Catalogs

[starkarlis]

HELP!!! I have some pictures in a cib catalog and some in "other catalogs." How can I merge them???

[Ward Grant]

HELP!!! I have some pictures in a cib catalog and some in "other catalogs." How can I merge them???

Unfortunately, there is not easy way to merge catalogs.
There are couple of things you can do, none of which you may like.
Option 1 is just bite the bullet, decide which catalog you want to use (default is My Catalog) and then use Get Photos to load the pictures that are not in this catalog. You will lose all tags and collections doing this.

Option 2 is not much prettier, but you can at least save your Tags. Open a Catalog you do not want, select all and then Write Tags to Files. You will need to do this for each catalog you don't want. Then open the Catalog you do want and again use Get Photos to load the photos. A pop up box should appear asking if you want to use the tags. Answer Yes.

One caveat-A picture can be in multiple catalogs, but it can be in one catalog only once. Say you have Image of Alice in two catalogs-Catalog To Delete and Catalog To Keep. You open Catalog to Delete and write tags as in Option 2. When you open Catalog To Keep and use Get Photos and Image of Alice is already in this catalog, Organizer will say photo already exists and it will not import it. You will then have to manually add any tags that were in Catalog To Delete associated with that image.

[starkarlis]

Thanks for that. But I do have a concern: you stated that a picture will not be in a catalog more than once. I do have that happen frequently. What can I do to stop that??

[Ward Grant]

Thanks for that. But I do have a concern: you stated that a picture will not be in a catalog more than once. I do have that happen frequently. What can I do to stop that??

I did not think this could happen. Organizer uses some type of logic checking to verify the picture exists already (not sure the exact criteria).

If you have a picture called My Dogs in Folder 1, it will not import that picture again. However, if you have the same picture called My Dogs in Folder 2 (same name, different folder) or My Cute Dogs in Folder 1 (different name, same folder), it should import them.

Take a look at some of the pictures you say are the same. I think you will find they will be some difference some where. You can always delete one from the catalog if you want only one copy. If you select Delete From Hard Drive at the same time, the file will be removed from your computer also.