Hello! Brand new to TLP and to digital scrapbooking (see my message in the welcome forum). In fact, I am just learning and haven't officially scrapped anything yet. Lol! I am currently using PSE2018 to organize photos and supplies plus to scrapbook. Not looking to change my program at this time. I am curious to know if anyone has any good tips they want to share, workflows, tutorials, etc. I know there is a ton out there online, but I am most interested in what other digital scrapbookers have found to be helpful. Thanks!!
This is pretty elemental, and I'm sure you'll get some excellent advice, but I keep all of my digi supplies in "documents". I also file them under "TLP - designer". For holidays, I file them under "TLP - Halloween, then designer" because we're getting ready for Halloween. After Halloween, I go back and remove "Halloween". I do that for each holiday so that the files are all together. Hope that makes sense. I also keep all of my "Alphas" and "templates" together.
@Cherylndesigns so you don't use like PSE or another program to organize your supplies? I like the idea of having everything right there in the same program, but am intimidated with tagging. LOL
I don't use the PSE organizer. It's just the way I started. Like I said, you'll probably get better answers from some of the others, but that organizer is just too complicated for me. I started digi scrapping with another program (it was a long time ago and I can't even remember what it was). If I had started with PSE, I might be doing it differently. Wait and see what the others say, I like to keep things simple. LOL I also was a huge Picasa user and lover and they did away with that, sadly. If you're just starting out, this is a good time to figure out how you want to do it.
I am pretty new to pse 2018 too, having recently switched from another program. I have heard that using the Organizer in PSE makes the whole thing slow. I have my content sorted into folders and then use the Windows search function of help me find things. I do change the word art so that it includes the words that are on it. For example, if a piece that says "friends" is called "designer-name_wa3" I will rename the file to "friends". Once I find something I like I look at the entire kit to see if it will work.
@Coreen I'm currently using Bridge for my digital supply organization, but PSE 2018 definitely will get you where you need to go with organizing. My biggest suggestion is your file folder organization in Explorer should have a good base. I have a folder for each designer and then I use Bridge keywords to identify the store the products came from, theme, supply type (embellishments and papers and then subcategories under those).
I use Lightroom to organize my photos. I have a video series I did for Lightroom which you may find useful just for general organization and keyword usage. Just in case: Lightroom: From Workflow to WOW Videos
I also have a YouTube channel Watch Cheryl Scrap where you can watch me scrap. From time to time during the live sessions, I will talk about organization. Here is the playlist for Watch Cheryl Scrap LIVE! Most of my other videos are sped up and have music over top, but these videos will have me talking through my process.
Thank you all for your advice! Right after joining TLP, I found out my Mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. We are busy now in the beginning stages with tests, port insertion, start of chemo, etc. So I haven't had a lot of time to get back on here. So far I have been working on organizing my digital photos in PSE 2018 which is a LARGE task. I've stored, sorted, backed up my photos all over the place over multiple computers. Sigh. I'm slowly getting there though and it's a good way to get familiar with PSE Organizer. So far I haven't had a problem with it slowing things down...knock on wood. I'd be curious to know how many people use different programs/methods for organizing photos vs supplies. As one person mentioned, they heard PSE 2018 slows down when you start organizing everything in there. I hate to go to all this work to find out I should've gone a different route. I'm also curious why the folder set up in explorer is so important if I'm tagging and organizing in PSE. Cheryl, I will take a look at the information you mentioned because maybe that will help me understand the importance of sorting by store, designer, etc. I don't know that I've ever submitted work or shared much online, so I don't know why I need to remember where the kit came from or who designed it. For me, when I scrap with traditional supplies I think...hey, I need to look at my kits/supplies that have red in them and I go from there. I don't know. I guess I will figure it out as I go. Lol I'm loving the advice here though and the willingness of everyone to help!!
Well, just imagine that for some reason you lose your catalog of tags . . . it's happened to me using a program called ACDSee . . . TWICE (why I'm now using Bridge LOL). If I had digital supplies all over my numerous drives, it would have made it difficult for me to scrap. Thank goodness I had a good base of folder structure, and it was easy for me to go into a designer's folder and locate a kit. If you aren't sharing anywhere online, then it's not as important when it comes to store or designer. If you are sharing in our gallery, we have gallery guidelines. GALLERY RULES: Layouts must contain at least 50% TLP products. (Templates count as 15%.) Uploads must be less than 250k. List all credits; no off-site linking allowed. If you are participating in challenges here on our site, those also have guidelines for the amount of TLP product you are required to have on your layout. You earn rewards for submitting your layout for a challenge, so that's why there are rules. I hope that helps answer your questions and if not, ask again! LOL It's late and I'm tired, so I'm wondering if what I typed even makes sense. Ha! Finally, and most importantly, I wanted to let you know that I'm sorry to hear about your mom's diagnosis, and I will be praying for her over the coming weeks. ((HUGS))
