OK, we find our Global Preference Settings under Edit, Preferences, and you'll see a big box that comes up here that has all these tabs on it. We'll start with the General. Choose your language, depending on what language you use. You can Show the Splash Screen during start-up, but I don't do that. Who needs it? If you want it, you can check that box. Automatically Check For Updates. That's usually a good thing and I'll tell you why: because Adobe is throwing updates at this program every time you turn around and it's always good to know about one when it's available. Now, let's look at this default catalog setting. Now, we're going to learn about catalogs later, but one thing about catalogs, there's one catalog for every instance of Lightroom being opened. So, in other words, if you've got an instance of Lightroom loaded into your computer, it's up and running, you can only have one catalog. If you load a different catalog while the program is running, it'll shut down and then reload with that catalog that you've chosen. Don't ask me why they do it that way. That's just how it works. It might be corrected in future versions, but as of Version 2, that's how catalogs work. It took me a long time to figure that out. I kept scratching my head as to why, you know, I only had one catalog, so you finally just learn that there's only one catalog per open instance of Lightroom. However, you can choose which catalog that you want to open upon opening, every time, if that makes any sense. So, in other words, if you want to use this catalog every single time the program opens, click and that's the one that'll open. If you want to be able to choose which one to open every time you open Lightroom, then put this in there, okay? That'll become more clear to you as we get into the details of catalogs and what they are. If you want a beep when the images are finished importing, if you're high volume, I would say that's probably a good thing to have. It's just, you know, personal preference. Again, personal preference, when you're exporting is complete. Reset all warning dialogs, go to the catalog settings. We'll go to that later. Presets. Do not check Auto Apply Tone Adjustments or Apply Auto Tone Adjustments. I hate that. It's one of the things about Bridge that drove me crazy, but if you like it, go right ahead. All these automatic, you know, color adjustments, luminance adjustments, no thanks, no thanks. Now, this right here, Make Defaults Specific to Camera's Serial Number, if you're using the same camera for everything, this might be convenient for you. Make Defaults Specific to Camera's ISO Settings. I know my ISO changes with the direction of the wind, so I don't check that. You can store presets with this catalog if you want. We'll go to presets and learn what those are later. You can Restore Export Presets. No, you want to leave those the way you had them. In other words, just leave this all alone. This is restoring the factory defaults and you're going to screw everything up if you start clicking on this, so I would leave that part alone. Import, Show Import Dialog When a Memory Card Is Detected. What that means is that when you plug your memory card into your reader, you're going to get a Lightroom panel that comes up onto the computer screen and says do you want to use Lightroom to import these images? Then, if you say yes, it will automatically load Lightroom and then down the road you go. Now, I like that because I want to get into the habit of using Lightroom every single time I bring images in. Again, when we go through the library section, I'll show you why that's a good thing. Or you could uncheck this and go your merry way with whatever you want to do. Ignore Camera-Generated Folder Names When Naming Folders. Yes, I want to name my own folders. I have my own way of organizing things. However, if you like it, all of this, obviously, is personal preference. Treat JPG Files Next to RAW Files as Separate Photos. What that means is that if you're shooting RAW and JPG in your camera, it'll keep everything right next to each other but yet separate in your directory. So again, read this. It's pretty self-explanatory, very straightforward, and you can know exactly what you want to do. This is the DNG, Import DNG Creation. If you are shooting RAW and you want to convert from RAW to DNG, this is how to set that up and we'll get into DNG later. External Editing, if you want to automatically open Photoshop to, say, do your editing on TIFs, one of the things that Lightroom does not have is layers, which really severely limits what you can do. Your creative, you know, juices are not going to get flowing in Lightroom. What it does, it does well, but it doesn't add layers, so there are certain things that you can't do, except in Photoshop, so this might be a good thing to set up. I have all this set up the way I want it, so this will be a good thing as well. Now, File Handling, this is all, again, personal preference. Take a look at this stuff. I just leave it the way it came out of the factory. The interface, you know, the factory is great. I don't need to change all this stuff. If you do, it's here to change if you wanted to, so be my guest, go through these preferences and establish how you want this program to operate for yourself.