Managing your stash...

Sillz said:
Woah, now that is organized! I keep 2 copies of everything I have. I have one folder that has everything saved by kit name, then I have another folder that has all kit contents sorted by type (papers, element types, alphabets, word art, labels etc. Though being a newbie i don't have a whole lot of stuff...maybe around 16 or so kits.
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I have hundreds of kits from GS and thousands from other sites. I think I would go crazy managing two sets :) What a great idea though.
 
More than how you store your kits, I wonder how you search and find what you are looking for! Sometimes I want a kit of a certain color. Sometimes I want something to do with hiking. Sometimes I want a Disney specific kit.
Currently I use Zoner and I tag all of my kits so I can search on anything. I fear, though, that Zoner will not last forever (they have already changed a lot of what I use, so they don't have the support anymore) but I have no idea what to look for next! (and, honestly, with the number of kits I have been putting it off because it is going to be an undertaking)
 
Diane, that is an interesting idea. I never thought of using separate software to organize my kits. I wonder what is out there these days, especially for Macs. If I were to do it, it would definitely be a good idea for me to start now when I have relatively few kits instead of having a ton of stuff to organize at once.
 
Sillz said:
Diane, that is an interesting idea. I never thought of using separate software to organize my kits. I wonder what is out there these days, especially for Macs. If I were to do it, it would definitely be a good idea for me to start now when I have relatively few kits instead of having a ton of stuff to organize at once.
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The problem with using separate software is that it does go away, or fail, or get corrupted. Unfortunately, JPEGs are not like music, where there are tags built in to the file type. Some of the things you can do include tagging the items in the file name with key words, keeping a text file in the folder and using windows search to find the items.
 
Now that I have looked into it, it looks like Photoshop Elements has its own image organizer built in. I highly doubt Photoshop will be going anywhere for a long, long time, so I might give it a shot and see how it works. :)
 
I've not heard of Zoner. But I used to have ACDSee. It worked great and I was a very detailed tagging machine with it for several years including purchasing the newer versions etc. [Because the old ones quit working]. I started over. Their customer service was horrible and they did not care. [that is my politically correct wording].

Then-
I got very annoyed with them. <insert - grumble>

So I created my 'own' tagging using Photoshop CC in Bridge. I'm not as detailed as I was. I no longer try to tag every element by color and / or type... I've categorized more by theme for the kit [as to how I would use it]. As for templates, they are tagged as:
1 photo; 2 photos; 3 photos; 4 photos; 5 or more/dbl pages; Alpha; Numerical templates; Bent photos; Borders; Calendars; Cluster Frames; FB or siggie; Shape Masks; Stackers; States; Templates with Blends; Torn Edges; Word Paths.

I have a category for just Masks as well.

I'm happy to share my 'themes' if anyone is interested.

Now, regarding Adobe PHotoshop- when they've done some funky updates [grr], I have lost my tagging. Not to worry...I call on the phone, and a very nice person will either walk me though or cyber in and fix it for me. I am very pleased with Adobe's customer service.

Windows 10 search feature is pretty good too.
I've seen written how people tag [rename their kits] for easier finding using windows 10.
m
 
I use picasa, its by google
it catalogs all your images, graphics etc (you can tell it what you do & don't want to add) & any online graphics you may have as well
then you can search via the search bar. its not always the greatest searching for some things but saves a heap of time when I am looking for something especially for work xx
 
Sillz said:
Now that I have looked into it, it looks like Photoshop Elements has its own image organizer built in. I highly doubt Photoshop will be going anywhere for a long, long time, so I might give it a shot and see how it works. :)
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If you're on a Mac, it has built in tagging software. That's what I use. I've used several different outside tagging programs over the years and was SUPER excited when Macs got better with tagging in Finder (a few OS's ago) It was clunky at first, but I think they've come a long way. You can even set up saved smart searches, so you can find all your Disney kits with one click.

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph25325?locale=en_US

I'd recommend trying Finder tags before you start the PSE organizer. I know a lot of people love it, but like any program, there are horror stories of tags disappearing or not moving over when you change computers, etc.
 
I can't believe I haven't replied to this thread before, as this is one of my favorite scrappy topics! I love seeing others' systems and seeing if they can help improve mine.

And yes, Michi I for sure want to see your categories!

I've had probably five or six different programs and systems for organizing. Because I love it and find it super relaxing. It's almost like meditation to sit and quietly tag... welcome to my weirdness, LOL.

I'm sort of in transition right now. I'm in the process of going from an "organizing by themes" to "organizing by designer, but still tagging themes" structure. It will probably take me two years to move everything over... but it does make things easier when designers change stores or retire.

After I download a kit, I put everything in one folder, broken up by papers and ellies. I'm trying to get better about deleting unnecessary previews, TOU's, template formats I don't use, etc. Then the kit folder sits in my DL folder until I decide to sit down and deal with it. I also change the icon of the folder to be the preview of the kit so they're easier to see.

I have store folders with current designers inside, and alphabetical folders for designers who are retired or not associated with a particular store. I plop the kit in the designer's folder. If its a collab with two designers, I'll put the kit in one designer's folder then make a copy of the preview and put that in the other designers' folder as reference. If it's a store collab, I'll just make a folder for those within the larger store folder.

Then comes the super fun tagging part! I used to tag with designer names, but that's not necessary with my new system. So I tag similar to Michi with kit themes and template numbers, though her template tags are more refined than mine, and I'm totally stealing some of those...

Some of my tags are seasons, months (if it's a PL type kit), events, animals, boy or girl, sports, tech, books, relationships (mom, dad, friends, etc.) art, food, gardening, home, outdoors/camping, emotions, space, travel, beach, TV/movies, weather, wedding, love, etc. I try not to over-tag, but some things get more than one tag.

If I'm feeling really squirrely, I'll tag with the main kit colors. You can assign anything with a colored tag on Macs, so I just use those. Then when I'm finished, I tag them with "tagged". I made my "tagged" tag a color, so I can easily see what has been tagged and what hasn't. My tagged supplies have a little grey dot under the folder preview. Oh I've also started tagging with the year I bought the supply, so I can see how much I buy in a year.

And that's about it. It's going to be a long process to fix my hot mess of a HD. I just moved everything from 2 different EHD's onto my Mac, so I have years and years worth of supplies to go through (and get rid of) But it's fun for me :)
 
So interesting to read about everyone's systems :)

As for me, I try to download immediately when I buy so I don't forget to later on. Everything gets stored on an EHD, along with the back-up of all my pictures (and my music lol). So I have 3 sections: Pictures, Music, Scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking has 2 main folders: Kits and Finished Scraps.

Kits has different folders according to theme (baby/kids, family & friends, everyday pages, seasons, holidays, templates, etc...) Kit get sorted into these and get labeled "Kit Name - Designer".

Within each kit, I keep separate folders for alphas and papers, everything else gets copied to the main folder because I hate having to dig through a bunch of folders to find what I want lol (guess that's the lazy in me)
 
Mine is just by kit name. :O
I only shop at GS ;) So that makes it easy.
When I do P52 layouts, and I need an extra item, I just use the search function in Windows.
It works for me ;)
 
I have too many to view by kit name - the thumbnails don't load up quickly enough :) You must have the same problem!
 
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