19. Stack Images See Also  42 Hide Items You Dont Generally Use
 45 About Editing Images
When editing a photo, you might create several copies, each with a different set of changes. This method of editing images enables you to compare various approaches to fixing the problems in a photograph and to select the best result. The only problem with creating several versions of one image is that these extra copies can clutter the catalog fairly quickly. Even if you're not an editing fool like I am, you might be a picture-taking one, recording a lot of similar photos at an event, in the hopes that one of them will come out okay. And all these similar photos can clutter up your catalog as well. KEY TERM  | Stack A group of related images, typically displayed in the catalog with a single thumbnail. A stack can be expanded to display all the images in the group. |
In any case, if you find that you have a lot of copies of the same imageor lots of similar images taken at roughly the same timeyou can still keep them all in the catalog. Simply stack the images as explained in this task; the thumbnail of the latest image is all that shows up in the photo well. When needed, you can expand the stack and display all the related images in the stack. NOTE  | If you use the Editor to edit an image and create a different version of it, you can create a version set (which includes the original image and the edited version) when you save your changes. A version set is similar to the image stack discussed here, except that an image stack is created manually and can include any images you want to stack together. (See 47 About Saving Images to learn more about version sets.) |
1. | Select Images to Stack
In the Organizer, click the first image you want to stack, then press Ctrl and click additional images to stack. Selected images appear with a blue border. The images do not have to look alike for you to be able to stack them.
| 2. | Choose Edit, Stack, Stack Selected Photos
Select Edit, Stack, Stack Selected Photos from the menu bar. The images you selected in step 1 are now stacked.
| 3. | View the Result
A single thumbnail of the newest image now represents the stack of images. To remind you that the thumbnail represents a stack, the stack icon appears in the upper-right corner of the thumbnail.
TIP  | If you want to select a group of related images (such as all the images of your sister walking across the stage and receiving her diploma), use the Find bar to display them, and then select the ones you want to stack. See 33 About Finding Items in the Catalog. If you want to stack all the images in the same folder or batch, sort them that way first (see 18 Sort Items), and then click the gray bar above a group to select all the images in that batch or folder. |
| 4. | Redisplay Images in the Stack
To redisplay the images in a stack later on, select the stack image (the one with the stack icon). Then choose Edit, Stack, Reveal Photos in Stack.
 | 5. | Recompress the Stack
NOTE | To unstack a stack of images so that each image is represented in the catalog by its own thumbnail once again, select the stack thumbnail and choose Edit, Stack, Unstack Photos. If you don't want to keep the extra images in the stack, and you want to retain only the top photo in the catalog (the one displayed on the thumbnail), select the stack and click Edit, Stack, Flatten Stack. The extra images are removed from the catalog; you'll be asked whether you want to remove the extra photos from the hard disk as well. |
The stack is expanded and all its photos are displayed in a Find window. At this point, you can select a new photo to represent the stack by simply selecting an image and choosing Edit, Stack, Set as Top Photo. To remove a photo from the stack, select it and then click Edit, Stack, Remove Photo from Stack (this action does not remove the photo from the catalog or the hard disk). To hide the images in the stack again (to recompress the stack so that only one thumbnail represents the stack of images), simply click Back to All Photos. Be sure to look in the Color Gallery to see the details of the stack.
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