How or Why to use the Organizer?

[ctctc]

I am a bit perplexed about how to use the organizer.

I have thousands of images (photos, pdfs, renderings, artwork, etc.) organized throuhout hundreds of folders on my computer which intern are organized by client, job, vendor, category, etc. Even as limited as my memory has become, I can usually locate an image with relative ease. Sometimes I need to poke into several folders to remember how I organized the image, but I am rarely disapointed.

If I import all of these images into the APE 6 organizer, the program doesn't seem to maintain my current organizational structure. Since my file naming convention doesn't typically include the client, job, vendor, category, etc. I can't seem to search for a specific file in the organizer except to scroll through all of the images on a visual basis, which is entirely unworkable.

Search by date? I have no idea on what date I visited the Smith residence all those years ago to take those photos!

In order to use the organizer, would I have to reorganize all of the photos somehow? Thank you.

[dj_paige]

First, let me say that the capabilities of the PSE Organizer are so far superior to the capabilities of Windows for organizing photos, that in my mind it is no contest.

However, you have spent a lot of time working within Windows and have come up with a system that works for you. You haven't used any of the capabilities of the PSE Organizer, and so the comparison between where you are in Windows and where you are in the Organizer isn't fair.

In the Organizer, if you use just one feature, the folder view, then you have arrived at a place where the capabilities of Windows and the capabilities of the PSE Organizer are equivalent in your case. You can find photos equally well using either method. (I don't have PSE6, I only have PSE5, so someone else will have to tell you how to turn the folder view on in PSE6).

Then, you can begin to use all of the other features of the PSE Organizer. Yes, it requires work, and only you can decide if it is worth the effort for you, to arrive at capabilities that are not available in Windows. In no particular order, here is a partial list of things Windows cannot easily do but the PSE Organizer can do easily.

Non-hierarchical organization of your photos. Windows folders must be hierarchical. If you assign tags (keywords) to your photos, you can then search for photos that might have two or more non-hierarchical tags (or keywords)
Captions, notes, map locations for each photo
Searching by several tags, captions, notes, map location, metadata, etc.
Version sets and stacks to manage similar photos
Ability to create albums of photos for special purposes, such as slideshows in a specific order, photobooks, etc.I could go on and on. Like I said, you have to actually do work to achieve these benefits. I do the work, and I love it.