Finding media files by content, type, and metadata in Elements Organizer

Using the Find menu

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Elements Organizer User Guide

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Applies to: Elements Organizer

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Learn how to use Advanced Search in which Tag search has been extended to include Keyword tags along with People, Places, and Events.

Find media items using Advanced Search

Elements Organizer offers Advanced Search, using which Tag search has been extended to include Keyword tags along with People, Places and Events. When you start a search from Keyword tags panel, Advanced Search is launched with the selected keyword tag being checked and grid shows the search results. Use Advanced Search to quickly search for media based on various tags. 

  1. Choose Find > Using Advanced Search. The Advanced Search bar displays.
  2. Specify the search criteria for Keywords, People, Places, and Events.
    • Click an item to include it in the search criteria.
    • Right-click/Control-click an item and choose Exclude to remove it from the search criteria.

The media items that match the search criteria are displayed.

Find media files by details (metadata)

You can search by file details or metadata available in your images. Searching by metadata is useful when you want to search using multiple criteria at once. For example, if you want to find all photos taken on 12/31/2011 that include the “Mom” tag, you can search for both capture date and keyword tags in the Find By Details (Metadata) dialog box.

Searchable metadata includes criteria such as the following:

  • people
  • places
  • events
  • filename
  • file type
  • tags
  • albums
  • notes
  • author
  • capture date
  • camera model
  • shutter speed
  • F‑stop

Note:

Searching for camera raw files also finds TIFF files with a .tif extension.

search-by-metadata
Search for various photo details at once using the Find By Details (Metadata) dialog box.

  1. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > By Details (Metadata).

  2. In the Find By Details (Metadata) dialog box, select a metadata type from the first pop‑up menu.

  3. In the second pop‑up menu, select a range for the search, such as Starts With, Is Greater Than, or Contains. This range tells Elements Organizer how to use the text that you enter in the third pop‑up menu. Not all criteria include a second pop‑up menu.

  4. In the third pop‑up menu, type or choose the metadata name or value that you want to find.
  5. To include other metadata values in your search, click the plus (+) sign to the right of the third pop‑up menu and specify new values for the two or three pop‑up menus that appear.
  6. To remove metadata from your search, click the minus (‑) sign to the right of the third pop‑up menu for the metadata you want to remove.

  7. (Optional) Enable Save this Search Criteria as Saved Search and enter a name for the search.

  8. Click Search.

    Note:

    To modify the search, click Options > Modify Search Criteria in the Find bar and make changes as desired; then click Search.

Find files by media type

You can choose to view just one type of media file in Elements Organizer. When you select a media type, you can perform other searches that look only for the type of media you want. If you want to search by media type along with one or more other search criteria, use the Find > By Details (Metadata) command.

  1. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > By Media Type, and then choose one of the following options:

    Photos

    Displays just photos.

    Video

    Displays thumbnails of video clips (the first frame of the video clip is shown).

    Audio

    Displays audio clips.

    Projects

    Displays projects you made using previous versions of Elements Organizer 11.

    Items With Audio Captions

    Displays photos and projects to which you’ve attached audio captions.

The files of the selected media type appear in the Media view.

Find media files by history

Elements Organizer helps you track where you got media files from, how you used them, and how you shared or exported them. You can use this stored history to find photos and media files.

  1. Choose Find > By History. You can search by any of the criteria commands listed in the By History submenu.

    Note:

    The options Exported On and Printed On are not available on Mac OS.

  2. In the Select One Or More Groups You [Imported, E-mailed, etc.] dialog box, select one or more items in the list, and click OK.

    Note:

    To permanently remove a particular history reference from the list, select the list item in the Select One Or More Groups You [Imported, E-mailed, etc.] dialog box, and then click the Delete button or press Delete on your keyboard. The Delete button is not available for searches based on Imported On, or Used In Projects histories.

Find media files by caption or note

You can search for captions or notes using either the Find By Caption Or Note option or the Find By Details (Metadata) option. If you want to search for a caption or note along with one or more other search criteria, use the Find By Details (Metadata) option.

  1. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > By Caption Or Note.

  2. In the Find By Caption Or Note dialog box, type a word or phrase in the textbox.

  3. Select one of the following, and click OK:

    Match Only The Beginning Of Words In Captions And Notes

    Finds media files and other files with notes or captions containing the beginning letters of the words you type.

    Match Any Part Of Any Word In Captions And Notes

    Finds photos and other files with notes or captions containing any portion of the words you type.

Find media files by filename

You can search by filename using either the Find By Filename option or the Find By Details (Metadata) option. If you want to search by filename along with one or more other search criteria, use the Find by Details (Metadata) option.

  1. In the Elements Organizer, choose Find > By Filename.

  2. Type a word in the Find By Filename dialog box to search for files with names that contain the word, and then click OK.

    Note:

    You can also type a file extension (JPEG, BMP, and so on) in the Find By Filename dialog box to find files of a certain file type.

Find all missing files

You can search for missing files in your projects or creations. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > All Missing Files.

Find all version sets

When you search for all version sets, Elements Organizer displays the top photos of each set. You can expand each set as desired.

  1. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > All Version Sets.

  2. To expand a version set, right-click/control-click it and choose Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set.

Find all stacks

You can search for all stacks in your catalog. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > All Stacks.

Find using visual searches

For search based on visual similarity, Elements Organizer uses information in the photo such as the color and shape of objects during search. Use visual search to quickly search images containing similar objects, colors, or shapes. You can also choose to specify the relative importance Elements Organizer assigns to colors and shapes when searching photos.

In Elements Organizer, Choose Find > By Visual Searches. You can search by any of the criteria commands listed in the By Visual Searches submenu. For more information, see Search based on visual similarity.

Find media files with unknown dates or times

  1. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > Items With Unknown Date Or Time. The Media view displays the media files in which date or time is set to unknown.

Find untagged items

In Elements Organizer, choose Find > Untagged Items.

All the media files in your catalog that don’t have keyword tags, people, places, or events assigned are displayed.

Find unanalyzed content

In Elements Organizer, choose Find > Unanalyzed Content.

All the media files in your catalog that haven't been analyzed are displayed.

Find items not in any album

You can search all media items that are not included in any albums. In Elements Organizer, choose Find > Items not in any Album.

Find photos used in projects

  1. Do one of the following:
    • In the Media view, right-click the project and choose Show Project Items In Media view. The photos appear in the Media view. This command is useful if you want to edit the captions or make other changes to the photos in your project.
    • Drag the project onto the find bar to display the photos in the Media view.
    • Choose Find > By History > Used In Projects. A list of projects appears. Double-click an item, or select one or more items and click OK to view the media used in the project.

Note:

You can also find out whether a photo is used in a project by looking under History in the Properties panel.