Auto Imports
If you go to the File menu and choose Auto Import → Auto Import Settings... this opens the dialog shown in Figure 2.32. In the Watched Folder section you can choose a folder to drag and drop the photos you wish to auto-import from and in the Destination section you can choose the folder you wish to import the photos to in the Lightroom catalog. The remaining sections can be used to determine how the files will be named as they are imported and also whether to apply any specific develop settings, IPTC metadata, or keywords metadata on import. Lastly, you can select an appropriate option for generating the initial previews.
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Figure 2.32 This shows the Auto Import Settings dialog. As you can see, the Watched folder I referenced here was located on the Desktop to which I could easily drag and drop any images I wished to auto-add to the catalog.
The Auto Import feature is incredibly useful. After you have configured the Auto Setup settings once and checked the “Enable Auto Import” box you are all set to add photos to the catalog by simply dragging and dropping them to the designated watched folder. This therefore offers you a way to quickly import photos, which bypasses the Import Photos dialog completely. Once the photos have been imported you will see them appear in the Destination folder in Lightroom. You can then, if you like, choose to move them to a new folder location.