How do you organize digi stuff?

[MaggieMae]

Ever since I got SBM I've become a digital addict! :p Now I have files galore. I've been saving them in separate kit files if they are large enough. Otherwise, I have been just saving them in digital files as I download them.

Do any of you have a system that you think works well? I've read that you should make files for paper, brads, ribbons, etc. What do you guys think? I kind of hate to break the kits up, but now I am having trouble remembering what's in what!

Would love to have suggestions!

[poppabob]

I'm a big fan of the organizer in Photoshop Elements 4. There is also a free photo organizer from Google called Picassa that a lot of people have spoken highly of.

I keep the kits together but with Elements Organizer I can keep track of things by assigning "tags" to each of the items in a kit so I can find them easily. For example I have tags for backgrounds, fasteners, ribbons, textures, Word Art, alphas, frames, color schemes, designer names, kit names, etc. If I'm looking for a background I click one checkbox for the backgrounds tag and *poof* all I see are the thumbnails for just backgrounds. Want a blue background? I click the checkbox for backgrounds and the blue color scheme and *poof*, just blue backgrounds. It's a very flexible system.

When I find what I'm looking for I then just drag the thumbnail from the Elements Organizer into Scrapbook MAX! and the actual file is imported into my SBM layout. I always have both these programs open when scrapping.

I understand Picassa works very similarly but I don't have any experience with it.

Elements is how I also keep my thousands of photos organized too, just in a different catalog from my scrapbooking stuff. One click of the mouse and I can filter thousands of photos down to just the ones of my grand-daughters!

An organizer program can save you loads of time and your sanity when you finally get to that point of having too much stuff to easily keep track of. It's boss when combined with a program like Scrapbook MAX!

I hope I didn't ramble too much and this gives you some ideas.

[mh51]

Call me THICK or what but where did you get the Elements Organizer.
Your explanation of how YOU keep organized sounds like my cup of tea!!

[MaggieMae]

Thanks for the info, PoppaBob. I don't have Elements but I do have Picassa - I'm going to explore it. I don't know if it has a way to tag things or not. If you keep things in kits but tag them, does your program then sort through all the kits for just, for example, blue brads? It sounds like it does. Wow!

I'm desperate to get some kind of order in all my freebies, etc. :o How did this grow so fast?!!!

[ToniNZ]

This is fantastic, I have an earlier version of elements but it is working well. This will keep me busy for while sorting and tagging but is exactly what I have been looking for - a way to maintain the 'kits' but also group by mulitple type of element or criteria. Thanks for sharing this idea.

[juliehclark]

i use some software called digital scraproom.

just got it, but i like it so far!

[poppabob]

Call me THICK or what but where did you get the Elements Organizer.
Your explanation of how YOU keep organized sounds like my cup of tea!!

It's a part of the program Photoshop Elements by Adobe. I have version 4. It's actually 2 programs in one. The organizer and the photo editor.

[poppabob]

Thanks for the info, PoppaBob. I don't have Elements but I do have Picassa - I'm going to explore it. I don't know if it has a way to tag things or not. If you keep things in kits but tag them, does your program then sort through all the kits for just, for example, blue brads? It sounds like it does. Wow!

Being the software junkie that I am, I downloaded Picassa to look at. When you have a picture/pictures selected in Picassa look at the "view" item on the menu bar. There is an item on this menu called "Keywords". You can also access it directly by using the keyboard combination CTRL + K. Here you can add keywords for the selected items like background, blue, designer name, etc. It looks like you can add as many keywords as you want to each picture. Then you can you the search bar in the upper right hand corner to find stuff by these keywords. It would be nice if you could see a list of these keywords in one place though rather than having to type then in each time. That's where you might want to look at labels instead. Right click on an item and then select add label and play around in there.

Hope this helps get you started.

[poppabob]

i use some software called digital scraproom.

just got it, but i like it so far!

Checking this one out too. Looks like it has possibilities. I kind of like the idea of the list of used items.

[MaggieMae]

Oh, my gosh, PoppaBob! I just went into Picassa2 which I didn't think would work for all the embies, etc. and found that by default it was only searching for and loading .jpg images. I found the area to tell it to load all images formats and 15 minutes later it had thousands of images! Wow! There were even images from games I have played. This will be a really good way to get rid of junk!

Now to find out how to label, sort, etc. Thank you so much for your input - I think there is a workable system in this! And it's free! :p I have never used any kind of photo organizer before - so here goes!

Thanks again!

[MaggieMae]

It looked like it was even loading all the pages I've created with all the elements and layers. That might be overkill, but I'll proceed with caution. LOL

[poppabob]

It looked like it was even loading all the pages I've created with all the elements and layers. That might be overkill, but I'll proceed with caution. LOL

Take a look under the Tools menu at the Folder Manager option. You can specify here what folders you want Picassa to keep an eye on or not keep an eye on.

[MaggieMae]

Thanks one more time - this is going to be a job!

[poppabob]

I've played with Picassa some today and it's pretty quick but is missing one feature that I can't live without. I can't seem to drag and drop images into Scrapbook MAX! (or any program)!

No good for me.

[MaggieMae]

Hi PoppaBob,

I've spent about 3 hours tagging stuff and you're right, it only helps to locate them - as far as I can tell, you can't drag and drop them into SBM. Yikes! Well, at least I have a better idea of what I have! :o

[poppabob]

Hi PoppaBob,

I've spent about 3 hours tagging stuff and you're right, it only helps to locate them - as far as I can tell, you can't drag and drop them into SBM. Yikes! Well, at least I have a better idea of what I have! :o

Not one to give up easily I found a way you can drag and drop.

It appears you can drag and drop if both windows are visable on your desktop like this.

http://poppabob.net/misc/sb/Clipboard01.jpg

After dragging and dropping from Picassa just Maximize your SBM window again.

Hope this helps. I hate to see all that work..well...not work. :)

[*eng*]

I have Picassa and it found things I thought I had lost when I installed it. I just had a peek as I haven't really used it What a shock! I've got the world and his wife in there now ! I didn't realise it automatically put stuff in there. I now have to organise the organiser. Not being very smart and very hit and miss this could prove to be a very long job! Theres even piccies my bro's emailed me. Brilliant stuff but I'll never keep up with it.

[MaggieMae]

Not one to give up easily I found a way you can drag and drop.

It appears you can drag and drop if both windows are visable on your desktop like this.

http://poppabob.net/misc/sb/Clipboard01.jpg

After dragging and dropping from Picassa just Maximize your SBM window again.

Hope this helps. I hate to see all that work..well...not work. :)

Thanks, PoppaBob! I just got back to this thread and found your solution. Yippee! I organized a bunch on Picassa and hoped I could use it! :)

[waydon64]

poppa bob
I have the organiser in elements 4 and never used it how do I start
sorry for the dumb question
hugs Donna

[Hilda]

Thanks to all of you for your helpful input.

Where did you get the digital scraproom software?

Hilda

[poppabob]

Thanks to all of you for your helpful input.

Where did you get the digital scraproom software?

Hilda

It can be found here (http://www.digitalscraproom.com).

[Hilda]

Does anyone know where to get the Digital Scraproom software?

Thanks
Hilda

[poppabob]

poppa bob
I have the organiser in elements 4 and never used it how do I start
sorry for the dumb question
hugs Donna

No such thing as a dumb question. My advice would be to start with the help program. After starting the organizer, Click on Help-->Photoshop Elements Help or simply press the F1 key. This will open the help program.

As a starting point check out the tutorials, especially "Tutorial 2: Acquire and organize your photos". Also look at the section on Tagging and organizing photos.

Hope this helps get you started.

[Hilda]

When I clicked on that site, it says "not available"...
Hilda

[poppabob]

When I clicked on that site, it says "not available"...
Hilda

The site is apparently down right now. Give it a while and try again later.

[JoJo]

Hi Poppa Bob, i was hoping you could help me i have elements 4 & i have just put all my scrap stuff into this program I then tried to drag & drop something into scrapmax, but it did not happen, while holding the mouse button i could see the picture but when i let go it dissappeared, any suggestion on what i am doing wrong?
Would be most greatful for any help.
JoJo

[mh51]

I'm a big fan of the organizer in Photoshop Elements 4. There is also a free photo organizer from Google called Picassa that a lot of people have spoken highly of.

I keep the kits together but with Elements Organizer I can keep track of things by assigning "tags" to each of the items in a kit so I can find them easily. For example I have tags for backgrounds, fasteners, ribbons, textures, Word Art, alphas, frames, color schemes, designer names, kit names, etc. If I'm looking for a background I click one checkbox for the backgrounds tag and *poof* all I see are the thumbnails for just backgrounds. Want a blue background? I click the checkbox for backgrounds and the blue color scheme and *poof*, just blue backgrounds. It's a very flexible system.

When I find what I'm looking for I then just drag the thumbnail from the Elements Organizer into Scrapbook MAX! and the actual file is imported into my SBM layout. I always have both these programs open when scrapping.

I understand Picassa works very similarly but I don't have any experience with it.

Elements is how I also keep my thousands of photos organized too, just in a different catalog from my scrapbooking stuff. One click of the mouse and I can filter thousands of photos down to just the ones of my grand-daughters!

An organizer program can save you loads of time and your sanity when you finally get to that point of having too much stuff to easily keep track of. It's boss when combined with a program like Scrapbook MAX!

I hope I didn't ramble too much and this gives you some ideas.

Whereabouts in Picasa do I assign 'tags' to my SBM 'bits'?
PLEASE

[MaggieMae]

Hi Mary,

When you highlight a picture right click and I think it's the second option which allows you to tag the highlighted object. I made lots of labels from blue paper to neutral backgrounds to brads, etc. Hope this helps!

[mh51]

Hi Mary,

When you highlight a picture right click and I think it's the second option which allows you to tag the highlighted object. I made lots of labels from blue paper to neutral backgrounds to brads, etc. Hope this helps!


Thanks for your answer, which I tried, but this only puts the item into a separate 'folder' as such.
Maybe I should have said that what I want to be able to do is (mega task) assign 'key words' to embellishments so that I can then ask for say, blue & backgrounds & ribbons etc etc. I seem to remember that Poppabob uses PS Elements to do this but as I don't have that software package, maybe someone out there knows of another way of doing it through other software.

Hope i've not totally 'bamboozled' you all!!!!