Credit tracking, tools, posting, etiquette

@A-M you and me! old school, I love notebook! lol
I have to say that to me...
scrapping is like a game to me...so each thing is like a level...lol
okay maybe I should not try and explain my compulsiveness.bhahhaha

 

I agree. This is way too much. I finally found a credit tracker I like, easy to use and its helped a lot. I keep credits at the kit level, so maybe (for me) that's at most around ten lines. My tracker also picks up the fonts whic I find useful, because I forget what I used...(lol). I always link. It's a good point that the link will go dead over time, but it's still may help the designer and any viewer for awhile, and thats good enough.

 

PS. I don't think linking is that important for all the reasons you stated, it's just easy with the tracker I use, which I think is specific to PS.

 

I list the designer and kit because that seems the easiest way for a regular person to find the product in whatever shoppe the designer sells. They can Google "Designer X, Kit ABC" and easily find the store link or the blog of the designer. It's not as easy to find something based solely on one element (or paper's) file name. Admittedly, I never look too closely at credit lists that only have the designer's name followed by the actual, specific element/paper file name. Some designers' file-naming system doesn't include the full product's name so I can't find the product that way even if I know where to shop. And if they move, sometimes they change file naming practices in order to fit the new store's reqs.

It's just a matter of doing one's best to be as forthright as possible in a manner easiest for oneself. This thread isn't saying any one idea is best; I think people just like sharing how they find for themselves to be the easiest/best/most efficient to track all this info. We are a community of sharers. And as @Lindzee mentioned, we also have to track fonts. I'm glad electronic software and hardware companies don't require me to write credit info. Can you imagine?!

 

I post all credits, and link for CT.
I use the cvw tracker mentioned earlier. To track templates, I rename the background or bottom layer with the name of the template file, using her renaming script also. For fonts, I rename the text layer with the name of the font. Then, I run the supply tracker. The supply tracker only captures names of the layers, so this only works if your layers are the file names... I get that by using her copy/close script.

When I post my layouts, I can use the list to build my credits... the supply tracker says (this is all made up)
"Fdd_lovelyday_du_tp2
Lbw_hellohandsome_pp7
Lbw_hellohandsome_pp7
Lbw_hellohandsome_pp6
Lbw_hellohandsome_paint
Lbw_hellohandsome_lace
Awolff_aboutaboy_button3
Font: pea noa
Photo
Photo
Photo
Img09174
Img8292729"

And when I list my credits in the gallery, I would say "lovely day template by Fiddle Dee Dee, button from Amy Wolff (about a boy), and elements and papers from Little Butterfly Wings "Hello Handsome" kit
(And Hello Handsome kit would be linked, because I'm a CT member).

 

@sbpoet eeeeeeeeeeek! that is a lot of work to file by element!? yikes? I used to file by genre aka birthday, holidays, beach...but with search (and I think Mac beats PC by miles) you can just put button for search option in your scrap folder and everyone comes up. I love this! I just got this feature in PC with the new WIndows 10. I love to use paint, and sometimes, just searching for all the paint can bring inspiration!
I think your system works great for you, because your pages are from your heart. I agree with the comprehensive name needed too. I think most here at the Pad have it a bit clearer than days of past.
I think if you go with a couple of Main contributing designer and kit (without links) for the gallery it would be good. I am so glad you are well enough to create again, and know that creating is a healing help too! ♥

 

@sbpoet I understand what you mean. I also separated my older kits into parts. I did this within ACDSee so I also tagged the kit and designer by store. Then ACDSee upgraded and didn't upgrade my catalog. Poor me. Now I have no idea where things come from if the designer didn't include name & kit in the file name. (I'm amazed at the alphas named a.png or papers named paper1.jpg) I tend not to use those pieces. These days I tend not to separate things out as much although it does make it easier to scrap. I like to mix kits.

For tracking credits, I use Evernote. I try to leave one element from each kit open in PS or I drag into my LO so the filename is visible in the layer palette. When I 'm finished. I create a new note in Evernote and list the designers and kits. This is easy to cut and paste into the file description when I post. If I add links for CT work, it will be during the posting process. The TLP search function is pretty quick so it is pretty easy to find the products.

BTW, love your LOs and so glad to see you posting here.

 

It's more tedious for all of us. But it is what I was told when I started posting.it is what is done here. Sorry I started such a painful discussion for yo. I understand better now that I know you are not filed by kits. No one is trying to make you work harder than any of us has to. And it is important for contests and coupons, or any other thread that has a prize involved.

 

I have sent out a distress signal to those wiser and MAC people to find something for you @sbpoet the drums are beating and I hope to get some answers for you.
@MrsPeel if the facebook CT call group? is still active? could you ask about a credit tracker for MACs? I am a bit out of the social networking, me living in the box on the shore of the Pond here at the Pad. lol

 

Lol. Yes that would be a nightmare. I will post name and link to the tracking scripts I use as soon as I am at my computer.

 

Hmm Just took a lot of time to read this thread. I know it's not easy to keep track of things and it was intresting to read your experiences.
I'll follow this thread for further reference.

 

I use the same credit tracker Anne of Alamo uses. I have PSe 6 and it works like a dream. Even if I wasnt posting stuff online I would still use it because sometimes I want to use something I already used on a different page

 

i removed my post, as didn't ask lorry if i could post her blog link

 

@sbpoet Hopefully this helps you!

I'm on a PC, not a MAC. But I had the same error originally when I loaded the CVW Tracker script. Here's how I fixed it.
1. I redownloaded the file. The PSE version wouldn't work with PSCC for me.
2. I opened a layout, and then I went to the menu, File, Scripts, Browse. I browsed to the script in the download folder, and selected it. It ran like it did on PSE, no error message.

To make this easier for me, I created an action to go with it. So, I hit the record on the action tab, opened the script and ran it, then stopped the action. Now it's a one button press to run the script writer (ok, two because the script has a question). You could go a step further, and just copy the credit text file into your File Info (metadata) on your layout. When you do that, if you are posting to Flickr, it will read it, no more work on your part (Facebook will read it too). Here's what that looks like - AK Layout.

As a new scrapper a few years ago, I never commented to people that I followed the link, or anything. I didn't know that was something helpful. I usually just followed the link, or googled the kit name and designer if the link was dead. I have emailed posters to ask what their font name is quite often! I have a font problem. And I won't get started on how many times I check the inside cover of books to see what typeface was used - especially children's books.

 

It's fine to share, Cath

Anna Forrest's script does list fonts as well as kits. It does not do actions or styles automatically. If I want to credit an action or style, what I do is drag on the preview image and move it to the very back, under the background paper. Then the Anna Forrest script credits it the same way it does any paper or element.

The last time I looked, the description for the script seemed to suggest that it does not work with PS CC, however I use it with PS CC every single day and it works perfectly fine. She does not have CC so she can't test it, and I think she means to say that she can't guarantee it because of that, but I thought it was worded poorly. It's quite cheap for all the time it saves in crediting and definitely worth it, IMO.

 

I use the file info too (PSE).

I only include links for CT pages (I am only on CT for one designer). Easy for new releases as we have to keep to the kit for the layout. For layouts where I mix it up on pages using this designer I still use links and list the different kits.

For all other layouts I list the different kits. I do NOT list every item used. So tedious to do and honestly pretty tedious to read.

I understand the need to credit product as I am predominantly a challenge scrapper so need to show to the store admin that my pages meet both challenge and gallery criteria.