Adobe Photoshop Elements Organizer Tips

Having used Adobe Photoshop Album to catalog our photos for the past few years, I've become very familiar with its features and capabilities. Adobe Photoshop Elements' Organizer tool is very similar to Album, but it definitely has its differences. I'm trying to get up-to-speed with Organizer quickly, and have found a few good resources of material.

Searching with Google, there are lots of Photoshop Elements Organizer Tips. Many of the results are elementary tips and tutorials I already knew (or that you could learn from the manual easily enough), but there were a few gems to be found.

Excerpts from Organize Your Photos with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, including how to unclutter Photo Review:

Enter Photo Review mode (press F11, click the Photo Review button, or choose Photo Review from the View menu). Enter the Photo Review Preferences, found in the Action menu in the toolbar. Press Shift + Control + Alt + F to enable (or disable) the Special Mode, and click Ok to exit Preferences. Don't touch your mouse for a second and the toolbar and "lightbox" on the right will fade away, giving you an uncluttered Photo Review.

Revving Up Photoshop Elements 3 for Windows has a few good tips, particularly disabling Photo Downloader and two services to speed up Elements. Tip 7 is terrible, though ("Kill the Organizer").

Basically, in the Camera or Card Reader Preferences window, uncheck "Use Adobe Photo Downloader to get photos from Camera or Card Reader." Then, in the Administrative Tools Control Panel, open Services. Disable the "Adobe Active File Monitor" (which does the Watched Folders work) and "Photoshop Elements Device Connect" (which recognizes when you insert a card or connect your camera and starts Organizer). These definitely speed startup a bit.

The Elements 3 Organizer forum on Adobe's site has some real gems, and it's a great place to ask questions, too.

And of course, the Organizer Cheat Sheet is indispensible.