In the Media view select
a version set and do one of the following:
Last updated on
16 May 2021
- 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
- Creating albums and album categories
- Editing albums and album categories
- Create and edit catalogs in Elements Organizer
- Back up or restore catalogs | Elements Organizer 2018
- Tag your media
- Using Smart Tags
- Creating and editing Saved Searches
- Back up or restore catalogs | Elements Organizer 15 and earlier versions
- Troubleshooting catalog issues
- Searching photos and videos
- Creating photo projects
- Creating video projects
- Printing, sharing, and exporting
Learn about grouping photos in version sets in Elements Organizer.
About version sets
A
version set 
is
a type of stack that contains one original photo and its edited versions.
Version sets make it easy to find both the edited versions of an
image and the original, because they are visually stacked together.
When you edit a photo with Instant Fix, organizer automatically puts the photo and its edited copy together in a version set. When you edit a photo in Editor, choose File > Save As, you can select the Save In Version Set With Original option to put the photo and its edited copy together in a version set.
If you edit a photo that’s already in a stack, the photo and its edited copy are put in a version set that is nested in the original stack. If you edit a photo that’s already in a version set, the edited copy is placed at the top of the existing version set. Elements Organizer does not nest version sets within version sets—a version set can contain only one original and its edited versions.
Note:
In general, only photos can be stacked in version sets.
Tips for working with version sets
Keep the following in mind when working with version sets:
Edit your image in Elements Organizer. Using an external editor (not opened from Elements Organizer) breaks the database link, so Elements Organizer can’t track the edit history of the image files and update the version set. You can’t manually add a file to a version set, but you can use the Stack command to stack these types of versions.
If you apply a keyword tag to a collapsed version set, the tag is applied to all items in the set. If you apply it to a single photo in an expanded set, the tag is applied only to that photo. When you search for a tag, each photo in a version set containing that tag will be displayed as an individual photo in the search results.
It’s possible to stack version sets. The stacked version sets appear as a single stack with the newest photo placed on top. Although regular stacks are merged when stacked together, version sets are preserved when stacked together.
If the version set contains only the original and the edited version and you delete one of the two, the remaining photo appears unstacked (not part of a version set) in the Media view. If the version set was nested in a stack, the photo appears without the version set icon when you expand the stack.
To find all version sets, choose Find > All Version Sets.
You can remove or delete individual photos from a version set, and you can convert the version set to individual photos so that each photo in the set appears separately in your catalog.
You can access most version set commands by right-clicking or by using the Edit menu.
You can see the edit history of photos in a version set in the History tab of the Properties panel.
Manually save a version set
If you edit a file in the Elements Organizer, a version set is automatically created for you. If you edit a file in the Editor, you need to manually save the edits to a version set.
In the Editor, do one of the following:
- Edit a file, and then choose File > Save (when you first edit and save a photo, Elements Organizer automatically opens the Save As dialog box) or File > Save As. Select the Save In Version Set With Original option, specify a name for the file (or leave the default name), and click Save.
- Re‑edit a previously edited photo, and then choose File >
Save As to create a separate copy of the edited version. Select
the Save In Version Set With Original option, specify a name for
the file and click Save.
The newly edited copy is placed at the top of the version set when viewed in the Media view.
View all photos in a version set
While viewing all photos in a version set, you can edit any photo, make a photo the topmost, delete any photo in the version set, or add tags to any photo (when you add a tag to one photo in a set, it is applied to all photos).
-
Click the Expand button beside the version set thumbnail.
Choose Edit > Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set.
-
While viewing the expanded version set, do one or more of the following:
Rearrange, delete, or tag the photos.
Modify a photo using Instant Fix or in Photoshop Elements Editor using Full Edit (and then save the file).
-
When you are finished, collapse the photos in the version set by doing one of the following:
Click the Collapse button beside the version set icon.
Choose Edit > Version Set > Collapse Items In Version Set.
Specify the top photo in a version set
When a version set is created, Elements Organizer places the most recently edited version of the photo on top. You can make a different photo the topmost. When a version set is expanded, the top photo is the leftmost in the Media view.
Note:
Note:
To see a version set that belongs to a stack, you need to first expand the stack.
-
In the Media view, right-click a version set and choose Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set.
-
Right-click the photo you want on top and choose Version Set > Set As Top Item.
-
Right-clickthe new top photo and choose Version Set > Collapse Items In Version Set.
Revert to the original version of a photo
-
In the Media view, select one or more version sets, and then choose Edit > Version Set > Revert To Original. (You can also right-click/ctrl-click and choose this command.)Note:
In the Full Edit workspace, you can use the Undo History panel to return a photo to its original state.
Remove or delete photos from a version set
Removing photos from a version set removes them from the set, but keeps them in your catalog; they appear in the Media view as individual photos. Deleting photos from a version set removes the photos from your catalog, but not from your computer, unless you select Also Delete Items From The Hard Disk.
-
Select a version set and do one of the following:
To remove specific photos from a version set, expand the version set, select one or more photos, and choose Edit > Version Set > Remove Item(s) From Version Set.
To remove all photos from a version set so that they all appear as individual photos in the Media view, select the version set and choose Edit > Version Set > Convert Version Set To Individual Items.
To delete specific photos from a version set, choose Edit > Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set. Select the photos you want to delete and press the Delete key.
To delete all photos from a version set except the top photo, choose Edit > Version Set > Flatten Version Set.
To delete only the top photo from a version set, select the version set in the Media view and choose Edit > Delete From Catalog. In the Confirm Deletion From Catalog dialog box, do not select Delete All Items In Collapsed Version Sets. If you want to delete the top version from your hard disk, select Also Delete Selected Item(s) From The Hard Disk.
To delete all photos from a version set except the original photo, choose Edit > Version Set > Revert To Original.
To delete all photos from a version set including the original photo, choose Edit > Delete From Catalog. In the Confirm Deletion From Catalog dialog box, select the Delete All Items In Collapsed Version Sets option.
To delete the original photo from a version set, choose Edit > Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set. Select the original photo in the version set, and press the Delete key. If the original has only one immediate child (edited copy) and if the immediate child has its own edited copy (child), deleting the original makes the first immediate child the new original of the version set. If the original has multiple children (edited copies), deleting the original keeps the remaining children in a version set.
Note:It’s usually best to save the original version of your photo as a “digital negative” for making variants of the image. A digital negative contains all of the original information, has not been compressed, and has not lost data. Delete it only if you are confident that you’ll never need the original version again. After you delete the original photo from your catalog and computer, you cannot recover it.
Edit photos in a version set
When you edit a photo in a version set and save it using the Save In Version Set With Original option in the Save As dialog box, the edited copy is added to the original version set; it is not nested within an additional version set.
-
In the Media view, do one of the following:
To edit the top photo, select the version set.
To edit a photo other than the top photo, select the version set and choose Edit > Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set. Then select the photo you want to edit.
-
Select the photo and Select Fix > Edit Photos to open the photo in the Editor.
-
Edit the photo and select File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box, select the Save In Version Set With Original option to include the copy and the original in the version set.
The newly edited copy becomes the top photo of the version set.