Making new catalog using images from multiple other catalogs
Hello - I keep separate catalogs for each year. Now I would like to make a new catalog that consists of select images that are already in these other catalogs, without removing them from their original (year by year) cats. For example, maybe the new catalog is "travel" but it references images from 2015 and up, and we don't want to actually take them out of their source cat, just have them be referenced in the new cat.
I have seen a number of suggestions here for similar situations, but so far none that quite do what I want. Can anyone help? It would be great if there were a simple drag-and-drop method that maintains all the adjustments. Many thanks, Jim Scherer
-
You use the term referenced, but also refer to files in the catalog, I presume your files are not referenced.
You could export the images with their metadata in a sidecar and then import them into the new catalog. If the images reside in your source catalog, you would end up with copies of the source image files in multiple catalogs, which is not very efficient. If you convert these to referenced files, you would only need a single copy of the image.
0 -
Hi Jerry - Sorry if I was not totally clear. My images all reside within a master folder for each year. The catalog for that year also lives in the same folder for that particular year. None of the images are IN the catalogs, they all live separately within the folder that corresponds to the year.
I am looking to catalog up to a thousand images from the yearly folders into this new "uber" catalog, consisting of images from multiple years' work. It would be too time consuming for me to individually export each, then re-import each. And as you say, it would double the needed disc space. So I want the new catalog simply to point to the same file where it currently lives, without duplication. Does that make sense?
0 -
I have solved this problem for myself by creating a smart folder for favorites. There are a variety of ways to mark the favorites, either by rating, color tag or metadata in a field of your choice. Once the images are in the favorites smart folder you have created, you can export that smart folder. You will have to export favorites separately from each of your catalogs. Then you can import them into a new favorites catalog. You can then rearrange them in any structure you like in the resulting "uber" catalog.
This approach will export and import the images with their metadata and edits.
I suppose it would be possible to automate the process so that all of the individual favorites smart folders would synchronize with your "uber" catalog, but that is way beyond my ability.
0 -
Thank you Jerry! I will try this out later today. I appreciate the help. Jim
0
Post is closed for comments.
Comments
4 comments