Organizer: Switch from PC to Mac

[fbutera]

I am considering buying a Mac. The one thing holding me back are the thousands of pictures that I have painstakingly labeled/tagged in PE6 Organizer on my PC. If I move these pics to a MAC, will PE for Mac still recognize them and retain the same organization?

[Jeff Perry]

Fbutera, because Elements 6 Mac ships with Bridge CS3 instead of Organizer, I would doubt if the Organizer database is compatible. I hope I am wrong, and perhaps other "converts" will weigh in on the subject.

Bridge is a different kind of application, more correctly called a "file browser" since there is no real importing of image information done as in Organizer or or Lightroom. You can do some of the same tagging, of images, etc., and perhpas Bridge is smart enough to read Organizer, but I am not sure.

I use Bridge CS4 with Photoshop CS4 and Elements 6 (the CS4 version is vastly improved over earlier versions). I do not use Organizer with Elements 6.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Wendy]

Hi fbutera ..

... and welcome to the Village :)

What you would need to do is transfer the images into iPhoto ... I believe that there is a way of doing that, hopefully one of the recent switchers will be able to help you :)

Wendy

[indymom]

When I switched from PC to Mac...the Apple people transferred all my files for me. All I know is that the pictures stayed in the same folders (from My Pictures in Windows)...I wasn't really all that strict with tags etc in the Organizer. I pretty much just kept them labeled the same as the folders in My Pictures and used the Organizer to organize them. LOL! Which is how I use iPhoto now.

[photokave]

So am I to understand that iPhoto will treat my Organizer files the same, with the same tags etc.? I have thousands of photos and really like using the Organizer to find photos. If I have to re-tag them to use a Mac that would be a big negative.

[Wendy]

Hi photokave ..

... and welcome to the Village :)

I was hoping that more switchers would have shared their experiences of transferring the catalogue over into iPhoto library. If there are no more replies in the next few days then it maybe an idea to ring your nearest Apple Shop and ask them.

Wendy

[photokave]

Thanks Wendy for the quick comeback. My son lives in Chicago so I think I'll make a trip up to visit him and drop by the Apple store. Do you think it would help if I took along my catalog? It's on a USB drive so if they can plug it in we should have an answer.

[Wendy]

Hi ..

I think that I would phone then in advance and just make sure that you dont need anything else :)

Do let us know how you go on with it ... they really are very helpful in the Apple shops ..

Wendy

[MikeBC]

Try this,

Start Organizer, Edit, Select All - to select/highlight images

File, Write Tag and Properties Info to Photos

This will "stick" the tag info into the photo. Not much more is likely to survive, but tags will!

[photokave]

MikeBC is correct. Select all in the Organizer on the PC then click file and select Write Keyword Tag and Properties Info to Photos. This info will then show up in your files after you load them into the Mac. They do show up in iPhoto but I haven't experimented enough to tell you how an edited file gets back to iPhoto from Elements.
I have experimented with Lightroom and it appears to be very close to the Organizer. I've had to do some rearranging of the tags but it looks like it's all there. I've also tried Bridge and while I think it would be helpful at times, Lightroom looks like what I'm familiar with. Bottom line, all tags and info came across to all three programs.
Adobe will swap out the PC version of Elements to the Mac for a shipping charge after you fax them a "Letter of Destruction". I read somewhere that Adobe Sales will only do this but I was told (after 2+hours on the phone) to go to Customer Service, which I did. That's where it all came together. They don't make it easy but don't give up. Also, they only send it out by Fed Ex so you will have to download the trial version until your serial number arrives. Since I had Version 6, that is the one they swapped. Since I had Version 7 for less than 30 days, they gave me a rebate on that.

As for the installation of the Mac, that was easy. All the files came over within two hours. I think I'm going to like this.