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Organization System

Wow! I am so glad you started this thread Lauren!! I thought I was semi-organized, but I had no idea how much easier ACDSee could make things. I never even thought to use it for organizing scrapping stuff. We used to have it but I only used it for pictures and then when we got our new computer a couple years ago we didn't reinstall it. Well, we just bought it again and after reading this thread I started tagging my scrapbook stuff and this is the coolest thing ever! Of course it till take me forever to tag, but thanks to Laura's speed tagging tip I think I can get through it. It's going to be totally worth it at the end. I might actually be able to keep track of what I have. Yay! Thanks guys!
 
Thanks for all the tips! I thought I was reasonably organized, but I have nothing tagged. I love your system Heather! I have a Mac too, and don't believe ACDSee has a Mac version. I do have Bridge though...
 
ACDSee does have a Mac version of their software available. It's free as a beta test for at least the next few weeks. One of my good IRL friends uses it and has been very happy with it so far.
 
My organization system is: Throw it all together and I will find what I want. Simple as that. I have a folder for stuff only, it is called A. The folders inside it are organized by designers and their kits. But all designers are together, it is not only one folder for Jacque Larsen for example. The only thing I do for organization is alpha in a folder, element pack in a folder and paper pack in another one.
Layouts are in the "Scrapbooking" folder. Photos, depends on. Some are in my things and the others are in my mom's.
The worst part is that I have two computers, sometimes a kit is in one computer and isn't in another, same with photos and all those things.
Yeah, it is a big mess, but I survive with it all.
 
This thread is great! Though it is making me want to get ACDSee which I've been putting off forever and ever because I fear/dread/get-hives-when-I-think-of-it because I have so so SO much to tag. I say this every time I see a thread about organization so maybe it's time I actually bite the bullet. I am woefully unorganized.
 
i did tag everything twice in acdsee and the first time it crashed and the second time it just vanished ha ha so now cant be bothered but like the others i have my ct teams then the designers in the folders,i dont break apart kits i like them to be together and on that note i may crack out acdsee today
 
Oooh, using the search feature is a great idea! This might inspire me to actually start tagging everything again!

At the moment, I just use it for my photos - I organise my photos in folders by date taken (handy for my P365!) but then I also tag some of them in ACDSee. I have categories like "Must scrap!" and birthdays, Easter, Christmas etc which was how I tagged when I CT'd a lot. I was always behind with my event scrapping, so if my designer put out a birthday kit it only took me one click to find all the hundreds of birthday photos I had yet to scrap! :lol
 
i can't spare the change for acdsee right now. i have adobe bridge. i spent some time renaming things yesterday. windows does a decent job in searching my exhd except every designer has a different way they name their stuff. right now i'd love it if everyone named their elements "elements 01" - - then i could pull them all up and start deleting duplicates and renaming.

so for now i think i need to stick to my bridge and see if i can pull some stuff together.
 
I don't use anything but me for organizing :)

Basically, I have a "Kits" folder. This has subfolders for each of my CTs. Most of the time a product doesn't make it into the individual CT folder. I download to Kits, use it and then move it to my "Used" folder. If I download something and end up not using it in a day or two, I move it to the CT folder to use later.

I also have a "CT Supplies" folder, with subfolders for each team. Each team folder is broken down into "Papers," "Ribbons," "Buttons," etc. Once a week or so, I go through each product/kit in the used folder and decide if I will actually use it again. Those items I then move into the CT supplies subfolders. I've gotten really stinky about those folders - originally I moved almost everything over there, but I wasn't re-using half the stuff there, so I did a big purge and now I'm pretty picky about what I think I will actually use again.
 
I'm not nearly as organized as some of you. I am all tagged in ACDSee but I started out in ACDSee right from the beginning because I always look for organizational systems first. LOL It's just part of who I am.

But mine is ever-evolving because I keep having to break things down because the category gets too big, and so it was fun to see some tag trees for other people because I was like "Ooo, I could do that!" Like Amy, I never thought to split my flowers down by type so right now I hit flowers and it's just 6000 flowers in a big pile.

I'm behind on my tagging, though. I have an "untagged' folder that's overflowing right now. I shoudl sit down tonight and do a few of them. I also like ACDSee because I have all my items tagged by CT, too. So once I split them out into papers, elements, etc. I also add a "TLP" tag to them so that if I'm looking just for buttons from TLP I can highlight "buttons" and "TLP" and narrow them all down.
 
I'm fairly organised but as I get more stuff it becomes more obvious that it's not going to work forever! But I'm not about to start anything at the moment and it is still working for me.
 
I'm not even remotely organised. I have all my CT supplies split into folders by shop and designer, but apart from that it is just one big mess. I did use ACDSee, but forgot to back up the database when I installed Windows 7 so I lost all my tags. I really should start tagging again.. I also need to delete some old supplies, I keep everything even though I'll probably never use it again. Sometimes I'm tempted to delete nearly everything and start from the beginning:)
 
I love ACDsee. But I think I need to be more ruthless like Amy and only tag things I WILL use. I have a million things in there that I KNOW I will never touch. The other thing I do is tag things by designer - so if I want to do a 100% TLP layout, it's easy to find just the products I need. My "new downloads" folder (ie: untagged) is overflowing too. But I try to dig in there every few months and do some tagging.
 
I just went through and emptied my download folder. Felt sooooo good! Now I need to go through and toss some older designs...I have some vintage Jen Wilson stuff that is so hard to get rid of but I know I will never use it!!

I think what I will do is click on each of my tags...sort by date and get rid of anything that is more than 2 years old, unless I'm absolutely in love with it.

Oh yes...having a TLP tag is absolutely necessary! :)
 
Well, I am somewhat organized, but it doesn't mean that I can find what I want!! LOL

This weekend, I did spend sometime organizing. I took the approach suggested on the Daily Digi for templates and organized by number of pictures. I think that will really help me and I deleted a TON that I will never use. I have a folder called Stash that has separate folders for Alphas, Stitches, Date elements, overlays, word art, and I think that is it. Then I have a CT folder with separate folders for each of my designers which are then split into kits, paper packs, element packs, etc. Then, I have a massive folder called scrapping where everything else is sorted into folders by designer. Oh and I have a folder called recent purchases where new kits I buy go until they are scrapped with.

I think I need to be like Amy and do a major purge of anything old. Some of it, I am certain I will never use, but then I think as soon as I delete it, it will be the perfect thing for whatever I want. lol
 
I purged my stash too during my last organizing fest. It freed about 100GB on my EHD. I do have backups of the old stuff "just in case"!
 
I'm on a Mac as well. I organize using Gina Miller's method using CocoThumbX and aliases. I make an alias and file the alias into the appropriate category.
 
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