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Use Media view to manage photos and videos

Last updated on Oct 19, 2023

Elements Organizer User Guide
Introduction
Workspace and workflow
Importing media files
Viewing and fixing media files
Marking places, faces, and events
Managing catalogs, folders, and albums
Searching photos and videos
Creating photo projects
Creating video projects
1. Create instant movies and video stories
2. Viewing video projects
Printing, sharing, and exporting

The Media view shows thumbnails of the media files in the central area (grid) of the Elements Organizer. See how you can view and sort media (thumbnails of photos, video files, and audio files) present in your albums, folders, and catalogs.

There are four views in Elements Organizer. The Views tab helps you organize and view your media based on the people present in the photos, places they were taken, and the events that are associated with the photos.

Initially, when you import media, the files are displayed in the Media view. You can then mark faces in the photos, identify places the photograph was taken at, and create event stacks in the following views:

Media

The various media files are displayed in this view. You can view the files in this view, fix photos using Instant fix option, view information about specific files using Tags/info option, and perform other operations. See the rest of this page for more information on Media view.

People

The people appearing on your photos can be marked. People’s view helps you arrange stacks based on the people identified in the photos. For more information, see Marking faces in photos and organizing People view.

Places

Photographs have special association with the places they are taken at. You can tag locations to your photos in the Places view. For more information, see Adding and managing place (location) data.

Events

You can create stacks of events containing pictures of that event. For example, you can create an event Dan’s birthday and tag photos of that event. For more information, see Adding and managing event data.

About the Media view

When you open Elements Organizer, by default, all the media open in the Media view.

The Media view shows thumbnails of the media files in the central area (grid) of the Elements Organizer. You can view media (thumbnails of photos, video files, and audio files) present in your albums, folders, and catalogs. You can select items in the Media view to attach tags to them, add them to projects, or edit them.

Set viewing preferences for Media view

Select the Media tab to open the Media view.
Do one of the following:
- (Windows) Choose Edit > Preferences > General.
- (Mac OS) Choose Adobe Elements Organizer > Preferences > General.
Specify the display options as desired, such as the following:

Print Sizes

(Windows only) Specify the print size of the media.

Date (Newest First)

To order pictures within a day such that the newest pictures appear first, choose Show Newest First Within Each Day. To view older pictures first, choose Show Oldest First within Each Day.

Date Format

Select the date format that you want displayed for the timestamp for photos. This option is not available for some languages.

Allow Photos to Resize

To rescale photos more than 100% of actual size and up to the maximum size of the space available, select Allow Photos To Resize. Deselect this option to display small images in their actual size even when more space is available for display.

Use System Font

(Windows only) To display the text in the Elements Organizer user interface using fonts from your computer’s operating system, select Use System Font.

Adjust Date and Time By Clicking On Thumbnail Dates

To edit the date and time details, click to select the photograph, select Adjust Date And Time By Clicking On Thumbnail Dates.

Reset All Warning Dialogs

To re-enable dialog boxes that you had chosen not to display again, click Reset All Warning Dialogs.

Restore Default Settings

Click this button to restore the general viewing preferences to default.

Use Graphics Processor for Video Playback

To use Windows Intel graphics processor for video playback and slideshow.

Media view icons

Some of the following icons appear only when you select the Details option, and others appear at all times. Select View > Details to view the file details.

Stack icon

Indicates that the thumbnail represents a stack of photos.

Version Set icon

Indicates that the thumbnail represents a stack of edited versions of a photo.

Video icon

Indicates that the thumbnail represents a video clip.

Audio icon

Indicates that the thumbnail includes an audio caption.

Multiple Keyword Tag icon

Indicates that more than five keyword tags are attached to the media file. Place the pointer over the tag icon to see the keyword tags attached.

Keyword Tag icons

Indicate the specific keyword tags that are attached to the media file.

Album icon

Indicates this is an album.

Hidden Photo icon

Indicates that the thumbnail is a hidden file.

Project icon

Indicates that the thumbnail is used in a project.

Photo Project icon

Indicates that the photo is part of a multiple page project.

Rating stars

Shows the rating of the photo, on a scale of five stars.

People tag

Shows that the people tag has been added to the photo.

Smart tag

Shows that a smart tag is applied to the media file.

Sort files in Media view

You can sort your media files in various ways:

Newest

Displays the most recently taken or imported media files first. (Within a given day, the media files are shown in the order they were taken, oldest first, unless otherwise specified in the Preferences dialog box.) Newest-first order is convenient when you attach tags to the media files that you imported.

Oldest

Displays media files in the order of the date stamp, the oldest imported files based on date are displayed first.

Name

Displays media files in alphabetical order of name.

Import Batch

Displays media files in the batches in which they were imported and shows how the media files were imported.

Hide and show media files in the Media view

You can mark media files to hide them from view in the Media view without deleting them from your hard disk. Alternatively, you can make hidden files reappear temporarily, or unmark them so that the files always remain visible.

Hide media files by marking them

Select the media files you want to hide. Shift+click the first and last media file of a group of adjacent files to select the entire group. Ctrl+click (Windows)/Command+click (Mac OS) non-adjacent files to select them.
Choose Edit > Visibility > Mark As Hidden to mark the media files for hiding.

A Hidden icon appears in the lower-left corner of each media file selected.
To hide the selected media files in the Elements Organizer, choose Edit > Visibility > Hide Hidden Files.

Note:

You can also right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) on the thumbnails and select the Visibility command from the context menu.

Show media files marked as hidden

Choose Edit > Visibility, and then choose one of the following:

Show All Files

Shows hidden files along with non-hidden files.

Show Only Hidden Files

Shows only hidden files in the Elements Organizer.

Note:

You can also right-click (Windows) /Control+click (Mac OS) on the thumbnails and select the Visibility command from the context menu.

Remove the Hidden icon from the media files

In the Media view, show the media files marked as hidden by choosing View > Hidden Files > Show All Files.
Select the media files from which you want to remove the Hidden icon.

Shift-click the first and last photo in a group of adjacent photos to select the entire group. Ctrl+click (Windows)/Command+click (Mac OS) nonadjacent photos to select them.
Choose Edit > Visibility > Mark As Visible.

Note:

You can also right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) on the thumbnails and select the Visibility command from the context menu.

View and manage files by folders

The My Folders panel displays folders from which media can be organized further into Albums. My Folders panel appears in the left pane below Albums. From this panel, you can manage folders, add files to your catalog, and add or remove folders from Watch Folders status.

There are two views in which the folder structure is displayed.

Tree view

In the Folders panel, switch between the Tree and List views. The Tree view helps determine the physical location of the media present in that folder. Sub-folders of a folder are not displayed by deafult in tree view. Select a folder, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) and select Show All SubFolders to view the Sub-folders of a folder.

List view

This view is displayed by default in the Folders panel. This view is a basic folder structure and you can click on any of the folder to view the media available in that folder.

By default, the folder panel displays all of the folders on your hard disk from which media has been imported into Elements Organizer.

Folders containing managed files have a Managed folder icon . Managed files are files that are imported into a catalog, either manually or automatically. Watched folders have a Watched folder icon

Note:

The Watched Folder option is disabled for network drives.

Elements Organizer automatically imports compatible files saved in watched folders. Folders that are both managed and watched have a Watched And Managed folder icon.

You can view files in a folder and perform different operations using the options available in the My Folders panel.

The Folder hierarchy appears on the left side of the Organizer in the My Folders tab and the image thumbnails appear in the grid.
Select a folder to view its media files. Thumbnails for the files in that folder appear in the grid in Media view.
To add files from a folder to an album, select the folder, and drag and drop the media files from the grid to an Album.
To manage files and folders, select a folder from My Folders and do any of the following:
- Select the folder from which you want to move a file to a different folder.
- To move the file to a different folder, drag the file’s thumbnail in the Media view to the destination folder in the folder panel.
- To view the folder in Explorer, right-click/control-click in the folder hierarchy panel and choose Reveal In Explorer (Windows)/Reveal in Finder (Mac OS).
- To add or remove the folder from watched-folder status, right-click in the left panel, and choose Add To Watched Folders or Remove From Watched Folders.
- To rename the folder, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) the folder and choose Rename Folder. Then type a new name.
- To delete the folder, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) in the folder hierarchy panel and choose Delete Folder.
- You can create instant albums from the folder panel. All the images in the selected folder are added to the instant album. To instantly create an album by the folder name, select the folder, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS), and select Create Instant Album.

Resize, refresh, or hide media thumbnails using Zoom bar

You can change the size of thumbnails of media files, or refresh them after editing the media files in another application. In addition, you can quickly rotate the thumbnails so they appear correctly in the window.

To incrementally change the size of the thumbnail, drag the thumbnail slider in the Zoom bar.
To display the smallest thumbnails possible, move the zoom bar to extreme left(start) of the slider.
To display a single media file, move the zoom bar to the right of extreme right (end) of the slider.
To refresh the thumbnail view, choose View > Refresh.
To rotate an image counterclockwise, click Rotate Left from the task pane; to rotate an image clockwise, click Rotate Right .

Select files in the Media view

Select a media file in the Media view to work with it. A selected thumbnail is highlighted with a dark blue outline.

Do one of the following:

To select a single item, click its thumbnail.
To select multiple adjacent items, hold down Shift and click the first and last items you want to select.
To select multiple nonadjacent items, hold down Ctrl+click (Windows)/Command+click (Mac OS) the items you want.
To select or deselect all items in the Media view, choose Edit > Select All, or Edit > Deselect.

Display and edit media file details

You can choose to display details for each thumbnail, and also how certain details are displayed in the Media view. Also, you can add and edit captions including audio captions, and add and edit date and time information.

Edit media file details

You can edit information related to a media file. For example, you can edit date, attached tags, filename, caption, and audio caption.

In the Media view, do one of the following:
- To edit or add a text caption, select View > Details, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS), and select Add Caption.
- To add, listen to, or edit an audio caption, select View > Details, and double-click the photo. Click the Record Audio Caption button .
- To change the date assigned to a media file, select the thumbnail, choose Edit > Adjust Date and Time. Specify the options from the dialog boxes that appear.
Note:

You can change dates by a single click. To enable this feature, select Edit> Preferences> General (Windows), or Adobe Elements Organizer > Preferences > General (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog, select. Click the date and make the required changes.

Common questions

How do I view RAW, DCIM, or NEF format files?

You can import RAW, DCIM, or NEF format files saved on your computer (Import > From Files and Folders), or directly from your camera (Import > From Camera or Card Reader).

Once imported, these files can be seen in your Elements Organizer view.

Click View > File Names to view the file name extensions of all your files.

Note:

If a particular RAW file does not import, then check whether your version of Adobe Camera Raw is up-to-date. If not, download and install the latest version of Camera Raw, and check whether you are able to import your RAW file.

How do I search for a specific file or files?

In Elements Organizer, you can find photos and media files by: date, visual similarity, star rating, album, folder location, filename, media type, keyword tag, text, or other criteria. You can also sort files in any grouping in chronological, reverse-chronological, or album order.

For more information on searching for specific media, see Searching for media files.

How do I view only a specific type of file?

In the Media view, choose View > Media Types > [type of file].

How do I find (and delete) duplicates of photos?

Click Find > By Visual Searches > Duplicate Photos.

Elements Organizer quickly scans through your photos, and displays photos that are identical, or very similar. You can then select unwanted photos and remove them from the catalog.

How do I stack or unstack photos? How do I view individual photos in a stack? How do I remove a specific photo from a stack of photos?

Stack photos

To stack photos, select a set of photos, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) choose Stack > Stack Selected Photos. You can also right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) a set of photos and let Elements Organizer automatically stack similar looking photos by clicking Stack > Automatically Suggest Photo Stacks.

Unstack photos

To unstack photos, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) a stack of photos and select Stack > Unstack Photos.

View stacked photos

To view photos in a stack without actually unstacking the set, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) the photo stack, and select Stack > Expand Photos in Stack. All the photos in the stack are visible in the Media view.

To collapse expanded photos back into the stack, right-click the original photo in the stack (the one with the Stack icon), and select Stack > Collapse Photos in Stack.

Remove a photo from a stack

To remove a photo from an expanded stack of photos, right-click (Windows)/Control+click (Mac OS) the photo in the stack, and select Stack > Remove Photo from Stack.

How do I view details such as the date and time when a photo was taken?

To view information such as the date and time a photo or video was taken, select View > Details. You can view this information appear below the media. You can also select an image and select the Information panel on the right to get more details about a particular image.

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