Organize and view items in the Project panel
Compositions and footage items are listed in the Project panel. Unlike items in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel, the order of items in the Project panel has no influence on the appearance of the movies that you create. This means that you can organize footage items and compositions however you like, including organizing them using folders. Solids are automatically placed in the Solids folder.
Folders that you create in the Project panel exist only in the Project panel. You can expand a folder to reveal its contents, and put folders inside other folders. To move a file or folder to the top level of the Project panel, drag it to the gray information area at the top of the panel.
You can use the File > Collect Files command to gather copies of all files in a project into a single folder.
Show information for items
- To show information about a footage item or composition, select it in the Project panel. Information is displayed at the top of the Project panel next to the thumbnail image.
- To show the file creator ID for a footage item, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) it in the Project panel.
Create a folder
Choose File > New > New
Folder, or click the Create Folder icon 
at
the bottom of the Project panel.Rename and sort items
- To rename the Comments column, right-click (Windows)
or Control-click (Mac OS) the column heading and choose
Rename This.
You can use the Comments column to
create a custom sorting option. Rename the column, enter corresponding
information for each item (for example, camera number), and then
sort by that column.
Copy items
- To duplicate or copy an item in the Project panel, select it and choose Edit > Duplicate or Edit > Copy.
- To copy a footage item to Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS), drag the footage item from the Project panel to the desktop.
Find and view items in the Project panel
- To find items in the Project panel,
choose File > Find, or click the Find
button
at the bottom left of the panel. Select Find Missing Footage to
locate all footage items that refer to a file that has been moved,
deleted, or renamed. - To find the next item that matches the most recently used search criteria, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Find button.
Comments
Comments are no longer accepted for After Effects CS3. After Effects CS4 is the current version. To discuss After Effects CS3, please use the Adobe forum.