Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 in a Snap
Authors: Fulton J.,  Fulton S. M.
 Published year: 2006
 Pages: 35-36/263
Buy this book on amazon.com >>

17. Change Thumbnail Size

Before You Begin

2 Perform an Initial Scan for Media


By default, the Organizer displays the items in its active catalog (photos, movies, audio files, and creations ) in reduced sizes. Each of these miniature media files is called a thumbnail , which is a name borrowed from the realm of professional photography. There, contact sheets are often printed separately for each developed roll of film, containing miniatures of each print on the roll. These contact sheets were often used by the photographer for cataloging purposes. The size of each miniature on the contact sheet was usually just larger than an actual thumbnail, hence the name.

You can adjust the size of the Organizer's thumbnails to suit the task at hand. By default, the photo well displays thumbnails in a medium size.

1.

Display Smaller Thumbnails

To display images in a smaller thumbnail size than normalso that there are more of them displayed onscreen at one timein the Organizer, drag the Thumbnail size slider (located on the Options bar at the bottom of the screen) to the left.

TIP

To quickly display small thumbnails, click the Small Thumbnail Size button on the Options bar.

2.

Or Display Larger Thumbnails

NOTE

When thumbnails are medium sized or smaller, only the file date appears, and not the date and time. Markers for tags and collections associated with the image are represented by a single, blue marker icon. Hold the mouse pointer over this icon to display the names of the markers associated with that image.

To display images in a larger thumbnail size than normalso that image details are easier to seedrag the Thumbnail size slider to the right.

As thumbnails grow in size, their file date and time and the individual markers associated with a specific image are easier to see. To display the name of a marker, hold the mouse pointer over it.

3.

Or Display a Single Photo

To display images one at a time in the largest size possible, click the Single Photo View button (located just to the right of the Thumbnail size slider on the Options bar). In Single Photo view, you can then scroll from one image to another by using the scrollbar, pressing the Up or Down arrow key, or pressing the Page Up or Page Down key. To reduce the size of the thumbnail and display multiple images again, drag the Thumbnail size slider to the left.

TIP

If you display images in Single Photo view, you can easily see the names of each marker associated with that image, play audio captions (by clicking the horn icon) and add text captions (by clicking the Click here to add caption link). See 21 Play an Audio File and 31 Add a Text Caption or Note .

To display an image in Single Photo view quickly, just double-click its thumbnail. If you double-click the image again while in Single Photo view, you'll be returned to the view you used previously.


18. Sort Items

Before You Begin

2 Perform an Initial Scan for Media


See Also

19 Stack Images

27 Attach a Marker to an Item

41 Find Items with Similar Color


The thumbnails that appear in the photo well are laid out in some kind of order, from left to right, and then top to bottom. By default, the newest photo in the well appears in the upper-left corner. You can change this sort order very easily, and you might find yourself re-sorting the catalog quite oftenespecially when you're working to organize and make better sense of several hundred or more digital images, movies, and audio files freshly imported from your camera or hard disk.

The Organizer does not sort its thumbnails in the photo well by filename because the filenames of digital images tend to be rather generic (for instance, DSC00425.JPG ). Instead, the Organizer sorts its thumbnails generally by file date .

TIPS

If you scan a photo, the file date shows the date the image was scanned and not when the photo was actually taken. For this reason, you'll want to adjust the file date of all your scans so that the scans appear with other images taken around that same time. See 23 Change Image Date and Time .

You can also sort items by selecting the appropriate command from the View, Arrangement submenu.


1.

Sort by Date (Newest First)

In the Organizer, select Date (Newest First) from the Photo Browser Arrangement list on the Options bar. This option arranges items by file date, with newer images and other media appearing at the top. This is how items are normally arranged in the photo well.

2.

Or Sort by Date (Oldest First)

Select Date (Oldest First) from the Photo Browser Arrangement list on the Options bar. This option arranges items within the photo well in reverse date order, with older items appearing near the top.

3.

Or Sort by Import Batch

TIP

While displaying items by Folder Location , you can automatically create a tag with a folder's name and assign that tag to all the items in that folder. For example, if you have items in a folder called Vacation 2005 , you can create a tag called Vacation 2005 and add that tag to all the items in the folder. Just click the Instant Tag button, located at the right end of the gray bar above a folder group . In the Create and Apply New Tag dialog box that appears, select the Category in which you want to place the tag. Edit the tag Name and add a Note if desired, then click OK .

Select Import Batch from the Photo Browser Arrangement list on the Options bar. This option arranges items into groups based on their import date . A gray bar appears at the top of each import batch, containing the date the batch was imported, and the general location (CD or hard disk for example) of the items in that batch. To select all the items in a batch, click the gray bar above that batch.

The most recently imported batch of items appears at the top of the photo well. Within each batch, items are arranged so that the oldest items appear first (the items with the oldest file date).

4.

Or Sort by Location

Select Folder Location from the Photo Browser Arrangement list on the Options bar. This option arranges items into subgroups, each of which contains items located within the same folder on a hard disk, CD-ROM, or DVD. Items within each folder are arranged in date order (oldest first). A gray bar appears at the top of each folder group, containing the path to that folder. To select all the items in a folder group, click the gray bar above that group.

NOTE

Some sort options ( Color Similarity, Collection Order, Stack Order, and Version Set Order ) are only available from the View, Arrangement menu. See 41 Find Images with Similar Color , 34 Find Items with the Same Marker , 19 Stack Images , and 47 About Saving Images .

Along the left side of the window, you'll see a directory tree. Click the plus sign in front of a drive to display the folders on that drive. Offline media are listed by the description you used when you imported those items from the CD or DVD. (See 4 Import Media from a CD-ROM or DVD .) Click a folder name to instantly scroll to that folder in the photo well.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 in a Snap
Authors: Fulton J.,  Fulton S. M.
 Published year: 2006
 Pages: 35-36/263
Buy this book on amazon.com >>

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