Getting started: Hiding and deleting photos

You can use this tutorial with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements versions 7 and 8.

Don't be hasty in deleting unwanted photos. Instead, use the Hide Photos feature in Adobe® Photoshop® Elements to hide photos from view. You can unhide photos at any time.

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Requirements

To complete this tutorial, install the following software:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later

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Hiding a photo in the Organizer workspace

Let's say that you have two similar looking photos. You may want to hide one and leave your favorite version visible.

1. Click the photo you want to hide to select it. To select and hide more than one photo at a time, start by selecting the first photo. Then, hold down the Ctrl key as you click additional photos.
2. Choose Edit > Visibility > Mark as Hidden.

   The photos you selected are temporarily invisible. They are still located on the computer and the Photoshop Elements' Organizer tracks them as part of the catalog.

Revealing hidden photos

If at any time you want to reveal the hidden photos in the Organizer, you can simply mark them as visible. But to do that you have to get the hidden thumbnails back in view. You can show all files (including hidden files), or show only hidden files.

1. Select Edit > Visibility > Show All Files.All photos, including hidden files, are shown in the Photo Browser. Files that are hidden have a small icon of a sleeping eye, as shown in Figure 1.

   

   Figure 1: A hidden file

   If you want the hidden files to remain hidden, you can return to the default view of hiding hidden files.

2. Choose Edit > Visibility > Hide Hidden Files.

Deleting photos

Hiding a photo is more conservative than deleting the file from your hard disk. But, there may be times when you want to remove a photo from the Organizer, or even from the hard disk completely.

1. Click to select the photo you want to delete.
2. Choose Edit > Delete From Catalog. A message, shown in Figure 2, tells you this item is now going to be deleted from the catalog.

   

   Figure 2: Confirm Deletion From Catalog dialog box

   Clicking OK removes the file from the Organizer, but itremains on your computer. You could bring it back into the catalog if you wished. Notice, there is also a check box, that when selected, deletes the file from your hard disk permanently.

3. Click OK to delete the file from the Organizer, but not from the computer.

   As long as you didn't check the box to delete it from the hard disk, you can bring it back into the Organizer later.

4. Choose File > Get Photos And Videos > From Files And Folders.
5. Browse to select the file and click Get Photos.
6. Click OK to close the message and import the photo.

   In the Photo Browser, you can see the file. To see more files in the Photo Browser, lick Show All. In general, rather than deleting files from the Organizer, use the Hide Photos feature to temporarily hide photos from the Photo Browser if it's too cluttered. Hiding unwanted photos temporarily gives you more space to work and also the flexibility to view them whenever you want to see them.

Where to go from here

If you enjoyed this tutorial, check out these other resources to help get you started using Photoshop Elements.

• Photoshop Elements Essentials for Windows tutorials on lynda.com
• Photoshop Elements shows on Adobe TV
• Photoshop Elements Help and Support
• Moving photos

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