Widen Panels in Lightroom Classic CC

[#1]

Hi

Is there any way to widen the left and right panels in LRC? They will each expand to a certain extent, but it isn't enough. My files/folders on the left are truncated when extended to, what appears to be, the largest possible width. I'd be shocked if it actually was the largest width. Snippet below to see what I mean.

I watched a YT video on this. They said to cursor over and hold Alt key. My cursor remained the double arrow, and I couldn't widen.

Any tips appreciated,

Jeff

[#2]

Hi

Is there any way to widen the left and right panels in LRC? They will each expand to a certain extent, but it isn't enough. My files/folders on the left are truncated when extended to, what appears to be, the largest possible width. I'd be shocked if it actually was the largest width. Snippet below to see what I mean.

I watched a YT video on this. They said to cursor over and hold Alt key. My cursor remained the double arrow, and I couldn't widen.

Any tips appreciated,

Jeff

[#3]

Hi Jeff, 

Good news, there is a trick!

Right click on the folder that contains the images and select Hide this parent. It may take a few moments depending on the number of images in your catalog but that "Parent" will disappear and everything will shift to the left. If you want it back, simply Show Parent Folder is the next option.

Does this work for you?

[#4]

Hey Gary

Thanks for the info, but this would only work for me in a pinch. The fact that I cannot widen these panels to a much larger size is annoying to say the very least. This isn't a new problem for me. Today is just the first day I decided to address it. 🙂

There are many things I like about LRC, but there always seems to be something that keeps me from loving it. I'm confused as to why Adobe considered this limitation a good idea, especially when it's fairly standard and also available to Mac users. 

On a side note, I also putz around with ACDsee Photo Studio. The left and right panels can be dragged nearly as wide as my screen. I hope Adobe fixes this flaw soon.

Thanks again for your help,

Jeff

[#5]

Well, if a pinch is all you got, enjoy the pinch! After all, it's cheaper than buying a new computer so you can have wide panels! ;>)

[#6]

You can use the "Hide This Parent" several times to get rid of several layers of folders above your actual folders that contain the photos.

"I'm confused as to why Adobe considered this limitation a good idea"

This is my speculation: Adobe wanted to encourage people to move away from folder organizing and move towards metadata organizing. And if my speculation is correct, I agree with Adobe's decision.

[#7]

The trick with the Alt key should work, but only on Macintosh. You can widen a panel to almost half the screen. This does not work on Windows, however.

[#8]

Hey Johan

Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully Adobe will fix this.

JW

[#9]

I doubt it because this has been the case for many years.

[#10]

If you really need to access photos through folders, you might want to consider using Bridge instead of Lightroom Classic.

[#11]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. ... just my 0.02

[#12]

Well that's not really helpful is it? He wants to use LR-C and there's no reason why he cannot use Folder-organization and Keyword-organization concurrently. 

There are people who enjoy working with LR-C just as you do and those who prefer to use it as I do. And I'm sure there are many other ways to use it as well. 

Insisting that people use LR-C ONLY as you use it is not helpful to all of the users and potential users. Please be respectful of others, it's a big world.

[#13]

May I remark that using folder names as an 'infomation store' may not be the way to go in general. Specially not when using Lightroom to manage the photos which offers a multitude of other, much more comfortable solutions to handle shot information.

[#14]

I can remark that using tight-edited folder names is also often used. This can be especially efficient if you want to easily see the all of images of a specific trip (e.g., "New York-2011" certainly doesn't take much space). However, it's VERY important to use Keywords when specific things might in multiple locations such as "Aunt Zelda" whom you visited in New York and you also want to her to show up on the photos when she visited you in 1999.

Besides, "New York-2011" means a whole lot more to me than "2011."

You get the idea. Do it a way that makes sense to you but you do have to work within the limitatios that ANY application has.