, the Organizer looks for new photographs in My Pictures or Pictures.

But, what if you download photographs to a different folder, such as Work Photos.

Go to File > Watch Folders.

Click the Add button, and navigate to Work Photos, for example.

In the Watch Folders window, select Notify Me or Automatically Add Files to Organizer.