upgrading to PSE/PRE E 9- catalog

[gail spiro]

HI- I've just been given a wonderful birthday present from my family- the newest edition of PE and Pre el. 9, and Steve's new book as well! (I have been using the 6/4 combination for some time).
I have a question about my new catalog. AS I've complained about before, in a previous thread, it's really hard to delete files from PE catalogs- it's unbearably painfully slow.
The way I work, I bring hundreds of clients' photos in at a time to create their shows, and when I am done, I'd really like to get them out of there- they just clog up my catalog for no reason.
I see this upgrade as a way to clean up my organizer, and "start again" but I'm not sure about that- I' ve read some previous threads about this topic, but they don't totally address this issue. Is there a way to start again, and perhaps just bring in some files, without all of them- or is it an "all or nothing" deal-where I have to completely start fresh if I want to eliminate many images? For instance, I have hundreds/thousands? of files of digital scrapbooking supplies that I still want, and some personal photos, but I'd like to get rid of many files at this time. And by the way, is the newer version any easier to delete?
Thanks!
Gail Spiro

[Steve Grisetti]

Hi, Gail--

Wow! You got my book for a birthday present?! How cool is that?!

So it doesn't sound like you want to start your catalog from scratch. But it also doesn't sound like you want to use the current (version 6) catalog either, since it's outdated. Right?

The way I see it, you've got two options:

1) Start your catalog from scratch and just let the Elements Organizer search your drive for media files/photos. This could take a while, but version 9 does it much more efficiently than other versions. So you can just let it run its course.

or

2) Let version 9 update your version 6 catalog but also go to the Organizer's File/Reconnect Missing Files. The program will search its catalog for files that are no longer connected to it (i.e., you've deleted them) and then will give you the option of deleting their references in the catalog. That should give you a fairly up to date catalog.

I'm sure Barb O will check in soon with an even better idea -- but those are the solutions I'd try.

[Barb O]

Hi Gail and Steve,

Here are some initial comments. I am writing these considerations for upgrading from PSE6/PRE4 to PSE9/PRE9 on the same PC/laptop. If you are also moving to a new PC/laptop, please tell us because there are some additional considerations.

1) Start your catalog from scratch and just let the Elements Organizer search your drive for media files/photos. This could take a while, but version 9 does it much more efficiently than other versions. So you can just let it run its course.

-- If plan to start a new catalog from scratch in PSE 9 AND you want to keep the tags that you assigned to your scrapbooking items and your personal photos, you need to have those tags written to the photo files themselves. Now there is a command in the PSE Organizer to write the tags to the photo files, but it does not support all the types of files and it does not always work.

There is a program written by an Adobe customer which can help for writing tags to photo files that support this function - see
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/pho ... g_catalogs

-- if you do want to keep existing tags, you might want to export the Tag structure from the PSE 6 catalog so that you can import the Tag structure (with its categories and subcategories) to a new PSE 9 catalog. (more discussion later if this is relevant)

Let version 9 update your version 6 catalog but also go to the Organizer's File/Reconnect Missing Files. The program will search its catalog for files that are no longer connected to it (i.e., you've deleted them) and then will give you the option of deleting their references in the catalog. That should give you a fairly up to date catalog.

I would suggest a different sequence for these tasks.

1 -- Normally the suggestion is to do the PSE Organizer Reconnect Missing Files command before attempting to upgrade a catalog to a new version: this is because "missing files" (files that do not exist at the folder location known by the PSE Elements catalog) can cause problems during the upgrade processing.
2 -- After completing the Reconnect process on the "old" catalog, on that same "old" catalog also do the
File > Catalog > Repair followed by File > Catalog > Optimize commands/processes.
3 -- Then do the upgrade process under the Elements Organizer 9, to upgrade your catalog for use in version 9.


FYI - there is an Adobe technical document that may be useful during this catalog conversion process.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/859/cpsid_85996.html
We can probably use it to resolve some questions as you work through your process.

[gail spiro]

well, I am using the same computer, for starters. And I've never used Tags- I just create Album Groups and Albums. I keep reading about people using tags, as I go through old threads looking for answers to this question- am I missing out on something amazing here? I really like and feel good about my "album organizational system", but I'm willing to listen if you think I should re-think this, since I am re-starting a new version. But I can always find what I'm looking for in my albums, so I'm not sure why I need tags. Well, I'm really rambling here, but you get my drift...
Gail