New & Unorganized! Organizing Tips Anyone?

[ADusome]

Hello all,

My name is Angie and I am a mom of 3 children under 5 and decided it was about time I started recording some memories...not sure the logic in thinking I have more time now than when I had 1 or 2 but anyway...I only have a digital camera so decided to go all digital and am using the software delivered with my husband's scanner - PSE 6.0. I bought a PSE for Dummies book that is very helpful.

I found DD via Google and Shutterfly and love all the tips and tutorials that are available. I have been lurking around DD for the last couple of weeks checking out the freebies and buying items from the store including a few tutorials. In less than two weeks though I am a little overwhelmed and need some organization tips. Are there any tutorials/FAQs/software out there on how to organize both your photos and purchased products (.pngs/.jpgs etc.)?

I hope to spend lots of time digital scrapbooking in 2010 - I just need to get organized first!

[AllynD]

Welcome to DD! You will love it here!

There are many possible ways to go, but I like to keep my photos and my digital scrapbooking supplies separate. For my photos, I use LightRoom2, and follow Scott Kelby's advice to keep all my photos organized in subfolders, within one large folder titled "LightRoom Managed Photos." Similarly, I keep all my scrapbooking supplies in subfolders in one large folder titled "Scrapbooking Supplies."

Within my Scrapbooking Supplies folder, I always keep my supplies in the folders they came in that start with designers (or source) names.

Beyond that, then it just depends on what software you like to view and access your photos and your supplies.

[kaleidoscope]

Hi!
I don't have any good advice. I am a paper scrapper just dabbling in digital. So far with what I've collected and made I've organized the digital scrapstuff into folders. I have folders by artist name and then subdivided into papers, stamps/brushes, elements (embellishments), etc.

I haven't downloaded and organized my digital photos yet. One of my goals this year. I plan to organize them into folders by date. I'm a chronological kind of person, so that's what works for me.

[Jen D]

I use lightroom for my photos... and love it because it puts the date in the file name for me. So much easier!

For my digi supplies I use ACDSEE and that really helps! I organize my stash like the DD store... makes it easy to find things. My motto is don't try to reinvent the wheel =)

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

I also use Lightroom to manage/edit/view my photos, but they are saved in a separate Photos folder that is then subfoldered into years, then months.

I also have a Digital Scrapbooking folder for all of my supplies and a Digital Layouts folder for all of my pages.

This makes it easy to back things up on a scheduled system.

Oh, and I just use the Finder on my Mac to file things. I'm sure that Bridge and ACDSee and similar products are great and make finding things easy, but I am a very big chicken about spending hours tagging files just to have it all lost with an operating system or software upgrade incompatibility issue in the future. It's happened to many a person.

[oswegograd]

I highly recommend Jessica Spragues classes for getting started with PSE. She's a great teacher and really knows how to break things down and keep them manageable. Also, ACDSee is great for organization.

[anke]

Looks like you got some good advice already. I just wanted to chime in and welcome you to DD, I hope we'll see a lot of you

[digigrandma]

Hi there, Angie! So glad to welcome another digital scrapper to our DD home. Good luck with the organizing. It's good to develop a plan and stick to it while you are just starting out so the job of organizing doesn't get too overwhelming.

I do the same as Cassie. I don't spend time tagging my supplies. I keep digital supplies in a separate folder called just that......digital supplies. Within that folder are folders with categories like Full Kits, Solid Paper Packs, Solid Patterned Papers, fasteners, alphas, brushes, etc. I use the Finder on my Mac for locating a specific kit if I can't remember which folder it is in.

Photos are in a separate folder called Fat Folder For Photos. (Inside are folders for each month where my photos go until they get uploaded to Shutterfly, burned to a CD or DVD and saved to my portable EHD. After a few months all photos are removed from my computer, but, not before I make sure they are safely saved and stored. If there are some photos I know I want to scrap, but, haven't gotten around to them, yet, I put them in a folder called Photos to Scrap and keep them on my computer until I scrap them.)

[elseepe]

I use PSE organizer for my photos. I highly recommend Scott Kelby's book for whichever version you have. He walks through the getting photos into PSE, tagging, and has some great editing tips. I am currently using Google's Picasa for organizing my digital supplies. It is working. Yes, I could use Picasa for both, but I have a system set up for my photos and I kind of like the way the tagging works for people, places, events in PSE

I, too, can recommend jessicasprague for classes, they can certainly get you comfortable with using your PSE for digital scrapping pretty quickly. They are well organized video tutorials.

Welcome and enjoy the journey!

[ADusome]

Thank you all so much for your responses and great ideas. For some reason I never thought of using the search functions already on my computer - LOL! I find myself percolating more ideas than I have time for but I imagine this will settle down when I have a few finished items under my belt. I will definitely check into Jessica Sprague. Being more efficient will certainly help me move forward more quickly. Thanks again!

Angie

[Elena]

I love ACDSee!

[faerywings]

Another ACDSee User here too. I use it for both my scrap stash and my photos. I can't scarp without it.

[blhdvm]

I also have PSE 6 and I use the Organizer for both my photos and my supplies. Keyword tags are a wonderful thing!!
My photos are organized in folders by year and then month with the exception of my animals - they each have a folder of their own.
My supplies remain in the folder they came in organized by site, then by designer, then by kit name. I have numerous keyword tags to find things if I'm not using just a single kit.
I am the master at organizing and organizing some more!! I need to work on my productivity!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jaycee]

Welcome to DD. I lurked for a year, but am so grateful to be able to call DD my digi 'home'! Untill recently I used PSE 6 (now using PSE 8). I have recently purchased ACDSee for organising my digital supplies, and I LOVE it! Until then I was using the Organiser in PSE. Now I pretty well use ACDSee all the time. My advice - get in early and sort out categories and tag, tag tag. I am still getting my backlog into ACDSee! Good luck and happy digi scrapping!

[Faefester]

Do you tag not just your photos but your supplies as well? Thanks!

[Crissy]

Welcome to DD, Angie!! I also use the ACDSee and love it!

[Romy]

Lightroom for photos is awesome! with tons of good free presets...great thing!!

for organizing kits, lots of people love Picasa or ACDSee but being an organized person, I use Bridge for tagging
(Picasa's own tags don't stay with files and there isn't ACDSee full version for Mac)

[krystav]

Hi Angie, and welcome!

You'll find a whole lot of superfriendy and creative people here, I'm also just getting started with the whole digital scrapping.

For my photos I use Lightroom to find/sort them.
On my computer they are all in a folder called Lightroom Fotos, thats then subdivided into years and files automatically renamed by Lightroom to have dates in the name.
In Lightroom I use the collections feature to sort photos on subject such as holiday, baby, friends etc.

For my digi-supplies I use ACDSee as well and I found it very helpful, but am really glad I got in early so I dont have to tag a whole lot of things at once.
On my computer the digi supplies are in a folder called digi supplies, that is then subdivided into DD and non-DD and those are each divided into folders by designer, I leave the actual files in the folders they unzipped in.

Have fun here and looking forward to seeing your pages in the gallery