Reorganizing photos (Albums and Folders)

"I want to organize my pictures on my computer harddrive by year at least. If I get really good at this organizing also month. Right now I want to tackle organizing my pictures by year."

It's a good idea to use a date based folder hierarchy in your explorer, especially with folders for each year and possibly subfolders by month under each year folder. That makes finding files much easier if you only have the explorer or a third party organizer which does not understand PSE catalogs.

It's even the default downloading strategy in the organizer preferences in the editing and scanning section. You define your folders for 'saved files' by stating the folder for the current year.  When you download from camera or card reader, you have a choice to define your folder name, for instance '2020 01 01'. A new subfolder of that name is automatically created for that day. There is no option to create month subfolders under a year, only day subfolders.

You could create months subfolders yoursel under the year subfolders if you want, and move the day subfolders in them. I prefer the default year/day format. That's also useful if you use the flat list option in the left panel instead of the tree view.

It's also easier for your searches based on dates.Don't forget to change that default year folder at the beginning of each year.

I am using microsoft windows.

1. I want to organize my pictures on my computer harddrive by year at least. If I get really good at this organizing also month. Right now I want to tackle organizing my pictures by year. Do i use folders? Or would files be better?
2. I like your idea of using the time line within elements as I have dated all my pictures (the old pictures scanned). So it sounds like I can use the date organizer in elements and drag and drop pictures into ?folders ?files on the left. Now that would be slick!

Jan, I have moved your post so that it has better visibility on the forum.

First, what OS and version are you using?

A folder and sub-folder is exactly the same as you have in your OS.  In other words the folder view in the Organizer links directly to the folders on your hard drive.  If you have the folder panel open on the left side, make sure you are in the Tree View.  (See the screenshot at the bottom of this post.)  Then you will see a folder view exactly as you would in Windows Explorer or presumably the Finder.  (I know nothing about Macs.)  If you are in the View as List, you will only see the folders in a flat list, without knowing on which drive the folder exists or whether the folder is contained within another folder or sub-folder.

An Album is an artificial collection of photos, just like you would put into a photo book/album.  You can create as many albums as you want.  And you can add or subtract photos to or from an album at any time.  They are similar to keyword tags, but they have the added advantage of sorting the photos in any order you wish to place them in. 

In order to create an album, you have to first click on the Albums tab of the panels on the left side of the screen.

You then click on the green plus sign beside My Albums and choose New Album.  A new panel will open on the right side of the screen:

You can then drag and drop photos from the grid to the empty space in the panel (where you can sort the order of display). Or you can simply click OK and drag and drop photos to the Album which is displayed in the left panel (or click and drag the Album to a photo) just like you would tag a photo with a keyword tag.

If you want to display the Album photos in a special order, make sure that the Sort By dropdown menu at the top of the grid is set to Album order.  This choice is only available when an Album is selected.

Jan said:

I am assuming a good name for an ALBUM would be a year and a FILE the month. But when you make an ALBUM it is on a different page from the picture files to drag them into that ALBUM. So I am thinking I need to make new FOLDERS but when I make a FOLDER there is a file that is highlighted and it just makes a FOLDER within a FOLDER or a SUB FOLDER in a FOLDER. To make the folder I right click. Is there another way to make a new FOLDER? That wont put the FOLDER within the FOLDER?

To really answer your question, we need to know what your purpose is in creating Albums.  Albums are really just an aid for finding what you are looking for.  But there are many ways to accomplish that purpose.  For example, you can use the Organizer's timeline (Ctrl+L) and click on one of the displayed bars to view all of the photos taken in a particular month.  (You can also use the timeline's calipers to view a range of dates.) 

Let us know if you have any other questions.