Elements 8 Question

I recently bought a new printer and a copy of Elements 8 was included. I am puzzled on the organizer. Every photo editor program I've used showed all my picture folders/sub folders in a sidebar to the left of the window. It was easy to just click on a folder and I could view all my pictures at once. Is this the way Elements is? I went to import pictures and it wouldn't even let me import the entire folder, I had to select the pictures I wanted on the screen and the only way to get them off the screen is to select and "remove from catalog". I'm hoping this isn't the way Elements works, it seems backwards. For now, I'm hesitant to delete my Canon Digital Photo Professional Program.
I picked up a used book on Elements 7 by Kelby & Kloskowski and I didn't see anything in there where there was a sidebar showing all your picture folders. Any input would be truly appreciated.

Thanks!
James

Not sure about your importing question but, yes, PSE will show you a folder tree along the left side of the screen if you want it to. Click on EDIT and then click PREFERENCES to see what options you can set for Folder view and importing.

I went to the organizer and in preferences I didn't see anything relating to showing all folders. Can you go into detail a little more as far as bringing up the folder tree?

BobOh wrote in post #13407852
Not sure about your importing question but, yes, PSE will show you a folder tree along the left side of the screen if you want it to. Click on EDIT and then click PREFERENCES to see what options you can set for Folder view and importing.

If you are interested in using Elements, you might want to get the latest version 10. See thread link below.


https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1115533

Thanks for the tip although there is no Costco around here but I'm thinking they sell on line as well. I'll check it out.

James Emory wrote in post #13408108
Thanks for the tip although there is no Costco around here but I'm thinking they sell on line as well. I'll check it out.

If you want to learn about PS Elements, check out Elements Village. They are the experts on all things Elements.

Thanks, I just registered and I need all the help I can get. The first time the editing screen came up I got cold feet.

Preeb wrote in post #13408207
If you want to learn about PS Elements, check out Elements Village. They are the experts on all things Elements.

Re the importing problem, do you not have the menu option File > Get Photos and Videos > From Files and folders?

Paul Barrett wrote in post #13408687
Re the importing problem, do you not have the menu option File > Get Photos and Videos > From Files and folders?

Oh, I do have that but I was hoping the folder tree would be on the left so if I clicked on a folder, all the pics would come up and when I was through, just close out without having to do anything. From what I can see so far, I have to click the pics I want to edit and then I have to remove them from the catalog. I really like the aforementioned method much better.

OK, so you do a one time import to get all your pics into the catalog.

Next you set up a watch folder setting so that all new files added to the Pictures folders are automatically added to the catalog.

You also set the camera card import settings to import to a set of folders that it creates automatically based on the date taken.

Once you have done that, keeping the folders and catalog up to date is automated. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do with tags and face recognition to help your organise and slice and dice your catalog, but don't worry about that for now.

OK, so, editing. When you browse through the organiser and see a pic you want to edit, select it then look to the right / top of the screen and select Fix > and then one of the edit options. I agree that Full Edit is a bit intimidating, but check out the 'Quick' & 'Guided' options - they are a good place to start if, like me, you are an amateur. If you make changes it is good practice to NOT save the edited version over the original, but to save it as a copy in a version set stacked behind the original. That way you can have different versions for different reasons and find them easily

BTW, Ctrl + I will take you straight into the full editor but you can still switch to the guided and quick edits once you get there.

Happy hunting. Come back if you need more.

I should have added, with PSE's timeline, categories and keywords. the windows folders become superfluous - and if you need a folder view it's just as easy to open Windows Explorer

But when I import all photos, the folders they were in will not go with them, correct? I will have a mess on my hands and so far, I didn't see a way to create folders on Elements 8. On the slide show item, looks like you have to individually choose the photos you want in the show. You just can't click on a folder and all the pics in the folder will be shown. I'll have to do like you said, if I want to look at a folder tree I need to use another program. I do thank you for your welcome input.

Paul Barrett wrote in post #13408817
OK, so you do a one time import to get all your pics into the catalog.

Next you set up a watch folder setting so that all new files added to the Pictures folders are automatically added to the catalog.

You also set the camera card import settings to import to a set of folders that it creates automatically based on the date taken.

Once you have done that, keeping the folders and catalog up to date is automated. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do with tags and face recognition to help your organise and slice and dice your catalog, but don't worry about that for now.

OK, so, editing. When you browse through the organiser and see a pic you want to edit, select it then look to the right / top of the screen and select Fix > and then one of the edit options. I agree that Full Edit is a bit intimidating, but check out the 'Quick' & 'Guided' options - they are a good place to start if, like me, you are an amateur. If you make changes it is good practice to NOT save the edited version over the original, but to save it as a copy in a version set stacked behind the original. That way you can have different versions for different reasons and find them easily

BTW, Ctrl + I will take you straight into the full editor but you can still switch to the guided and quick edits once you get there.

Happy hunting. Come back if you need more.

James Emory wrote in post #13409030
But when I import all photos, the folders they were in will not go with them, correct? I will have a mess on my hands and so far, I didn't see a way to create folders on Elements 8. On the slide show item, looks like you have to individually choose the photos you want in the show. You just can't click on a folder and all the pics in the folder will be shown. I'll have to do like you said, if I want to look at a folder tree I need to use another program. I do thank you for your welcome input.

You use the keyword tagging feature to label and then sort by the labels you attach. You can use several keywords to a particular image, and then it will come up in a search for any of those keywords. For instance, you have photos of your wife, taken on your 10th anniversary, on a cruise in the Caribbean. You can tag those with your wife's name, celebrations, travel, Caribbean, cruise - each is an individual keyword, but when you do a catalog search for any of those keywords, that group of photos will appear in the sort, and any which don't fit the search criteria will not be displayed. You can still keep them in identifiable folders in Windows if you like, but they will all be in one catalog in PSE Organizer. It actually works pretty well.

You can still view the catalog by folders by going to the Display tab in the upper right corner and selecting "Folder Location" from the dropdown menu. (this is using the Elements 9 and 10 organizer - I don't know if PSE 8 works exactly the same way)

James Emory wrote in post #13409030
But when I import all photos, the folders they were in will not go with them, correct? I will have a mess on my hands and so far, I didn't see a way to create folders on Elements 8. On the slide show item, looks like you have to individually choose the photos you want in the show. You just can't click on a folder and all the pics in the folder will be shown. I'll have to do like you said, if I want to look at a folder tree I need to use another program. I do thank you for your welcome input.

To be clear. The actual photos don't move anywhere. They continue to sit in the Windows folders where you placed them or where PSE put them as part of the automated import I mentioned before. "All" that PSE does is catalog them. The catalog stands apart from the source pics. It contains links to the actual file locations, the keyword tags etc - all the stuff it needs to add value. It isn't colocated with the pics (I'm not sure where it is - probably in the Adobe folder.) And you will be prompted to back up the catalog from time-to-time.

So there's no duplication or moving, But you need to be careful - if you catalog folders and then delete or move contents or folders you will break the link to the catalog item.

Think of the catalog as a bolt on super index plus toolkit to use with the windows folders.

To the point made by Preeb, in PSE 8, if you go to the top right of the screen there is a 'Display' option. Click on that to find the options for folder display. I can confirm it works - just did it. But that's the first time I've used it in 8 years of using PSE.

It's beginning to make sense now. I can tag 15 pics as "Amy's Baby Shower" and if I want to look at them all I do is search "Amy's Baby Shower" I'll have to learn how to do that. It does sound like it will be better because as you said, you can tag a photo with as many names as you want. Anything with my daughter Amy can be tagged Amy if we just wanted to look at her photos. I'm starting to like this idea now. I truly appreciate everyone's patience with me and the help you have given me. At first glance, Elements can be intimidating for sure but the more you use it the more comfortable you become with it....much like anything else.