4 GETTING STARTED
About catalog files
Photoshop Elements stores information about your images in a library catalog file,
which enables you to conveniently manage the photos on your computer. e
catalog file is a central concept in understanding how Photoshop Elements works.
Photoshop Elements doesn’t actually “import” your images at all; for each image
you import Photoshop Elements simply creates a new entry in the catalog that
is linked to the source file, wherever it is stored. Whenever you assign a tag or a
rating to a photo, or group images as an album, the catalog file is updated. All the
work you put into organizing your growing photo library is recorded in the catalog.
As well as digital photographs, a catalog can include video and audio files, scans,
PDF documents, and any presentations and layouts you might create in Photoshop
Elements, such as slide shows, photo collages, and CD jacket designs.
e first time you launch Photoshop Elements it automatically creates a default
catalog file (named My Catalog) on your hard disk. Although a single catalog can
efficiently handle thousands of files, you can also establish separate catalogs for dif-
ferent purposes if that’s the way you prefer to work.
In the first lesson in this book you’ll create and load a new, dedicated catalog into
which you’ll import the lesson sample images. In this way, it will be easy to keep
your own photo library separate from your lesson files.
In the first three lessons, you’ll learn a number of different ways to add files to your
catalog, together with a variety of techniques for tagging, marking, and organizing
your images, and for sorting and searching your catalog. You’ll be able to practice
these new skills when you import lesson files to your Classroom in a Book catalog
at the beginning of each chapter.
