- To remove the images from the catalog only, press the Delete key on your keyboard, and then enter to confirm.
- If you want the photos deleted from the catalog and the hard disk, check the "Also delete from disk" box in the confirmation dialog.
Needless to say, clicking OK in the confirmation dialog over and over can get tedious after a while. I suggest making a tag for those photos you want to delete, then you can review them and delete them all in one step.
Every tag must be under a Category. We could put our delete tag under the existing "Other" category, but as you're browsing for photos to delete, you might come across some others you want to work on later. Let's create an Action Category and add a few tags under it.
- Go to the top of the Tag Palette and click New > New Category.
- Type "Action" for the Category and choose an icon. I used the gear icon.
- You an also pick a color for the tags in this category.
- Click OK and your new Action category should appear in the tags palette.
- Now right-click on the Action category and choose "Create new tag in Action Category..."
- Type "Delete" and click OK.
- If you want, make another tag for "Delete from HD" to tag the photos you want to delete permanently from the catalog and your hard drive. Other tags you might want add to the action category are: Crop, Red Eye, Straighten, Edit.
More: Selecting Multiple Pictures in Photoshop Elements Photo Organizer
As you browse your photos, you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse, the keyboard, or the scroll bars to move through the thumbnails.
- Clicking the arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar will advance you one row at a time.
- Clicking directly on the scroll bar will advance you a page at a time.
- Using the keyboard, the up/down arrows will advance you one row at a time.
- Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to move a screen at a time.
- Remember the double-click trick for quickly switching between single photo and thumbnail views!
After you have tagged several photos with the Delete tag, double click on this tag in the tags palette to clear all previous searches and show only the photos tagged with the Delete tag. The find bar at the top of the photo browser displays the tags you have searched on, and how many photos match the search. The status bar also shows you how many photos were found. Review them, and if you still want to delete them all, press Ctrl-A to select all, then press the delete key and confirm. If you changed your mind about any, remove the tag, clear the search by clicking the binocular icons next to the Delete tag, and redo the search.
- When you want to exit a search and return to the top of the photo browser, either click "Return to all photos" or click on the binoculars icon in the tag palette to clear the search.
- If you want to return to the same place you were browsing before (and you usually do), be careful to use the "Back to last view" button in the shortcuts bar instead of the "Return to all photos" button in the find bar.
