How do you store your files?

[luvmylilgirls]

I want to back up all my digi scrapping onto CDs or DVDs. But I'm not sure how I want to save my files into folders.

To make it easy, I'd love to store all the hardware together (brads, eyelets, photo prongs, etc...) The elements (ribbon, ribbon charms, paperclips, etc...) the paper, etc... together. But I think it would be hard to remember who made each item so I can give credit back when I upload them you know?!

So, right now they're in folders by designers, then in sub folders (paper, ribbon, hardware, alphabets, etc...) but that's a major pain when you're trying to see all the ribbons you have. KWIM?

What is the best way to store these files? Please help! :)

Thanks!!!!

[suzy]

Hi Heather

When I first started dig-scrapping I did just what you have described - separated everything and inevitable lost track of where it all came from. After a few months I actually went through and deleted everything I couldn't identify. Thats when I started using the organiser in Photoshop Elements 3. I now burn everything to cd by designer (keeping all the kits together) and then separate them using the organiser in PSE3. I actually wrote a tutorial on my blog a few months ago about organising elements in cd or dvd in PSE3. If you are interested, the link is here (http://www.suzynunes.com/archives/2005/05/organising_elem.html). I dont know what I would do without it now.

I dont know if there are any other programs out there that do this. Maybe soemone else might have some suggestions.

[SweetNSassyMommy]

Hi Heather,

You've reminded me that I need to do another burn to back-up my files soon but here is how I organize and it works for me.

http://sweetnsassydesign.com/Pics/organize.jpg

Most of my favorite kits I keep in their own folders, titled with the kit names and the designer names. Inside the folder I have another folder named "extras" that I put all of that kits embellishments in. When you do this, the only thing left inside the folder is the papers and that is what you see in your preview, so you can see at a glance the color scheme of all of your kits and that makes choosing one to work with easier.

I put ALL alphas into thier own folder with the kit name and designer name and then I put THAT folder into an Alpha folder. I mix and match letters and will often use an alpha that didnt come with a kit on a layout, so I like to see all of those in one place.

There are lots of freebies out there and most of them are a bit smaller than normal kits, for those, unless its a favorite designer of mine. I usually break them up into parts. So I put all of the papers into my paper folder, all of the ribbons or stitches into another folder and finally all the embellishments into another. If I am looking for miscellaneous stuff, I scroll through those folders and ALWAYS find something. It's like my "scraps" bin when I was a paper scrapper and I often find the perfect little "something" by digging through it.

There is always the issue of giving credit where credit is due and I am very careful about it. Here is how I organize for that. I keep all of my kit/freebie previews in a folder called "credits". As you know not all designers include a preview in their kits, so if I am going to buy or download, I always right-click > Save picture on the sites preview so that I have a copy in my credits folder no matter what. I always know what stuff went with what, what the kit name was and what the designers name is. I find it helpful to "see" what I have. I also rename the credit image so it includes the full designers name and the name of the kit, some designers just name this file "Preview", so renaming more specificially helps me give credit.

I also rename papers, ribbons or embellishments that I put into my miscellaneous folders too. Since there is a sea of designers and kit names in those miscellaneous folders, stuff can get lost in the shuffle. This may sound like a lot of work renaming stuff, but really it isnt. You can batch process file names by clicking the first paper, holding down the control key while you click all the papers from that designer in a kit and then right-clicking to scroll down and "rename" your file. Once that is selected, the rename box comes up under the thumbnail of ONE of the papers you are renaming. Type the name you want, ie. SaraCarling-Daydream and hit enter, it will automatically name all of the files you selected "SaraCarling-Daydream (1), (2), (3), etc". This just takes a couple of seconds and then everything has the designer name and kit name right on it.

Sorry, I know this got a bit long, but I hope you can use some of the tips even if all of them wont work for you. This system really works for me as I have a very good "feel" for it at this point. Good luck!

Robin

[UnDecided]

Wow Robin -- that is a GREAT idea. I usually just end up working with kits because I have such a hard time finding the elements I need, but this way could be just what I need. And I never knew about the renaming thing -- DEFINITELY gonna have to look into that one! Thanks again!!

[WyoWoman]

holy heck! -how big is your monitor, sweetnsassy??

I liked the idea of a separate file for the previews - I'm gonna give that a try!
I would also add that my thing is I now have more than 1 digital kits folder - was tired of scrolling scrolling scrolling when i wanted to find say digichick's stuff. So I have 4 digital main folders, 1 each for my favorite sites, (like Digital_Digichicks) and also one for everything else. And when I get a kit with a password, I append the password to the file name like, ScrappinToTheOldies_RSimmons_pw=cheetos. (though, actually I always rename files so the designer name is first, so they group together in the folder.) but the password thing works great, incase I don't extract right away, the password is there, and when i archive them, the password is there too.
Thanks for the ideas, ladies :regular_s :thumbs_up
Kristin

[SweetNSassyMommy]

Great tip on the passwords Kristin, I forgot that one!!

[AmyJo]

Most of my scrapping is CT work, so I just work out of one designer's folder most times...and my files are sorted by designer, not type of product :)

[paula_duncan]

I have mine sorted by site and then by designer and then by kit. That way I know where, who, and what....lol. Also, once a designers folder is getting near or over 700mb I burn the kits by designer and then before I delete them I go through and move any element or overlays that I may want to use a bit more often and copy them to my scraps file which separates the items individually (paper, brads, eyelets, etc.) and rename them.

[Kim2002]

Since designers move from one site to another, I file mine by designer name/kit name/element name. This really helps me to give credit when posting to galleries. Plus, I like to keep all the kit contents together since they coordinate nicely. I don't rename anything, but I do group them into subfolders within the kit folder. So each kit will have subs for paper, elements, and alpha.

[holly]

i put all my stuff in folders named by designer and then subfolders of the kits. i tried the seperating of items themselves, but found that some designers don't include the kit name or their name on the items so i end up just trashing the item cause i couldn't credit properly!

[ditzyscrap]

I find it easiest for me to do it by designer then kits...just for crediting purposes. I have a pretty good memory about what I have on my computer so if I'm looking for something specific, I can usually find it, but may waste some time digging. If I ever got motivated enough, I'd tag all my stuff in the organizer in PSE3, lol!

The only exception to the way I organize my files are for boutiques with new designers that I don't "know" or sites that offer member submissions for freebies. Like TDC has it's own folder, and I have all the designers from here inside (except Holly and Manda, since I had their stuff before the new boutique opened up). Some of them should be getting their own folders...since I have bought so much of their stuff (others will be ones I only have their freebies, or they are freebies from challenges). But, there are only a few sites with this "exception"...for the most part everything is listed by designer.

[mbrattain]

I'm with Holly. Designer folders and then kit folders. I used to have the main directory be the site it was purchased but like someonestated earlier I was finding designers moving so I just make the main one the designer name. I would like to be able to figure out a way to keep elements separate but it just get's too confusing.

[SingingTree]

I have been using photoshop album to organize things, it works great for me, you can catagorize things multiple ways, so I have everything sorted into designers and kits, type (backgrounds, embellishment, etc) and color. It has worked really well for me.

[hawaiianbrat96]

I use the same as Robin - sort of... In PSP, you can add in the credits, so you can look them up on the file itself.

It is actually quite neat.

But I am starting to outgrow PSP and am thinking about trying out Photoshop.

[meems]

I love the PSE3 organizer too. It lets me save the kits intact but I can still find and sort the files to suit me.

What I've been doing now is making a contact sheet of the kit contents and printing it to PDF and saving that in a Contact Sheets folder. I am envisioning that one day I will have a binder of contact sheets that I can just flip through for ideas/inspiration.

When I open the PDF file of the contact sheet in PSE3 it rasterizes it and I save it as a .jpg so that I can use the Windows XP slideshow or filmstrip viewer to look at the contact sheets. I prefer the contact sheets to the kit previews b/c I can see each item separately and see its filename. Is there an easier way to make contact sheet .jpgs?

As for burning, I just burned everthing in My Catalogue whenever PSE3 told me to just so I'd have a backup. Eventually I hope to burn in a more organized manner. And then I will note on the contact sheet what DVD holds the kit.

Sorry for the long post. I'm really interested in this topic! I'm organizing more than I'm scrapping! I've already gotten some good ideas from the PP.

btw, just wanted to mention that I use PDF995 to make my PDFs. It's free and available from pdf995.com.

oh, I've heard Picasa is a good photo organizer and is free. I am thinking of trying that and using Organizer for my photos and Picasa for my scrapbooking files.

[ybus]

Great ideas from everyone!

I use PSE 4.0 and the organizer for all my digi stuff. I have a Tag called Designers and I tag all the kits with the designer and kit name and website. Then to pull EVERYTHING into one pot I sort all the kits into

PAPER (further broken down into STRIPED / PATTERN / COLORS / etc)

ELEMENTS (which is further broken down into TAGS / EYLETS / etc.. then the eyelets for example would be broken down into color tags as well)

ALPHABET (which is further broken down into LETTERS / WORDS / etc...)

PREDONE PAGES (aka ploppers,etc.)

HOLIDAY / THEMED (which is further broken down into each holiday)

So essentially if I have a christmas kit from Ms Designer called Blue Holidays that has some elements, word art, eyelets, stripped paper (blue and green striped), and some blue paper it would be tagged with the following tags:

Digi Designer - Ms Designer Tag
Blue Holidays Tag
Elements Tag
Blue Eyelets Tag
Stripped Paper Tag
Blue Paper Tag
Green Paper Tag
Holiday Christmas Tag
etc...

This way I can sort through all my kits very easily. If i'm looking for blue stripped paper i can find it easily, even though im not doing a holiday page. In addition if im looking for blue eyelets to go with it i can look through ALL my blue eyelets very easily from EVERY kit that I have.

I hope this makes sense. Its actually quiet easy to tag all your elements / kits as you import them.

I've heard of an online sorter called Picasso that works very similar to PSE organizer that you can do the same thing.

In PSE you also do not have to have the kits LOADED onto your computer, you can keep them on cd and just load thumbnails (which take up little to no space) for viewing. Then when you choose a kit or pieces of one it will tell you to load your cd in. It's really the coolest thing.

Oh and one last hint on this - if you also have your photos loaded into the organizer make sure when you load your kits in that you set the dates of them to like the 1800's or something so they dont interfere with your photos.

Sorry for being long winded - I hope I explained it well.

y

[OliveJuice]

Thanks for all the advice! I was wondering this same thing!

[Priscilla]

This is great advice.....
i am going to take a little from here and a little from there and come up with the best organization for me!

[dean1031]

I use the GREATEST program to organize my digital scrapbooking files and my pictures.

It is called Microsoft Digital Image Library. You can get it free from the Microsoft website.

It is nice, because you can apply "TAGS" or "KEYWORDS" to each item, and then you can search within the TAGS. It makes it so that you can keep each Kit together so that it is easy to give credit, but you can find your items easily. My favorite part is that I dont have to duplicate any file.

[Mizamigo]

Wow, can I relate to the stage you are in right now!


DO NOT do what you are thinking of doing. It won't work, you will have a hard time figuring out who the designer is and where you got the kit/paper/element.

I did that exactly as a "newbie" and I can tell you it doesn't work.

If you follow the advice of the others in the forum, you'll do great. My system is: Website/Designer/Kit that way, I know where I got the kit from, who the designer is, and what is in the kit.

Good luck and you are on the right track. Back up those items you have downloaded so you can find them and actually work with them later.

I hope to see a lot of your work later on....

[noralong]

The only problem I have with sorting kits by web site is that designers often design for several sites, or move to a different site after a while. In addition, since one designers items will frequently go with other stuff they have made, it would make putting their stuff together more difficult.

All my files are sorted (within my digiscrap file) designer_kit name. And since I have windows xp, I customize each kit folder with the preview for that kit so I can see, without opening it up, what is in it.