Transfer photos from one catalog to another

[JerryL]

Being new to Photoshop Elements, all downloaded photos are in one catalog. I would now like to transfer some of these photos from that catalog to another catalog. Is it possible and how can it be done. I would appreciate any help.

[GaryK]

Hi Jerry

Not sure, I don't use the organizer yet.
But do let us know what version of PE you are using, and I'm sure someone will be able to help you out.

[JerryL]

I have the PE version 4

[Ward Grant]

Hello Jerry

Moving pictures between catalogs is not an easy thing in Elements. As you write tags, collections and creations, the data gets written to underlying MS Access databases. Each catalog has its own database, which provides some interesting challenges.

Adobe's published preference is one catalog with subdivision being done with tags and collections. However, you can have as many catalogs as you wish. The key to remember is only one catalog can be open at a time, which makes creating slide shows or web pages with images in mulitple catalogs interesting.

If you don't have any tags, you can easily put pictures in seperate catalogs. Simply open the catalog you want and do a File>Get Photo. A picture can exist in as many catalogs as you want.

If you have tags you want to share between catalogs, you should do one extra step.
Open Catalog 1 and select the picture.
Write Tags to File (I think it is under Edit, if not try File).
Close Catalog 1 and open Catalog 2.
File Get Photos and point to the picture. You should get a popup showing the Tags associated with the picture(s) and be given an option to accept them.
Okay, here gets the ugly part. At this time, you have a photo in two catalogs with the same tags. Later, you add a tag in Catalog 1 and want to sync this with Catalog 2. You Write Tags To File in Catalog 1 and then open Catalog 2. Catalog 2 says "This file already exists in this catalog" and it does not import it again. You have to manually add the new tag to the picture in Catalog 2.

I have not found a way to transfer collections and creations between the catalogs. A Merge Catalog command is an often cited features request.