Another Newbie Question - How do you use Bridge

Discussion in 'Learning Pad' started by Coreen, Sep 17, 2019.

  1. Coreen

    Coreen Active Member

    Messages:
    138
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2018
    Okay, here I am again to pick your brains. I really am learning so much from these forums. You guys are great and it's nice to learn from people who have been doing this for a while and can explain what does or doesn't work for them. I so appreciate all the help I've gotten so far!

    Right now I have Lightroom Classic on my laptop and am enjoying how that works for organizing my photos. I really like it better than PSE organizer for some reason. I plan to stick with it for my photos. And because I have PSE 2018, I think I will save some money and use that to create my layouts for the time being. The questions I have are in regards to using Bridge for organizing digital supplies, so here goes...

    1. I've read something about people tagging just the preview of a kit. Is that basically to save time in your tagging process? Based on how I created traditional scrapbooks, I imagine I will use products from a kit for a layout and won't really mix and match different kits for one layout. If I tag just the preview, then once I found the kit I want to use, I can right click and choose Reveal in Explorer and that should pop open the folder with all the items from that kit, correct? Can I then choose the items I want to use and just drag them into PSE?

    2. I noticed that I can set up Keywords w/Sub-Keywords in Bridge. So, say Color and then have pink, purple, green, etc. as sub-keywords underneath color. That would give me a cleaner look for my keywords list. Unfortunately, when I go to filter by keyword though...it just lists al of my keywords in one list and not in "groups or categories". That's fine if I don't have many keywords, but it would be nice to look at the filtering process and see Color, Events, Designer, Theme, etc. and choose from there versus seeing pink, purple, red, birthday, wedding, bella gypsy, disney, best friends, baseball, etc. Is that just a setting somewhere in Bridge maybe?

    3. I would be curious to know if there are any tutorials here that show how people use Bridge to organize their supplies? I'd love to watch them. Or if anyone wants to explain how they use it and/or show screenshots maybe of how they have it set up.

    Again, I feel like I'm learning a ton these days, but also feel like there's so much I just don't know. I created one layout last night and it felt very tiring and hard to me. I really want to get into digital vs traditional scrapbooking, so I'm going to stay at it and learn as much as I can. I can only guess that it gets easier and more fun as you get into it more. One thing for sure...I LOVE the forums and everything you guys do here! :)

    Thanks again for reading my long post and thanks in advance to anyone who has answers, ideas, etc.
     
    MrsPeel likes this.
  2. bcgal00

    bcgal00 Say, "birdseed!"

    Messages:
    9,136
    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2010
    Grab a coffee and then google "using photoshop bridge in scrapbooking" and a ton of tutorials and videos come up. I'm visual and like to watch videos and then jot down notes or later if I read or print out articles, I have a better understanding after having seen some videos. When learning something new I jot down some key points on a file card that I keep on my desk for quick reference until it becomes second nature, then I don't need the written notes anymore. I don't use bridge so won't answer specific questions about it (I use acdsee but that is a paid program). Glad you are learning and enjoying the process of digi scrapping!
     
  3. HavaDrPepper

    HavaDrPepper Space. The final frontier

    Messages:
    3,264
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2015
  4. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

    Messages:
    11,692
    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2009
    1. I've read something about people tagging just the preview of a kit. Is that basically to save time in your tagging process? I think it depends on how you scrap. Some scrappers only tag the preview so they can just scroll through them and choose the kit(s) they want. Based on how I created traditional scrapbooks, I imagine I will use products from a kit for a layout and won't really mix and match different kits for one layout. If I tag just the preview, then once I found the kit I want to use, I can right click and choose Reveal in Explorer and that should pop open the folder with all the items from that kit, correct? Yes, that's correct. Can I then choose the items I want to use and just drag them into PSE? And yes, that's also correct.

    2. I noticed that I can set up Keywords w/Sub-Keywords in Bridge. So, say Color and then have pink, purple, green, etc. as sub-keywords underneath color. That would give me a cleaner look for my keywords list. Unfortunately, when I go to filter by keyword though...it just lists al of my keywords in one list and not in "groups or categories". That's fine if I don't have many keywords, but it would be nice to look at the filtering process and see Color, Events, Designer, Theme, etc. and choose from there versus seeing pink, purple, red, birthday, wedding, bella gypsy, disney, best friends, baseball, etc. Is that just a setting somewhere in Bridge maybe? I think you're talking about the Sort by feature that's above the Keywords panel, but I'm not sure. I don't use the Sort by Keywords. I use the Find function (under Edit>Find or Ctrl+F). That way I can search for items that are tagged, for instance, as "Bella Gypsy" "paper" "pink".

    3. I would be curious to know if there are any tutorials here that show how people use Bridge to organize their supplies? I'd love to watch them. Or if anyone wants to explain how they use it and/or show screenshots maybe of how they have it set up. I don't know of anyone here who has made any videos. It's on my list of things to do, and it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear, BUT there it is! LOL

    I'm so excited you are back and learning about digi scrapping. Please know that you can absolutely do all your scrapping and your tagging just using PSE2018 and not involving Lightroom or Bridge. Find what works best for you and then roll with it. The main goal is to be able to access your products quickly and then get pages completed, but enjoying yourself in the process! Don't get so caught up in the tagging/keywording that you don't get any pages done. Been there, done that. LOL
     
  5. Coreen

    Coreen Active Member

    Messages:
    138
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2018
    @gonewiththewind do you just tag your previews as i've read others do? i've also read that people put their previews in a separate folder, but then if i search and find a preview of a kit i want to use and i reveal in explorer, it won't take me to the folder of the actual kit, but the folder of previews. right? i'm so confused. lol! luckily i don't have hardly any supplies, so i know it's not something i need to get hung up on right now.
     
  6. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

    Messages:
    11,692
    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2009
    I tag my previews AND I tag papers and elements. If I'm behind on tagging (which I usually am, but super behind right now LOL), then just tagging the preview can at least get me some results until I can get the individual pieces tagged.

    I don't put the previews in a separate folder. I don't know what the benefit of that would be, unless the scrapper is not using Bridge or another organizational program and just wants to peruse one folder of previews to find the kit they want.

    I leave the previews in the folder with the papers and elements, so that I can then choose to Reveal in Bridge or Reveal in Explorer. :)

    Keep asking questions as you explore your programs. That's why we're here! We're a community of friendship but also a community of learning and fun! :)
     
  7. Coreen

    Coreen Active Member

    Messages:
    138
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2018
    @gonewiththewind careful what you encourage...i'll just keep asking questions and you just might get annoyed. ha!

    Is it safe to say that your process sounds a bit like this:
    1. Download zip file
    2. Extract file to new location/folder
    - If the extracted files include different folders (say paper, elements, styles), do you combine all the individual files inside those folder into just one folder (like by designer and kit name maybe)?
    3. Tag previews (and any other items I'd like to tag)
    4. Delete zip files

    Then when I'm ready to scrap, I find what I want to use in Bridge and can right click to reveal in Explorer. Then I can drag from there into PSE. Right?

    Yahoo...I think this is all starting to make more sense to me! Thank you so much for your help! I love how nice everyone here is and how willing people are to jump in and help out.
     
  8. gonewiththewind

    gonewiththewind I choose joy.

    Messages:
    11,692
    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2009
    :winner

    1. Download zip file
    2. Extract file to new location/folder
    - If the extracted files include different folders (say paper, elements, styles), do you combine all the individual files inside those folder into just one folder (like by designer and kit name maybe)? Yes! I name the folder by the kit name followed by the designer name, combining all papers, elements, alphas, styles. There are only a few times I don't put everything in one folder that goes together - for instance, sometimes a designer will only offer the products separately and not as a kit.
    3. Tag previews (and any other items I'd like to tag)
    4. Delete zip files

    Then when I'm ready to scrap, I find what I want to use in Bridge and can right click to reveal in Explorer. Then I can drag from there into PSE. Right? You don't have to reveal in Explorer. You can drag directly from Bridge into the PSE bin. :)

    Yay! So glad things are clicking together!!! :cheer
     
  9. Tree City

    Tree City Get a stepladder, I'm busy

    Messages:
    6,267
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2011
    In order to save myself time and to make it quicker when I search, I only tag previews. I also have an Excel spreadsheet where I write out kit name, designer, store, keywords (basically my tags but a few extra terms), Colors (I write the main 3 or 4 colors), "Misc" (if it's part of a BYOC or some bigger collection/has coordinating items), CT (I write CT if I got it for a CT gig), and Date.

    Searching that spreadsheet is even faster than searching my Previews folder, and it gives me a tiny bit more info, esp if I want to find coordinating products--like BYOC items.

    I bring this up to give you other options, but some people LOVE LR and Bridge. Bridge never worked right for me on an old computer, and I'm too lazy to start using it now. You'll find a system that works for you/your scrapping style--it sounds like you're basically there, which is awesome!
     
  10. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

    Messages:
    16,982
    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2010
    Bart has learnt a lot reading the above but he still prefers to use water ( under the bridge! :backing)
    [​IMG]
     
    mcurtt likes this.
  11. Chippi

    Chippi Those chicken nuggets are just waiting to attack

    Messages:
    1,491
    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2015
    Bart you are HILARIOUS!! Kiss!!
     
    bellbird likes this.
  12. littlekiwi

    littlekiwi I charge by the hour for anything before noon

    Messages:
    8,548
    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2012
    Rather than starting a new topic I thought I'd add my question here instead. Pre new pc I dabbled in trying out Bridge but found it to be a resource hog on my laptop, fast forward a few months and I want to try it again but I'm running into an issue....its remembered all of my tags (metadata?) of categories I tried then, I don't actually want them to show up, preferring to start over with new categories. Is there a way to do that at all? If there is I'd be keen to keep trying Bridge out
     
  13. HavaDrPepper

    HavaDrPepper Space. The final frontier

    Messages:
    3,264
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2015
    @littlekiwi I feel for you! I know that this is going to be a major process for you no matter how you do it so please don't get frustrated, just keep plugging along. I'm saying that because I think you would have the same if you tried it in Lightroom as well. And, yes it is because it is coded into the file. Just open the properties of a file in Windows Explorer and look at the details tab. That being said...

    Do you have a list of keywords you want to use? If you do, in Bridge do the Keywords Clear and Import to get rid of their default and put your list in. When you do any keywords that are already coded and not in your list will show in italics. I have this happen with some purchased kits since some designers have keywords assigned to their files.

    When this happens, I go to the Filter section and select those keywords I don't want. Only those items should show in your content pane. I select all then go to the Keywords pane on the right and deselect the italicized keyword. This will clear those unwanted keywords from the files.

    If you don't a have list of keywords, then it will take a lot more work. If it were me, I would clear all keywords from every file, export the keyword list that is there. Then I'd open it in a text editor, editing it to what I want and start over with the Clear and Import command to get a clean keyword list into Bridge. Then you would just have to start your tagging from scratch.

    Good luck!
     
    littlekiwi likes this.
  14. littlekiwi

    littlekiwi I charge by the hour for anything before noon

    Messages:
    8,548
    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2012
    @HavaDrPepper Oh I know it will take awhile…this isn’t my first tagging “rodeo” thanks to ACDSee losing tagging on a fairly frequent basis.
    Nope I don’t have a keyword list yet but I’m sure that isn’t too hard to create. I did spot one that @gonewiththewind uploaded a few years back in the forum. All in all, yes it looks like somehow I’m going to have to go through all the previews I’ve tagged previously and figure out how to delete the metadata. This might be a job for after NSD rather than before!
     
  15. HavaDrPepper

    HavaDrPepper Space. The final frontier

    Messages:
    3,264
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2015
    I used Cheryl's list and modified the text file to suit what I wanted.

    If you have all of your previews tagged with "preview" do the keyword filter to pull them into your content pane. Then after you select all you can delete all the metadata from them by unchecking the keywords in the keyword pane. Use the filter selection pane to help you do the work. You may have to filter multiple times but it beats going through each file individually to deselect the keywords already there. This method works... I've done it.
     
    littlekiwi likes this.
  16. LoveItScrapIt

    LoveItScrapIt I'm a poet, and everyone knows it!

    Messages:
    4,153
    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2014
    I use Bridge but mostly as my "previewer"
    I don't tag anymore since I can search pretty fine with just file explorer.
    So when I want to see the previews of kits bigger than the file explorer window...then I use Bridge.
    I also use it to rename files. Especially if I want to rename photos for a certain event. etc
     
  17. MrsPeel

    MrsPeel LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

    Messages:
    23,855
    Joined:
    May 7, 2012
    just by reading the first few lines I am already frustrated... I have the PSE 22 but keep getting frustrated as I was used to a program that is no longer made.... this is not even about using PSE, is about organising your photos...and I am already frustrated LOL
    I am OLD- most definitely!!!!!!! :giggle
    oh well, at least I have the lover boy with me!!!!!

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Erin2

    Erin2 Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    750
    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2020
    Kissing Bart
     
  19. cfile

    cfile My bags are packed for Platform 9 3/4

    Messages:
    23,856
    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2011
    @MrsPeel .. Glad you got PSe 22... remember i am here for you.. I do not store photos in it.. I will give you easy ways :)

    [​IMG]
     
  20. DigiGrace

    DigiGrace Make mine a purple passion

    Messages:
    2,706
    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2016

Share This Page