Page #40 (22. View a Video)


23. Change Image Date and Time

See Also

18 Sort Items

38 Find Items with the Same Date

39 Find Items Within a Date Range


Several dates are associated with each image: the import date, the file date, and the modified date. The import date tells you the date and time the item was imported (added) into the catalog. The file date tells you when an image was created or scanned. The modified date indicates the last time an image was changedrotated, brightened, saturated, and so on. The modified date is the same as the file date until you change the image by adjusting its characteristics using either the Organizer's simple Auto Fix feature, the Editor's more sophisticated editing tools, or another graphics editor such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (as long as you launch that graphics editor from within the Organizer). When you make changes to an image in the catalog, the modified date changes, but the file date remains the same.

This date business is important because it is the file date that appears in the catalog below the image in the photo well (assuming that the Details button on the Options bar is enabled). So, it's the file date the Organizer uses to sort items in the photo well. And because the file date is not changed when you modify an image, you must have some way to manually change that date when needed. For example, you might have taken a picture with your digital camera while on vacation in another time zone, and the file date and time recorded were based on your home time, and not the local vacation time. Not that a difference of a few hours should matter much, but it might matter to youespecially if the difference between the two time zones (the vacation spot and your home) results in a different date, and thus, a different placement in the catalog when items are sorted.

KEY TERMS

Import Date The date on which an item was imported into the catalog.

File Date The date on which an image was taken or scanned into the system.

Modified Date The date on which an image was modified by using either the Organizer or the Editor, or by launching another graphics editor from within the Organizer.


Most often, you'll want to manually change the file dates for all your scanned images, because the date and time assigned to the resulting file is based on when the image was scanned, not when the photograph itself was taken. This means that unless you manually change the file date for all your scans, they will appear in the catalog along with photos taken the same day the scan was made, rather than appearing alongside other photos taken on the same day. For example, unless you change the file date, that picture you scanned of Great-Grandma Kaster when she was 16 might appear in the catalog next to an image of your 6-year-old daughter imported from your digital camera.

NOTE

The file date can be used to locate an image, which is one reason why you might want to make sure that it always reflects the date you associate with an image. See 38 Find Items with the Same Date and 39 Find Items Within a Date Range.


The file date, by the way, is also displayed on the General tab of the Properties pane. You can see the import date and the modified date on the History tab of the Properties pane. The modified date is for your own purposes; you can't sort by that date. You can, however, search and sort using the import date. See 18 Sort Items and 40 Find Items with the Same History.

TIP

To display the Properties pane so that you can view the dates associated with an image, click the Show or Hide Properties button on the Options bar, or choose Window, Properties. To park the Properties pane in the Organize Bin, choose Window, Dock Properties in Organize Bin.


1.

Select Image

In the Organizer, in the photo well, click the image whose date you want to change. The selected image appears with a blue border around it (unless you're working in Single Photo view).

2.

Choose Edit, Adjust Date and Time

Select Edit, Adjust Date and Time from the menu, or click the file date shown below the image thumbnail. The Adjust Date and Time dialog box appears.

3.

Select Change Option and Click OK

TIP

You can change several images to the same date and time by selecting them before continuing to step 2. To make it easy to select several similar images, you might want to use the Find bar to display just those images. See 33 About Finding Items in the Catalog.

To change the file date and time to anything you like, select the Change to a specified date and time option. To change the file date so that it matches the current modified date, select the Change to match file's date and time option. To adjust the time portion only by a few hours or so, select the Shift by set number of hours (time zone adjust) option. After selecting the option you want to use to change the file date, click OK.

4.

Enter New Date or Time Adjustment and Click OK

If you selected the Change to match file's date and time option in step 3, the file date is changed immediately to match the modified date, and you're returned to the main Organizer window.

If you selected the Change to a specified date and time option in step 3, the Set Date and Time dialog box appears. Enter a Year, Month, and Day. If you don't know the actual date on which the photo was taken, and you'd rather list it as unknown, select ???? from the Year list. You can also select ?? from the Month or Day list if either is unknown. If you've entered a specific date, you can also specify the time the photo was taken. Click Known and enter the time; if you don't know the actual time the photo was taken or you don't want to bother with it, select Unknown. Click OK to save the date change.

NOTE

If you select multiple images, you can adjust their file date by shifting it. Choose Shift to new starting date and time in Step 3, then enter the date and time for the earliest photo in the group. The file date and time for the selected images are shifted accordingly, using this ealiest date/time as a starting point.

If you selected the Shift by set number of hours (time zone adjust) option in step 3, the Time Zone Adjust dialog box appears. Select either Ahead or Back to indicate the direction in which you want the time adjusted, and then enter the number of Hours to adjust the time of the photograph. Click OK.

5.

View the Result

The Organizer immediately adjusts the file date and time based on your choices and displays that new date/time in the photo well, just below the image. Here, the file date for this photo of my great-grandmother and her children originally displayed the date on which I scanned the photo into my computer. I changed the file date to June 1913, to correspond with when the photo was actually taken. I didn't know the exact day or time, so I chose ?? and Unknown for those options.



Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 in a Snap
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 in a Snap
ISBN: 067232668X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 263

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