Photoshop® Elements 8 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Working in the Organizer

In This Chapter

• Working with catalogs

• Locating and viewing images

• Sorting files

• Searching files

• Managing files

• Creating albums

• Showing and hiding files

• Backing up files

In Book II, Chapter 1, we talk about getting images from cameras, card readers, scanners, and other media sources. For good measure, we also talk about opening a file directly in an Editor, copying files to your hard drive, and loading up images in Elements.

To continue the story, be aware that any files loaded in Elements on Windows end up in the Organizer. Furthermore, when you add files to the Organizer, you have many options for managing files, sorting them, searching for files, tagging files with keywords, examining file properties, and using a host of different project-creation opportunities.

This chapter covers many of the features you find only when working in the Organizer on a Windows machine. It also offers tips on how best to manage photo collections in an Organizer catalog, and takes a closer look at some tasks you can perform that are unique to the Organizer. (The alternative for Mac users is working with Adobe Bridge. If you're a Mac user, look over Book II, Chapter 3, where we cover Adobe Bridge in depth.)

Cataloging Files

The default Organizer view — the view you're most likely to use in all your Elements work sessions — looks a lot like a slide sorter. The Organizer provides ...