Managing Lightroom folders and catalogs

We’ve added some documentation on some key organizational topics to Lightroom Community Help.

• Over at Lightroom Forums, Sonny from Minneapolis asked, What does the Update Folder Location command do? Now you can get the answer in the topic Add new or existing folders.

• Another Lightroom 2 feature that slipped past us until now: The Add Parent Folder command. This command, which lets you add a higher level folder to the Folders panel, can be incredibly helpful if, for example, you accidentally import photos into a folder at the wrong level, or if you want to move more than one folder at a time (just grab and drag the parent folder).

• A couple of additions on the subject of catalogs. Moving or copying catalogs is simple enough if you know what to drag. And combining or merging catalogs—such as adding photos in a catalog on a laptop computer to a catalog on a desktop computer—is a common task that’s covered in Help, but frankly, not very well. Now, however, the topic Create a catalog from existing photos more explicitly describes how to use the Export As Catalog and Import From Catalog commands to perform this important task.