EditInACR

Open JPEGs in Adobe Camera Raw from the Photoshop Elements Organizer
by John R. Ellis

EditInACR does not work with Photoshop Elements 9, and it’s unlikely that I will invest any time trying to make it work, since I’ve migrated to Lightroom. If you find out how to make it work and you want to take over ownership and maintenance of EditInACR, please let me know.

Many Photoshop Elements users like to edit JPEGs and other non-raw file formats with the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in to Photoshop Elements. But if you rely on the Organizer for managing your files, opening a JPEG in ACR is clumsy – in the Editor, you must do File > Open As > Camera Raw and then navigate to the folder containing the file.

With EditInACR, you can open JPEGs and other non-raw files directly in ACR from the Organizer. You configure the Organizer to use EditInACR as an external editor, and then you use the Organizer’s Edit > Edit With command to open selected files.

Known Issues

I’ve tested EditInACR on Windows XP, Vista (32- and 64-bit), and Windows 7 (32-bit) with PSE 6, 7, 8. I can’t get it to work with PSE 5, and others report that it doesn’t work with PSE 9. I’m guessing it won’t work with earlier versions of PSE.

If you have multiple versions of PSE installed, it only works with the newest version.

You can configure PSE to have just one external editor – it isn’t possible to have, for example, both Photoshop and EditInACR set as external editors at the same time.

I’m not an expert in Windows or Photoshop scripting, so it’s very possible there are more bugs and issues. Please provide feedback about how it works for you – see Bugs and Suggestions below.

Installing

Download EditInACR (version 1.02)

1. Click the link above and save the file to your desktop.

2. Make sure your Windows Explorer is configured to show hidden files:

XP: http://go.adobe.com/kb/ts_kb404856_en-us
Vista: http://go.adobe.com/kb/ts_kb404880_en-us

3. Double-click the file you just downloaded to run the self-extractor.

4. In Unzip To Folder, enter the following folder path:

XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\editinacr

Vista:
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\editinacr

(It defaults to the Vista path.)

5. Click Unzip.

6. In the Organizer, do Edit > Preferences > Editing.

7. Check Use A Supplementary Editing Application and click Browse.

8. Navigate to the folder from step 4, type * (an asterisk) in the File Name box, and click Open.

9. Select the file EditInACR.vbs and click Open again. Click OK to exit Preferences.

Using EditInACR

To open a JPEG in ACR from the Organizer, select its thumbnail and do Edit > Edit With EditInACR. This creates a new version of the file and opens it in ACR, just as if you had opened it from the Editor with File > Open As. With PSE 8, you need to start the Editor manually first before invoking EditInACR the first time.

Once you’ve finished editing with ACR, click Open Image to open the edited image in the full Editor. To save all your edits, do File > Save and uncheck Save In Version Set With Original. The Organizer has already created a new version in a version set, so there’s no need to create another one.

You can select more than one thumbnail and invoke Edit With EditInACR. This opens each of the files in turn in ACR, waiting until you’ve clicked Done/Cancel/Open Image before opening the next one. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to get more than one JPEG opened at the same time in ACR, as you can do with raw files.

Bugs and Suggestions

Please email suspected bugs, suggestions, or any other feedback to ellis-editinacr at johnrellis.com.

Version History

Version 1.00 – 2009/7/27

- Initial release.

Version 1.01 – 2009/8/7

- Minor changes to documentation.

Version 1.02 – 2009/11/20

- Made it compatible with PSE 8, Vista 64, and Windows 7 64-bit.