Not able to find my photographs in Adobe Photoshop Elements Organizer !!!

Recently I saw one post on Adobe Forums where one of our elements friend was not able to find his files which were imported two months back. Since there can be multiple reasons of files missing in a catalog, so it was not an easy task to guess what all could have caused this. Here I would want to share few basic things that give information about files in a catalog, how they are shown in different views, count, hiding some particular files etc.

Here is some information which may be helpful for troubleshooting problems of not finding files...

How to see File-Names in Photoshop Elements Organizer

When we launch Elements Organizer, we don't see file names by default in image-well !!! Let's see how can be see file-names just below each thumbnail in Organizer...

Image below shows a view when only thumbnails are shown in Organizer and no names...

 

Go to Edit Menu where you see 'Show File Names' disabled. To enable this option, just check the option for 'Details' ...

 

Here is what you should see after checking the option for 'Details'...

After checking Details, it starts showing star rating and date...

Next step is to check 'Show File Names' to see names along with Star-rating and Date/Time under thumbnails...

 

After checking this option we see file names :)

Few more things to note - 

- These details also go away if we reduce the size of thumbnails...

- There is another way to mark Details On ; In 8th version there is a checkbox just above image-well !!!

What is .pse format ???

.pse is a format which is created by Adobe Photoshop Elements. This format is used for some interesting creations which can be created using this software only. Most famous creation in .PSE file is Photo-Book. Adobe Photoshop Elements provide some ways to create Photo-book with multiple photographs, backgrounds, frames etc and finally can be uploaded to Kodak website for fine printing of the Photobook. I have personally ordered one Kodak book and liked the quality with respect to the money they charge for it.

.PSE format is simply a set of different PSD files organized in some specific way. Now I am PSD is familiar to you. Just to add some introdcution, PSD is PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT file which supports layers.

PSE - Photoshop Elements file
PSD - Photoshop Document

How can we sort our Photographs in Organizer?

Different Types of sorting in Adobe Photoshop Elements Organizer: 

Here are few parameters used for sorting your files in Photoshop Elements Organizer:

1. Oldest First

2. Newest First

3. File-Names

4. Custom Order

Now you might have doubt that I have not seen options for sorting in Custom Order or File-name. But Yes, you can sort your files according to File-Names as well as in custom order you want.

How can we sort files according to File-Names?

1. Launch Organizer
2. Go to Folder View from Display options in top bar of Organizer. (PSE8)
3. Select a particular folder where your files are are.
4. You will see all files sorted according to file-names. (This is applicable for one folder only)

How can we sort files in Custom Order?

For sorting some files in custom order , we need to create an Album. As we click on that album to see its content, sorting dropdown will be Album-Order selected by default. In this state, you drag and drop album files anywhere. Try and comment back in case it doesn't work for you...

How files are sorted which are shot on single day and sorting order selected in 'Newest First' ???

There is a preference in Organizer where we can specify sorting of such files in Imagewell:

1. Go to Edit>Preferences>General
2. Opt appropriate option for Display Options > Date(Newest First) 

        - Show oldest First in each day
        - Show Newest First in each day
 

 Write back in case you know any other good way of sorting files within Organizer...