Upgrading from PSE2 and Album to PSE5

[phdm]

I have used Elements 2 and the separate Album program for the last three years. I have over 6000 photos index and tagged on Album. I would like to upgrade to the current Elements 5, which seems to have incorporated the Album function into the program. My question is - will the upgrade to Elements 5 allow me to import or otherwise transfer all my tabbed photos in Album, with their tags, into the new Elements 5? Any tips on doing this? Once I am assured that this can be done, I will gladly upgrade.

Thanks again,

PHDM

[NickLewis]

Hi,

That should be no problem.

Before you install PSE5, I suggest you do the following in Album:

- File > Reconnect > All Missing Files (you may not have any files that need a reconnect so don't worry if there are none)
- File > Catalog > Recover (this does a general catalog cleanup and compacting of the catalog)

These steps are just to ensure that your Album catalog is in good shape for the transfer.

On installation, PS Elements 5 will then convert your Album catalog into a PSE 5 catalog, saving a safety copy of your old catalog.

Below is a quote from an Adobe techdoc that describes the process of your catalog being converted by the PSE 5 software. This upgrade/conversion process makes your Tagging and other info like Version sets and Collections done in the previous version available in PSE 5. Here is the quote:

"Transfer your catalog

When you start Photoshop Elements 5.0 for the first time and choose View And Organize Photos or Make Photo Creations in the Welcome window, the Organizer opens and then displays the following message:

"The catalog named My catalog.psa was created by a prior version of Photoshop Elements or Photoshop Album and needs to be converted before it can get used. Your old catalog file will be saved as 'My catalog-1.psa.' Depending on the size of your catalog and other factors this process may take several minutes. Please be patient."

Photoshop Elements will then convert your catalog, save it with a new name in the default location, and open it in the Organizer."

This assumes your catalog is called "My Catalog.psa" (the default). If yours has a different name, the conversion will run when you try to open your catalog from a File>Catalog>Open dialog.

Don't be tempted to try and rebuild your catalog simply by reimporting your photos. If you do that, you will lose all tags, collections, version sets etc, except for those tags already written to image files. Only a small subset of Album features can be written out in this way, so the result is likely to be much grief.

But if you follow the procedure above, you should be fine.

Any queries, post back,

Nick