Copying and Moving Files

You can use the Copy To Folder and Move To Folder commands to relocate files and folders on your hard drive, and specify how to handle overwriting existing files. You can also select from a list of previously accessed folders to save time looking through your directory structure.

When you use ACDSee Pro to relocate your files, by default any ACDSee Metadata associated with those files is copied to the new location. However, if you do not want to copy the associated files, clear the Include related files for non-RAW images check box.

When you do NOT use ACDSee Pro to move or copy your files, you break the link to any database information you have added to those files. This is because ACDSee Pro cannot track the files. You will lose important categorizing and other database information. You can fix this by clicking Change Binding and rebinding the database. If you have embedded the database information in the files themselves, you can also retrieve this information using Tools | Database | Catalog Files.

ACDSee Pro uses XMP to embed ACDSee Metadata into each file. Only some file formats and file extensions support XMP. These include GIF, JPEG, DNG, PNG, and TIF. In the case of these file formats, the ACDSee Metadata is embedded inside the file and so you can rename or move the file outside of ACDSee Pro and still be able to retrieve the ACDSee Metadata. For formats that currently do not support XMP, including RAW, PSD, ABR, the ACDSee Metadata is written to a sidecar file that is stored in the same folder as its file. Because a sidecar file is separate from the file itself, you need to rename or move them together, or you could lose the ACDSee Metadata permanently.

To copy or move files:

1. Do one of the following:
   • In the File List pane, select one or more files, and then click Edit | Copy To Folder or Move To Folder.
   • While viewing an image or media file in View mode, click Edit | Copy To Folder or Move To Folder.
2. In the Copy To Folder or Move To Folder dialog box, do one of the following:
   • Select the Folders tab, and locate the folder on your hard drive where you want to place the files.
   • Select the History tab, and select a folder from the list of recently-accessed folders.
   • Select Create Folder and enter the name of a new folder.
3. In the Overwriting duplicate files drop-down list, select one of the following options to specify how ACDSee Pro should handle overwriting files:
   • Ask: Prompts you for confirmation when overwriting a file.
   • Rename: Prompts you to rename a file.
   • Replace: Overwrites any file with the same file name and extension.
   • Skip: Cancels the operation if there is a file with the same file name and extension.
4. Click OK.

See also:

• Copying Images to the Clipboard
• Browsing Files in the File List Pane
• Maintaining the Database