Cannot apply keywords/metadata to old pics - says "read only" files

Hi, I'm new to Apple World. Got a new Intel iMac, latest version Leopard, Photoshop Elements 6 that came with Bridge. No problem working with new photos. But it will not let me apply new keywords or metadata to old pictures imported from disk because it says they are "read only." These old photos were copied to my Mac hard drive from DVDs that were incremental backups from my Photoshop Elements 4.0 catalog on my old Windows XP PC. They were all copied into folders that I named to correspond with the backup disks. Some of the keywords ("tags" on PC program) imported, but many didn't. So I'm going through the arduous task of manually inputting the data again. Tried it with a template first -- did let me add keywords. Then bringing up each picture individually it gives me the "can't apply metadata to read only files" message. I have hundreds of old photos in over 100 different categories (previously topical tags) to go through here. What is the solution? Please help! Thanks. Judy

Judy
can you be more specific about the 'Old Files'. Are they jpeg or tiff or something else. Do they have the proper extension jpeg: .jpg tiff: .tif etc..
And I don't know what copy from Elements catalog means, do you have the actual original files copied or just previews or other files that were set there by elements in the catalog?
Have you already checked if the files are not locked itself? select one in the finder, choose info and see if it is locked by itself ( there can also be a lock symbol in the bridge thumbnail that can be changed using Bridge menu.
Last, not many visitors of this forum use Elements, have you already tried this question in the Elements forum itself??

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Cannot apply keywords/metadata to old pics - says "read only" files

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