When you copy items between catalogs, you are actually copying the item record (all of the information associated with the item, including the thumbnail, the link to the original file, and any Custom field data—if those Custom fields have been defined in the receiving catalog).
To Copy items between Catalogs:
If the catalog does not have Custom fields, proceed to step 2.
If you have created Custom fields in the originating catalog, open the destination catalog and add those Custom fields to it.
If you do not recreate the Custom fields in the destination catalog, Custom field information will be lost when the records are copied.
In the Gallery window of the originating catalog, select the item(s) that you wish to copy.
Drag and drop the items into an open Gallery window in the receiving catalog.
Tip Mac OS: To drag more than 50 records at one time, hold down the Option key when initiating the drag.
— or —
Choose “Copy” from the Edit menu [or press Command+C (Mac OS) or Ctrl+C (Windows)].
Activate the receiving Gallery window by clicking it, then choose Edit > Paste [Command+V (Mac OS) or Ctrl+V (Windows)].
The items and all information in the records will be copied to the new Gallery.
Tip: When moving and deleting catalog items, remember that you are working with references to image files, not the actual image source files. Deleting catalog items deletes the reference from the catalog, it does not delete the item file. If you accidentally delete items from a catalog, you can restore them by re-adding them to the catalog (you may have to re-enter keywords or other custom information).
To Move items from one Catalog to another: To move items from one catalog to another you will need to add them to the destination catalog and then delete them from the originating catalog. You could do this by making a copy of the catalog and deleting the appropriate items from each, or by copying the items to the destination catalog and then deleting them from the originating one (using this method you would have to recreate any Custom fields in the destination catalog—see above). Or you could create a new catalog and add the desired items to it, then delete the appropriate items from the old catalog (using this method you would have to re-enter any information that had been manually added to the record after it had been cataloged).