It’s time to Organize Again! Last month we talked about Tagging… and this month let’s see discuss Folders.
The question was posed in the forum and the masses responded :).
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?
And here’s how the awesome Lilypad Community responded. I love seeing the different approaches to organization. It makes me motivated to get myself together a little differently or a little more.
VickyD:
“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 think the store — designer — kit theme is common. It’s a great way to Organize.
Brandi:
“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 ), then designer name. Under their name it’s organized by kits, papers, elements, doodles, stitches, alphas, etc… “
I like that Brandi moves them after they get used. That’s a good way to figure out what you need to use. Don’t we all tend to hoard unused product. EEK.
mollyc:
“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.”
I can see a theme emerging, hehe.
bestcee:
“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. “
Another way to make sure we use what we buy. Love it.
She also has this to say about brushes, which is also brilliant!
“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”.”
toriwooloo:
“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).”
Nixonkind:
“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.”
She uses a different approach (themes) that make work for some of us.
bcgal00
“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 like “cleaning up”. Well, I like cleaning my hard drive… not my house ;)
And I think it is quite appropriate to end with this post…
LeeAndra:
“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 about 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?!”
Whew! Don’t you just LOVE that! She should hold a Digi-Organization class. I wish some of her OCD tendencies would rub of on me. My Downloads Folder is quite simply too full.
I have LOVED hearing from the Lilypad Peeps about this topic. You can read more and respond and continue the conversation in the forum here.
Look out for a new topic next month and in the mean time, whether you are organizing kits…
or Cards…
Templates…
Or Doodles…
Stitches…
or Fonts…
There is a place to store them! I hope you gained a little inspiration about Organizing with Folders. Don’t forget to give us your thoughts and ideas in the comments or the forum as well. We want to hear from you!
Enjoy your Organized Week.
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