Organizer, more trouble than it is worth?

[winkler]

Organizer is new to me. I've spent hours and hours learning my way around its workspace, which included making and then trying to correct mistakes. Yesterday I realized the Catalog I had been working with was hopelessly corrupted. Deleting a keyword, for example, consumed my computer's processor for about ten minutes and ultimately failed. Just about any task took what seemed like forever. My remedy turned out to be making a new catalog and deleting the former, including the loss of a carefully constructed keyword organization.

I had imported around 17,000 images from file folders. I would never import images directly into any database application. No loss of data, just the database itself.

My observation at this point is that Organizer loses efficiency and speed as the number of media files increase. I'm guessing a catalog shouldn't hold much more than 5000 media files. More catalogs, each addressing a limited scope of subject matter, appears to be a wiser approach.

That said, my computer is a MacBook Pro, 2.4G core duo processor, with 4G of RAM. That is a slow machine by today's standards. Newer machines will likely handle data better.

I am curious if other users have similar opinions about this utility. I find it less than attractive. Bridge is a far more capable utility, in my opinion. However, I am thinking the future Elements releases may well force the use of the Organizer. Not using it may not be an option.

I look forward to reading opinions.

[Barbara Brundage]

There are many people who don't care for organizer. Personally, I dislike the whole concept of asset management software (organizer, iphoto, aperture, lightroom). Like you, I much prefer a simple browser like bridge.

[Wendy]

I don't like the organiser at all ... I use Bridge with a folder system.

... but I do use iPhoto too. I use it sort of like a series of paper photo albums using iPhotoBuddy to manage multiple iPhoto libraries

Wendy

[Andromeda14]

Hi Winkler,

As now you have started with a fresh catalog, I would like to give you some tips in case you get stuck in a similar problem in future-


A. Catalog is slow: If you think your catalog is slow, then try to 'Repair and Optimize' your catalog. For this, Under 'File' menu select 'catalog'. Catalog manager dialog will be opened. Now select the catalog (which is slow) and click on 'Repair' button. Click on 're index visual similarity data' and click on 'OK' button. After this click on 'Optimize' button.


B. In your scenario (catalog is corrupted and you want to somehow recover your tag cloud): There is a method to do so. Click on '+' button in keyword tags pane and select 'Save Keyword tags to File'. What it will do is, it will create an xml file which has your tag hierarchy.
You can use your tag hierarchy in any catalog just by clicking on '+' sign and select 'From File'.
In this way if your catalog is corrupted and you prepared a new catalog, you can easily restore the same tag hierarchy.


Let me know if you need more info.

[baycruisers]

I took one (extended) look at the Organizer years ago and said, "no, thanks." I used image browsers, such as ACDSee, for years until my collection got too large, then switched to ACDSee Pro, which is very much like Lightroom though not as powerful. I'm now a full-fledged fan (try saying that fast, three times) of LR and plan to use it, along with PSE, for all my image processing needs.

[Anita Bower]

This is a helpful thread. I've been having trouble understanding and using Organizer. Slow, makes mistakes, etc. I want an organizer so I can find images using a keyword. I'm coming to the conclusion that Lightroom may be worth buying just for that feature.

[Barbara Brundage]

I want an organizer so I can find images using a keyword

Just FYI, you don't need an organizer for that. When bridge isn't available (much of the year for me, since I uninstall PS while I'm beta testing PSE and working on the book), here's how I do it.

Open the photo in Preview to assign the keywords to it in the inspector. Just click the magnifying glass and the plus sign, then enter the keyword you want. Click the plus sign again to add another keyword.

Spotlight will find metadata keywords in a search.


Having said that, if you want a complete asset management system, LR is a very nice program.