viewing pictures in organizer

[picman2]

Hello all,

I have a folder with nothing but subfolders in it. All these subfolders contain pictures. It seems I can only see the content of each subfolder separately in Elements Organizer. But I would like to be able to see all pictures from all subfolders at once. Is that possible and how do you do it?

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

Use the organizer tools to create your own ways of grouping photos.

You can assign a given keyword to all the files in each subfolder.

Or you can create an album in which you enter all the files of the subfolders.

If you have a way to select all the files in the subfolders of that empty master folder, it's like having all the files at once in a single folder. You can sort them by date, file name, batch import. If you have an album you can sort them in 'custom' order without moving them in the drive.

Tip:

If you have more than a few subfolders, you can select all the files in the subfolder tree.

Start with checking that you have no disconnected files.

Outside of the organizer, from the Explorer or Finder, rename the empty master folder.

In the organizer do a search (menu Find) for disconnected files.

Select all (Ctrl A) and assign the same keyword.

Rename the master folder back to its original name and restart the organizer. Then you can select all your files at once and possibly store them in the same album and sort them freely independently from their subfolder location.

[picman2]

Thank you very much MichelBParis. That was extremely helpful! I've gone the album-way.

Cheers, Bob

[Greg_S.]

While it appears that Michel has given his usual excellent response to your question, I am curious as to how you originally organized your folders with sub-folders.  Was it by date, event, subject matter, etc?  I ask because it is not clear whether you are using the folder selection panel or the All Media grid to view your photos.  Depending on your response, there may be more efficient ways to do what you want.

[picman2]

Thank you Greg_S for your concern. I have a separate harddisk for pictures. They are kept there in a 2 to 3-layer structure. E.g. Layer one Summer holidays layer two the place and year of the holiday layer three a number of folders each with the day the pictures were taken. I have imported the entire harddisk in one go. The left pane of the organizer has a heading with albums and folders. If I click on the folders heading I get to see a copy of the exact structure of the folders as on my harddisk with all the names perfectly correct. I thought that if I click on a folder of the firast or second layer I would then get to see all the pictures contained in that layer. E.g. selecting Summer holiday 2015 folder I want to see all the pictures in all the subfolders. That does not happen. I have to go to the very lowest level, e.g. a particular day and then I will see all pictures of that day. If I go to all media I get all pictures from the entire hard disk. So it is almost all or hardly anything, nothing in-between.