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Organize Your Pad: February

jenevang

jenevang

Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs
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Apr 20, 2011
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OK, ladies. It's time for another OYP discussion. This one will be quick because the answers here will be highlighted on the blog NEXT WEEK!

The January edition can be found on the blog HERE.

So, without further ado, help me get more organized with a discussion of FOLDERS.

How do you organize your digital supplies on your hard drive? How do you use FOLDERS to help you? Is your Desktop full? Do things stay in your Downloads too long? Do you organize by Designer? Site? Type of element?

Do you have folders for Used vs Unused items?

We want to know!
 
Awesome post with great tips! My stash is growing fast, thanks to the great events & sales here. I'm gonna be doing some needed 'spring cleaning' on my HD.
 
I have my supplies in folders by store


then designer


then by kit/paper/alpha etc name


I have a separate folder for BYOC in my TLP folder, at the end of the month the items get moved into the respective designers folder ready for the next months BYOC


I also now have a Project Life folder


My TLP Alphas and templates have a folder of their own too
 
I have my downloads folder which when I first download something it goes directly in there. Once I use it, it goes in my digi-scrap folder, then under store name (which is mainly TLP :thumbsups ), then designer name. Under their name it's organized by kits, papers, elements, doodles, stitches, alphas, etc...

I have just started to tag things in Adobe Bridge but haven't really learned how you do a search for say, "tags" once you've tagged everything. Still learning that. So for now I'm just using my Finder folder (I use a MAC) to arrange/find everything.
 
I keep stuff in Bridge by store name-->Designer-->kit name--> and then I dump whatever folders come with the kit into that. I used to tag stuff, but then someone pointed out to me that the vast majority of designers actually put the object name in the file name (as well as the kit name), so I can just search in bridge by "flower" and most of the flowers come up without me having tagged them. The only thing I do keyword is BYOC Month Year, and then I will filter for say, Feb 2014 BYOC so that I can mix match from all the appropriate kits.

Brandi - if you right click on a tag name in the Keywords dialogue box, you can choose Find...then just browse to the parent folder and it will pull all your keyworded items.
 
I use PSE, and the PSE Organizer, so mine might be different.

All my folders have store initials, then whatever the designer named the folder (minus ep, pp, ap). I only have one folder per kit, so if the designer broke the kit into many pieces, I'll move them all into one folder.
Examples: TLP onelittlebird-stuckonyou or TDF062_TLP justjaimee_lyttmab (Collabs) TLP Ultimate Vacation.
When I unzip them for use, I drop them into an "Unzipped" folder within my main "Digi" folder which PSE Organizer monitors. Once I use the kit, I pull it out of the unzipped folder in the file tree, and into the main Digi folder. It sounds complicated, but it's really not at all. And I like being able to check quickly to see if there's something I haven't used yet that I bought.

Except brushes. They have their own folder with the preview that I dump them all into. That way I'm only loading brushes from one folder instead of trying to remember what kits have a brush. The individual brushes are labelled as above though, with the store initials, and every now and then I create a new brush kit with all the brushes from a store, so I can just load "TLP brushes".
 
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I keep mine in folders by store name > designer > kit. I have a separate folder for BYOC and store collabs. I'm a little redundant in that I put BYOC stuff in that folder, as well as in the designer's folder. Once the month is over, I delete the monthly BYOC folder, as everything is already in the designer's folder (and the preview image is key worded).
 
If I regularly do challenges for a certain shop, I'll create an extra shop category- then I sort by type of file (kits, elements, alphas, paper packs, and so on). What's not categorized into my main shops, is ONLY sorted by type of file.
Since I'm mostly a kit scrapper, filing the kits is most important: I'll sort them after THEME, because that's what I'm looking for when I start a layout.
 
mollyc said:
Brandi - if you right click on a tag name in the Keywords dialogue box, you can choose Find...then just browse to the parent folder and it will pull all your keyworded items.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Molly! :wub
 
I previously was tagging and using ACDSee but it kept crashing on me so last year I moved to using Bridge. Previously my kits were stored by store>designer initials>kit name. Now I am going to create folders for designers and drag all their kits in to clean up a bit. Like Molly, I discovered that a lot of the products are named accordingly so I can just do a search in bridge and a large selection of the product will come in the search so I don't bother tagging unless it's an untagged product is super duper special to me that I know I'll be using many times, then I will tag it.
 
I download everything to my computer HD. I unzip each folder to my 'My Pictures' folder where it either gets stored in a 'Product' subfolder or left there until I drag a whole bunch of non-CT goodies over to my EHD to be ACDSee'd at some later date. Whatever goodies I have, they never stay in my downloads or unzipped for more than a couple days. I'm pretty OCD abt it.

Within the 'Product' subfolder is a 'CT' subfolder and a 'Used' subfolder. Once I use the CT goodies, I drag the kit(s) over to the 'Used' folder and it is then moved over to my EHD later.

I also have a 'Pages' subfolder where I save my full-sized JPGs. They are backed up to my Flickr acct and my EHD monthly-ish.

I save my TIFFs and web-sized JPGs to the main 'My Pictures' folder until I either finish the page or UL the web-sized JPGs to Facebook & Digi Land. Then they are deleted forever and ever amen. [See: OCD.]

I never ever EVER organize by store even if a designer has been selling at one store her entire design history. I have a main 'Product' folder on my EHD which is further divided into '00-To Tag' (where I ACDSee from), 'Alphas,' 'Elements' --> 'Doodles,' 'Flairs,' 'Flowers,' 'Frames,' 'Journal Cards,' 'Miscellaneous,' 'Paint,' 'Ribbons & Strings,' 'Stamps & Masks,' 'Stitching,' 'Tags,' 'Wordart,' 'Kits' --> [Designer Name], 'Papers,' 'PS Stuff' (actions, styles, etc.), 'Templates,' & 'To Make' (where I drag in photos that I want to scrap + the kit(s) I want to scrap them with).

Um, so I might like to (over)organize things?! :giggle
 
Great tips, ladies!

One thing I've found really helpful when using Bridge is to change the folder icon into the folder image for the product. On a mac, I select the folder and press command-i which is "get info." Then, I open the jpg image that is usually labeled "folder" or "preview" and I select all and copy the image. Then I go back to the info page for the folder and select the blue folder icon in the top corner and paste the preview image instead. By doing this, all my folders now show up the way they do in the TLP store. Here's a screen shot of my Feb BYOC group. I love the way I can just browse the folders visually!

 
Yes, Peppermint-- Bridge is awesome. I forgot one more thing: once I use a kit, I put five stars under it. Makes it easy to keep track of which ones I've used and which ones I haven't. In my photography business, the star system is a great way of rating the photos as I go through them initially.
 
I sadly had my last ehd crash on me before Christmas. I lost all my purchases so I am not starting over in a sense.

What I do is (I have a mac so no unzipping)
1. Buy my goodies and download to my download folder
2. On my new EHD I have a folder called "Digital Scrapping World" it contains folders for Products, Layouts, Books & Ideas
3. In the Products folder I have folders for Kits, Project Life, Embellishments, Templates, Alphas/Word Art
4. I use the preview for my folder and them move it to the correct location.
I rename each file with the name, designer and shop name like this "Feb 2014 Template - Amy Martin (TLP)". That way I know where it is from. When it is a purchase from Daily Digi but is a TLP Designer I label it as (TDD) because I know where they come from by looking at the TOU or the previews.
 
Great tips everyone. I organize by site, designer and kit in Bridge. I also have older kits in Lightroom.( I use a Mac.) I really need to stay away from my sewing machine and start scrapping again.
 
I organize by store. New purchases I dump into a folder that is separate labeled for example "TLP purchases." I'll then organize my purchases by adding previews to the folder and dumping all of the items for a kit into one folder for that kit. After that, I'll drag them into my TLP folder. The kits automatically go in order by designer since that's normally the first thing in the name (if not, I add that). Sometimes, if I really want to make a point to use new purchases right away, I'll scrap from the "purchases" folder before I move the kits.

BYOC has it's own sub-folder within the TLP store folder. I move the month's items for BYOC in there and then move them out into the "general population" after I complete the BYOC challenge. That way my BYOC folder is ready for the next month's items.
 
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