Page #17 (Chapter 2. Importing Items into the Organizer Catalog)

1. About the Organizer

See Also

2 Perform an Initial Scan for Media

14 Back Up the Organizer Catalog

15 Copy Items onto CD-ROM or DVD

The Organizer helps you categorize your digital images, video, and audio files by creating a list of those media files and their locations. In addition, the catalog keeps track of any creations you make using these media files. To create this initial listing of media files, you simply indicate the general location you want the Organizer to search. You'll learn the details of this procedure in 2 Perform an Initial Scan for Media. After compiling this initial listing (which is called the catalog), you'll want to repeat this process from time to time to add new media files, such as those located on a CD-ROM, DVD, digital camera, or scanner.

After your media files (images, video, and audio) are listed in the Organizer, you begin organizing them by adding tags and collection markers. After adding these special markers, you can use them to quickly display a group of similar files, regardless of where they are storedeven if they are stored offline on a CD or DVD. For example, you might want to display all the photos of your dog so that you can pick out the best one to include in a family photo album. After displaying a set of similar images, you can browse through them full screen, or select a single image for editing within the Editor. If you've located a favorite video or audio file, you can play it without leaving the Organizer. You can perform other image tasks as well, including printing, sharing, and creating cards and calendars.

KEY TERMS

Catalog A collection of organized media files. Each member of your family can create his or her own unique collection (catalog) of files.

Captions A text or audio description of a media file.

You can add captions to your media files, making it easier to locate and identify them. Captions can be added as text to images, sound, video files, and creations, and also as sound attachments (audio captions), bringing a new dimension to your media collection. For example, you might select a photo and add an audio description of the party or event at which it was taken. You can then include this audio in a slideshow of photos or in a video CD of images. Text captions appear under images included in Web Photo Galleries, photo albums, and calendars, so it's well worth the extra time and effort to add them.

Because the catalog contains a list of each media file and its location, date, size, caption, markers, and other properties, it's important to create a backup copy of the catalog from time to time. The backup copy aids in data recovery, should something happen to the original catalog file. See 14 Back Up the Organizer Catalog. Backing up the catalog also copies your image, audio, and video files onto the backup disc, so performing a backup from time to time is critical. If you're ready to offload your images, video, and audio files to a permanent location such as a CD-ROM or DVD, you can copy just those files to disc. See 15 Copy Items onto CD-ROM or DVD. As another protection against the loss of your original images, any changes you initiate from within the Organizer (whether you use the Editor or another graphics editor such as Photoshop to complete them) can be easily saved to a new image file.

A Look at the Organizer Work Area

You can start the Organizer from the Welcome window (by clicking the View and Organize Photos button) or from within the Editor (by clicking the Photo Browser or Date View button on the Shortcuts bar). The Organizer work area is then displayed. If this is your first time using the Organizer, you should perform an initial search for media files, as described in 2 Perform an Initial Scan for Media. After importing some media files into the catalog, you're ready to familiarize yourself with the Organizer work area. The work area can appear in one of two ways: as a browser or as a calendar. For now, I'll assume that you're using Photo Browser view because that's the default view. If you're using Date View (where images are displayed within a large calendar), see 38 Find Items with the Same Date for more information.

NOTE

The Organizer recognizes only particular image file types (PSD, JPEG/JPG, TIFF/TIF, BMP, PNG, and GIF to name a few), so it can import images in only these file types. The Organizer also recognizes MP3 and WAV audio files, AVI, MPEG, and MOV video files, and PDF documents (Adobe portable document format files, which often contain images).

In the Organizer work area, you'll find the tools you need to organize and use your media files. At the top of the work area is the menu bar. Just like any other program, you click a menu to open it, and then click the menu command you want. Below the menu bar are the Shortcuts bar, Timeline, Organize Bin, Find bar, photo well, and Options bar. Let's take a closer look at each of these features.

NOTE

The Status bar appears below the Options bar, and lists the total number of items currently being displayed. Occasionally, a Notification icon may appear in the middle of the Status bar; click it to display messages from Adobe, such as a new update or a sale on photo services

The Organizer work area.

Shortcuts Bar

See Also

38 Find Items with the Same Date

64 About Printing Images

109 Apply a Quick Fix

155 About Emailing

Below the menu bar, you'll find the Shortcuts bara toolbar of buttons for common commands such as importing media files into the catalog, sharing and printing images, and making creations. Some buttons on the Shortcuts bar require a bit more explanation than others. After you've searched for and displayed a group of similar media files, you can redisplay a previously selected group of items by clicking the Back button. To return to the most recent search results, click the Forward button. If you select an image in the photo well and click the Edit button, you'll see a menu of choices. Select either Go to Quick Fix or Go to Standard Edit, and the Editor automatically appears with the image displayed so that you can make changes to it. Choose Auto Fix Window, and you'll display the Auto Fix dialog boxa simple Organizer tool you can use to apply a series of automated changes to an image. At the far right end of the Shortcuts bar, you'll see two buttons: click Photo Browser to display items in the photo well as shown here; click Date View to display items within a calendar. By clicking any date in the calendar that appears when you switch to Date View, you can review images taken and other media files created on that date, one by one. See 38 Find Items with the Same Date.

TIP

If you're unsure of the purpose of any button on the Shortcuts bar, simply move the mouse pointer over the button; a tooltip appears, displaying a description for that button.

NOTE

Some buttons on the Shortcuts bar (such as the Get Photos button) have down-pointing arrows; click the arrow to reveal a menu of commands related to the button. Click a command on this menu to select it.

The Organizer Shortcuts bar.

Timeline

See Also

39 Find Items Within a Date Range

Under the Shortcuts bar, you'll find the Timeline. With it, you can quickly display items created on a particular date or within a range of dates. You'll learn to use the Timeline in 39 Find Items Within a Date Range.

You can also get some quick information from the Timeline: Dates on which items were created are represented by a bar on the Timeline graph; the more items associated with a particular date, the taller the bar.

Find Bar

See Also

34 Find Items with the Same Marker

By dragging tags or collection markers onto the Find bar, you can display items that have the same content or purpose. You can also remove these restrictions quickly, redisplaying all media files in the catalog, by clicking the Back to All Photos button. The Find bar also displays how many items match or closely match your criteria, and how many do not. See 34 Find Items with the Same Marker.

Organize Bin

See Also

27 Attach a Marker to an Item

The Organize Bin displays the current list of tags and collection markers that you can attach to items in the catalog to identify their content or purpose. When you see a binocular icon in front of a particular tag or collection in the Organize Bin, it indicates that only items with that tag or collection marker are currently being displayed. To display all images again, click the Back to All Photos button on the Find bar. You'll learn how to attach tags and collection markers to images and other media files in 27 Attach a Marker to an Item.

NOTE

To quickly view the properties of any item in the catalog, display the Properties Pane in the Organize Bin. See 53 About Image Information.

Photo Well

See Also

18 Sort Items

19 Stack Items

21 Play an Audio File

22 View a Video

23 Change Image Date and Time

Images, video, audio files, and creations matching the current search criteria are displayed in the photo well, typically in date order with the more recent files displayed first. You can change the order of display, arranging files in reverse date order, by folder location, by the batch in which they were imported into the catalog, by color similarity, by collection or tag, photo stack, or version set. You can also change the size of the thumbnails in the photo well.

Each item in the photo well is displayed with the date and time the file was originally created or scanned. Typically, items appear in reverse date order, with newly created or scanned images appearing at the top of the photo well. If you edit an image, the date it was modified is saved, but the image's creation date is not changed. This enables you to always display images grouped with other images taken that same day, whether or not you edit one of them. The date on which an item was imported into the catalog is also noted, so you can group items by import batch. You can modify these dates if you find they don't reflect what you expect; see 23 Change Image Date and Time.

NOTE

Actually, audio files are not initially displayed in the photo well at all, even if they are added to the catalog. To control which file types are displayed, select View, Media Types, select the types to display (such as Photos or Audio), and click OK.

The thumbnails for selected files are surrounded by a blue outline. You might select several images, for example, to include them in a slideshow you want to create. To select one item, click it. To select multiple contiguous items, click the first item, press and hold the Shift key, and then click the last item in the group. To select items that are not contiguous, press and hold the Ctrl key as you click each item.

KEY TERM

Thumbnail A small version of an image generally appearing in a group of other small images, but just large enough so that you can easily distinguish it from the others.

Icons in the photo well indicate various things.

Icons appear with each item as well, indicating various things:

• Whether the file is stored locally or offline (on a CD, for example)

• Whether an audio caption is attached to the file

• Whether the file is a video file

• Whether the file has been edited and stacked with the original in a version set

• Whether the image has been manually placed together with similar images in a stack

• Any associated tags or collection markers, such as a particular family member or event

Options Bar

See Also

16 Review Images

17 Change Thumbnail Size

18 Sort Images

19 Stack Items

The Options bar helps you control the sort order and size of the thumbnails in the photo well. (See 17 Change Thumbnail Size and 18 Sort Items.) You can also use the Options bar to quickly rotate an image, display the Properties pane (with which you can change an item's properties, such as its text caption), and display each item's date, time, markers, and other properties. You can also start a photo review, in which the currently displayed items appear full-screen, one at a time, automatically.

The Options bar.