Advice requested

[Virginia]

Hello,
I'm currently using PSE 3. I plan to buy PSE 5 this week and probably CS 2 this Spring when I hope the price will go down w/CS 3 release or earlier if I can find out about one of those times when it is greatly reduced for PSE users.
I just got an HP Pavillion laptop and I think I would like to do most of my photo editing on it. I'm here and there w/the kids more and would like to work on photo stuff while I'm in the waiting times. We still have the desk top PC also and it is a CRT screen and I will probably still use it also.
I'm wondering are there suggestions for:
a. getting the catalog from my PSE 3 on the desk top to the laptop w/o necessarilly all of the photo files. I'd like to have the reference to them, but as off line.
b. best way to keep the PC synchronized. Or is this an overwhelming proposition?
Will the tags and such that I add on one machine be read by the other when I copy the file over to the it?
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now.
Virginia

[Virginia]

I know I am answering some of my own thread, but I thought just in case some one else has wondered the same thing, I'd write what I found.
As for having off line masters, it sounds like PSE 5 makes it pretty easy. I haven't done it yet (I did get PSE 5 last week and have been reading the "Missing Manual for PSE 5"), but it sounds like as you load those pictures from their storage device (hard drive, CD or DVD) you indicate you want to leave the masters off line.
And other PSE programs will read your tags when you transfer the photos, if you have embedded the tags in the metadata, which I found the command for under the "FILE" in organizer. I haven't tried this yet either. It sounded like the only draw back is that once it has been embedded, it is perminant, so make sure it is what your really want.
I'm still wondering about synchronization and I think I'll try another thread with a catchier title :).
Virginia

[GaryK]

Virginia

I can't be of much help, sorry.

I am just wondering if the low thread resopnse is because there may not be an easy or sure fire way to do what you would like.

I have seen numerous threads around about either a laptop and desktop or 2 desktops sharing a catalogue but they tend to be more of a problem thread than an idea thread.

I'm not saying it can't be done, it just may not be simple.:)

I think the problem comes when one of the computers adds a file/photo but the other one does not know about it.

I would tend to think the only way around this is to synch the photos as well as the catalogue files before opening the program.:confused::confused:

[Virginia]

Thanks Gary for the ideas.
I started another thread today that asked my question more clearly and have gotten responses that reflect yours.
I guess there is a Microsoft software application that helps to synch your files if your systems are networked. I'll be looking into that and with the color management issues with laptops, maybe I won't be doing as much of the actual editing on the laptop anyway. I haven't used it enough yet to know if the screen I have will be reflective of what I would like it to look like in print. I understand the concepts of color management but unfortunately, I'm far from applying them.
For now I'm focussing on adding PSE 5 and getting the catalog from PSE 3 ready and all.
Thanks again and have a great day (evening or night),
Virginia