[♪ music ♪] [Frequently Asked Questions, with Ben Willmore] [Ben Willmore] Here are some questions you might have after working in Lightroom for a while.
How do I Rename a File or a Folder?
You might be used to just clicking on the name of a File or Folder in your operating system, be able to type in a new one.
But that doesn't happen in Lightroom.
Instead, in Lightroom, if you click on a File and you want to change its name, you go to the right side of your screen when you're in the Library module.
And on the right side, you'll find an area called Metadata and that's where you'll find the File name.
If you click on that name, you can just type in whatever you'd like.
Click on another file, and quickly name it.
If you have more than one file that you'd like to name— in this case, I have a whole folder full of images from Iceland and I would like name them.
So in that case, I'll select all of the images.
I can do that by typing Command A.
And then in that same area where I was able to rename an individual file you'll find an icon just to the right of it.
If you click that, it will allow you to rename all of the images at once.
And with this, it wants to save you time by offering you presets.
And I already have a preset here.
Let me show you what it does.
Then I'll show you how to create your own preset similar to this.
First it has an area called Custom Text where I can type in the general subject matter that's in this folder.
Then to the right, it asks me to type in a start number because it assumes I want to number these images, and I usually start it at one.
But if I was in Iceland actively right now and on the second day I was there I was adding additional files to this folder, and I already have ones that are named 1 through 500, I might type in 501 here for the new files, that type of thing.
When I click OK, you'll find that now all of these images have almost instantly been renamed.
So let's look at how you set up that preset.
I'll go back to where we had the File Name area.
I'll click on that icon one more time, and there's a pop up menu where you choose a preset.
You need to first set one up.
If you choose Edit, here's how you set up the one I was using.
This area at the top is how your preset is created.
Since your might not be set like mine, I would start by selecting whatever is there and hitting Delete.
Then in the area below, you'll find at the very bottom a choice called Custom Text.
Hit the Insert button.
Then there will be another area just above where you can choose between Sequence Numbers and Image Numbers.
Choose Sequence Number and then decide how many digits long you want it to be.
And hit Insert.
Finally, at the top, choose Save Current Settings as New Preset.
Just call it something like TEXT then number.
Now you'll never need to go into this dialog again.
Instead, the next time you end up coming into here to rename your files, it'll automatically be set up where all you need to do is type in the general name you want to give these files and if you happen to want to start it at a number other that one.
Click OK and all your files are renamed.
To rename a folder, just move your mouse on top of the folder, press the right mouse button, then you'll find the choice called Rename.
And you'll be able to type in any name you'd like.
What does it mean when a Question Mark shows up on one of my Folders?
Well if you look in your Folder list, you'll find that first off there's the name of each hard drive that you might use there.
And if a drive has no little green light to the left of it, it means that particular drive is not currently attached to your machine.
So if you expand that drive, you'll find all of the folders have question marks on it and that's because Lightroom cannot actively find those folders.
The drive that contains them is not connected.
But sometimes you're also going to find that question mark appearing even for a drive that does have the little green light to the left of it.
And that means that that folder is not where Lightroom expects it to be.
If I click on the folder, I can still see the pictures, but it doesn't know where the originals are.
When that happens, press the right mouse button on top of the folder and you will find a choice called Find Missing Folder.
When you choose that, you can navigate your hard drive and show it where that folder has been moved.
Or in this case, it hasn't been moved.
It's been renamed outside of Lightroom.
So here it's been changed to The Wave whereas if you look in Lightroom, it's just called Wave.
Since the names don't match, Lightroom doesn't know that it's the same folder.
I simply highlight the folder wherever it's been moved to or renamed to and hit the Choose button.
And now Lightroom knows where that folder is again.
Since the folder is renamed, it updates the name and the question mark goes away.
Why don't new files automatically show up in Lightroom?
Well, if you make changes to your files and folders outside of Lightroom, then Lightroom's not aware that you've done it.
So in this case I have a folder called Iceland and I have a file that I'd like to add to that folder.
I'm going to drag that file onto the Iceland folder.
I'll also open it and I'll remove one of the existing files.
I'll just click on it, and I'll drag it to the trash.
Now those are changes I made outside of Lightroom.
And therefore Lightroom's not aware that they've happened.
So if I go into Lightroom and I look at that particular folder, I'll find that the image that I dragged into this folder isn't there.
I don't see it showing up and the image that I threw away is still in here.
If I needed to re-examine that folder and see if there's been any changes made, then I go to the name of the folder on the left side of the Library module, I press the right mouse button, and there's a choice called Synchronize Folder.
Synchronize Folder inspects your hard drive to see what changes have been made, compares that to what you have in Lightroom, and it tells you here that it's finding one new photo that Lightroom's not aware of.
And also it notices that there's one file missing as well.
And I can tell it to import those photos that are new and remove the photos that are missing.
If I hit Synchronize, then that's what does it.
How do I create and move images between folders in Lightroom?
Well if you want to create a brand new folder, go to your Folder list, decide where you'd like that new folder to be, and if you right click on an existing folder, there's a choice called Create Folder Inside.
If you choose that, it will allow you to create a new folder.
And there's a check box that says Include Selected Photos.
And if I hit Create, now it's going to create a folder inside of the one I had right clicked on, and it will include the photo that I had selected.
I can then add additional photos by just clicking on a photo and dragging it on top of that newly-created subfolder.
And those are being moved on my hard drive because the folder list reflects exactly how your hard drive is structured.
So if I were to look on my hard drive and find that same folder— there it is, called Iceland— you'd see that there's your subfolder and inside the subfolder are the files that I've moved.
How do I delete Files or Folders in Lightroom?
It all depends on where you're accessing your images from.
If you're working in Collections and you click on a particular collection to view its contents, you click on the image you'd like to delete, and you just hit the delete key.
You're not going to delete that photo from your hard drive.
Instead, it will only delete it from within this collection meaning the original is still in Lightroom.
If you were to navigate to the folder that it resides in, you'd still see it there.
It's just not part of the collection.
If I want to truly delete a file, if I'm in a collection, the first thing I need to do is find out where is the original located.
And you do that by right clicking.
When you right click on the image, one of your choices is to go to the original folder in Lightroom's Library module.
And when you choose that, it will navigate you to where the original resides.
And only when you're working from Folders, not Collections, can you click on that image and hit delete.
And then Lightroom will ask you would you like to just remove it from Lightroom where it still resides on your hard drive, or would you like to permanently delete it from your hard drive.
And if I click Delete from Disk, you actually deleted that.
Now it' a little bit more difficult to delete a folder, and there's a good reason why.
If you right click on a folder, you'll find that there is not a choice for deleting.
You do have a choice for Removing.
Removing would make it so Lightroom no longer pays attention to that folder, but it's still sitting on your hard drive.
But there is no choice for deleting.
So how do I delete a folder?
Well you should first right click on the folder and you will find a choice called Show in Finder on a Mac.
On Windows you'll have a similar choice, just slightly different wording.
And that will actually show you where that folder is on your hard drive, and it'll show you outside of Lightroom.
Then you can manually delete the folder from there.
And the reason Lightroom forces you to work that way is because Lightroom will only import your photographs and it will ignore certain other kinds of files.
Like if you had a word processing file in there or a spreadsheet, and so it's going to force you to look at that folder so that you might open it and inspect it.
And here I notice I do have a spreadsheet file inside the folder that I wouldn't want to have accidentally deleted that folder not realizing that by deleting the folder, Lightroom would have deleted that file as well.
So here I'll click on the Folder, I'll drag it to the trash.
And then back in Lightroom, we now see that that folder is missing.
It's got a question mark on it.
So I can now right click and say Remove it from Lightroom too.
Choose Remove and now it's gone.
Hopefully we've hit on a few of the questions you've encountered while working in Lightroom.
