How can i save the acr changes i make to jpegs (not as sidecar xmps)?

Question

Hi Guys!
  I have been a full-time pro photog for 16 years and yes, yes, I always shoot in raw.  Except on my cameraphone.    I am on a pc.  We have hundreds of pics that my family took on cameraphones on a recent cruise (when we didn't feel like lugging the pro gear around all day).  Some need some adjustments before printing.  My 16 year old is comfortable with the basics in ACR and went in there herself and started making her adjustments.  For MY wedding pics (CR2s), I have the xmps saved as sidecars and would like to keep it that way.  I am suspecting that her adjustments aren't being saved becuase of this?  If this is the case, I would be happy to change that setting (after 45 min I still can't figure out how!! i must have come across it but just am not seeing it!) temporarily for her for a day or two and then permenantly switch it back for my own editing purposes.  If that is not the case, please, please, please give any pointers!!
  The adjustments show up in bridge after she makes them in ACR, but don't show up (dark pic still dark) when I open the pic anywhere outside of Bridge (such as when we email it to another computer to check it or in windows).  If we try to open in plain old CS5, ACR opens the file no matter what, which makes sense since the new info apparently isn't embedded into the file.
  Yes, I can teach her how to do her adjustments in CS5 (rather than cs% Bridge and ACR) but she has a huge scrapbooking day planned with Grandma on Wednesday and living in FL, we are in the thick of our wedding season right now, so I don't have time to teach her.  If there is ANY way to get the ACR adjustments saved to the files?  Thank you soooooo much for any help!
Cher

Answer 1

Settings you make in ACR for a Raw file are written to the separate XMP side car file. (The Camera Raw preferences has this set by default and to my opinion it should stay so, but the other option is to save them in a central database)
However, opening the same file in ACR and make new adjustments the previous settings are overwritten by the new ones. You can save them separately but that would be a hell of a job. If you want to be on the safe side you should make a proper back up of the whole folder (be sure to have the XMP files included, by default those are hidden files in Bridge) before someone else starts playing with the settings. However, you can always go back to the default version using the option in the little menu icon next to the name op f the panel (first panel is Basic). click on the icon and from the provided menu choose 'Reset Camera Raw Defaults' to go back to the originals.
I don't use jpeg in ACR very often but I believe ACR settings for jpeg and tiff are written in the XMP data in the file itself instead of a separate XMP file. You can revert to default or make new settings that also overwrite the older settings.
Making adjustments in ACR shows the results in Bridge (it uses the XMP data for the preview) but to make it visible in other apps you also have to save them in Photoshop itself to make the changes persistent so that mail and print reflect your settings.
So basically, let her play with the files and either chose the option to save the files (bottom left in ACR Window and choose the wanted provided options or open and save them in Photoshop to get the proper result. And if you want to be on the safe side let here use her own copies and keep the originals to your self.