Managing Files and Folders

[easyW]

I have pictures spread throughout my hard drive. When I installed PSE6, I set it to acquire the pictures only from My Pictures directory of the hard drive. As to pictures in other locations, CDs, flash drives, I wanted to bring them into PSE by creating new folders in My Pictures directory through PSE and sorting/moving them from that media. This turned to be soooooo hard:mad:. It seems the program always wants just to create a link to those pictures instead of importing and putting them (or putting full-res copies) where I want them. Even if I create a new folder and drag the pictures there from another location, it does not show them. If I right click that folder and select “Add unmanaged files to catalog” it goes through the routine and then pops a message “Nothing was imported, the files selected are already in the catalog”. So, what PSE is doing is linking the original folder and showing it in the Folder View. Linking those pictures to the locations on the HD creates an enormous hierarchy in the Folder view, which makes it unmanageable as it’s so long to scroll. My goal is to bring and organize all pictures in My Pictures directory and use Folder View to some extent to manage them, as I have a very orderly YYYY_MM_DD structure. Is there a way to do it and also to display only My Pictures directory in the Folder view? Can I find in PSE a simple command/dialog saying take pictures (or copies) from this folder and put them in that folder, or create a new folder to put them into?
I’d greatly appreciate help on this subject.

[Karin Sue]

I create a new folder and drag the pictures there from another location, it does not show them. If I right click that folder and select “Add unmanaged files to catalog” it goes through the routine and then pops a message “Nothing was imported, the files selected are already in the catalog”

You need to do the drag n drop in folder view of Organizer. It sounds like you did it in Windows. Those images are probably unconnected at this point. Do a file>reconnect all missing files and it should recognize their new locations.

You can use drag n drop in folder view or file>move in any view to move files between folders.

If you do move them in windows immediately do a file>reconnect. If you change too many things the automatic file>reconnect will not work and you will have to reconnect by hand.

I do believe I have read of a bug in PSE6 that it will overwrite without warning if you move an image into a folder with a file of the same name. This did not happen in the older versions. You might want to search the forum for the details on that before you do too much moving.

[JanBo]

You didn't specify whether you're using PSE on Windows or Mac. Below is an explanation for the Windows version, using PSE's Organizer (PSE 5 in my case).

It is important to make a distinction between the files already loaded in Organizer's catalog (the ones that were in your My Pictures folder) and those that are not (the ones that are on your CD's, flash memory or other folders on your hard drive). As long as the files are not in your catalog, you can move them around freely using eg. Windows Explorer. As far as the catalog is concerned they do not exist at all. Just copy them from CD or flash to your My Pictures folder, or move them from another location on your hard drive into your My Pictures folder. When they are in the right place, you simply use File -> Get Photos -> From files and folders to load them in your catalog.

It is slightly more tricky when they have been loaded in the catalog already, since now you will need to move the files from within the Organizer to assure that the catalog does not lose the link to the file (in case you weren't aware yet: the catalog only stores a link to the location of the file, not the file itself).

When in Organizer's 'Folder Location' view, you should have on the left the entire tree structure of your computer's hard, CD and flash drive(s), and on the right the pictures you loaded into your catalog sorted by folder they're stored in. Note: unlike Windows Explorer on the right you will only see the pictures you stored in Organizer, which may not necessarily be all pictures that are available in the folder.

Using only the tree on the left, you can click and drag folders around the same way you would do in Windows Explorer. If the contents of the folder are already stored in your catalog, the catalog will be updated automatically to point to the new location of your picture files. If some or all content of a folder is not stored in the catalog, PSE will give you a warning "The folder being moved contains items that are not visible in the Organizer", but you'll still be able to move the folder. In this case however the files that were not in the Organizer's catalog will still not be, ie. you'll have to add them manually File -> Get Photos -> From files and folders.

Hope this helps.
Jan