6 Reasons to use The Organizer within Photoshop Elements
It can happen to anyone. You’re just living a normal life, minding your own business, editing photos and digital scrapbooking your pages within Photoshop Elements… when, BAM! You realize that your hundreds of photos, digital scrapbooking supplies, and digital scrapbooking pages are all over the place, everything is super-messy, and your digital world is just seriously out of control! It’s only then that you make the tough-decision: it’s time to clean up your act and get organized!
If you are using Photoshop Elements on a PC computer, then you can begin organizing your photos and digital supplies using your new best “clean-freak” friend: The Organizer- a handy-dandy feature that’s right inside the program!
Here are Six Reasons why you should use the Photoshop Elements Organizer:
Reason 1: The Catalog. When you bring photo files into the Organizer, the program adds them to what’s called a catalog. Each item (photos, images, supplies, etc) are automatically cataloged by date when you use the Organizer.
You can keep all of your photos in one catalog, or you can store them in separate catalogs. For example, one good use for separate catalogs would be to have one catalog dedicated to photos, another one for digital scrapbooking supplies, and yet another catalog for finished digital scrapbooking pages. If you want to group your images even further, you can place them into similar albums, another example: an album that only included photos of your “summer vacation”.
One of the nice things about your catalog is it doesn’t have to be a lot of work and it doesn’t have to be complicated if you don’t want it to be! But of course, if organizing by date isn’t enough organization for you, you can always make your catalogs more detailed or specific, by making more catalogs or specific albums!
Reason 2: Keyword Tags. For specific organization, use keywords with your images. Keyword tags can help you sort your stuff with better precision. For example, adding a keyword tag of the word “bow” to all your digital scrapbooking bow embellishments would help you sort your digital supplies by a specific type. If you ever were digital scrapbooking later and wanted to use some kind of a digital scrapbooking bow embellishment, you could search within the Organizer, and have all your bow supplies at your fingertips! No more hunting in every folder on your computer to find bow supplies! Or even further, you could use keywords “blue bows”! Adding additional keyword tags only makes your searches even more helpful when it comes time to needing certain supplies, pics, or pages!
Reason 3. Virtual Browser. The Organizer acts very much like a virtual browser as it shows you thumbnail pictures each item within the Organizer. The thumbnails you see in the Organizer are merely “pointers” to the original locations of the actual items. In other words, if I searched for “blue bows,” it might bring up 15 different blue bows thumbnail pictures. Each different bow thumbnail would take you to the original location of that bow supply- whether you made the bow embellishment or bought it from a scrap company and saved it to your computer. The thumbnail could even lead you to different drives on your computer, but the Organizer has brought them into one handy place for you to review and select in one, organized place. It’s convenient and a huge timesaver!
Need to find something and didn’t tag it, then Search!
Reason 4. Find Images using the Search Feature. Besides looking for your photos, supplies, or pages within your catalogs, albums, or using keyword tags, the Organizer also includes a full-featured search tool.
As your collection of photos, digital scrapbooking supplies and digital scrapbooking pages and projects grows this search is great for finding things fast! 
Use the search feature when looking for your very specific pics or supplies.
Reason 5. Map your Images or Digital Scrapbooking Pages. Believe it or not, the Organizer helps you associate your photos or digital scrapbooking pages with certain locations by letting you put the image on a geographic map!
Once you have mapped you photos, or digital scrap pages, then they appear as red pins on the map.
Traveled abroad? Spent a summer vacation on a tropical island? Traveled out of state to see family or friends? Using this feature, you can find certain photos or images by scrolling and zooming in and out of different countries, cities, and even streets!
Using the Organizer, You can Make Things- like a CD Labels and More!
Reason 6. Make things! Once your photos, digital scrapbooking supplies, or digital scrapbooking pages are in the Organizer, then you can use the other features within Photoshop Elements to make things!
For example, I made this CD Label in only a few seconds from a digital scrapbooking page because my finished digital scrapbooking page was in the Organizer!
Because the Organizer is an easy way to organize and find photos, digital scrapbooking supplies, and digital scrapbooking pages, the Organizer is an important step in completing various Photoshop Elements projects!
That’s not all about the Organizer either! Take the Digital Scrapbooks and More Organizer tutorials and learn, step-by-step, how to use the Organizer yourself! It’s easy to use with a little training and it’s a great way to get your photos and supplies clean and tidy! Find photos or digital supplies with ease- using the Organizer!
—–
Want training in the Organizer? Then check out these New Tutorials just for Getting Organized in the Organizer!
How to “Get Organized in the Organizer: A Simple Start in Photoshop Elements, Lesson 1″ is a great Intermediate 3-part tutorial set that will teach you all about the basics of using the Organizer! This Simple Start Lesson Set teaches you easy and simple ways to begin to organizing with the Organizer in Photoshop Elements!
Now that you know how to use Photoshop Elements in the Editor Mode, there’s no doubt that you have plenty of photos and edited photos, digital scrapbooking supplies, and digital scrapbooking projects! After a while, all your photos, supplies, and projects can become a nightmare to sort through and find. So what do you do, you ask? You can easily clean up the digital mess using Photoshop Elements’ Organizer!
How to “Get Organized in the Organizer Using Organizing Features in Elements 7, Lesson 2″ is a great Intermediate 4-part tutorial set that will teach additional tips and organizing features within the Organizer!
Get this coordinating all about-the-Organizer training and learn how to do more advanced organization within the Organizer, like add keyword tags or create albums and categories to bring some much needed order to all of your many digital things! While other companies may focus their Organizer training specifically on photos (and only photos!), Digital Scrapbooks and More reviews organizing both digital photos and digital supplies – for the best of both worlds!
————–
If you are interested in getting more training on how to use the Organizer in Photoshop Elements then make sure you get the Organizer Video Training in our Scrap Shop!
Happy Scrapping and organizing- using the Organizer!
Cheri
