I have all my elements in an "elements folder" and save them y creators name for sake of credit more than anything... but now use Photoshop Album and give them tags for both "type" as in season, tag, eyelet, metal, etc. and I also have the username/creator's name set up as a collection and then apply that setting and now can just find them either way just by a drag and drop!

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I am fairly new to digi scrapbooking, but have already started to overload my "digital scrapbooking" folder with more folders and sub-folders than I know what to do with!!! How does everyone organize thier kits, elements, alphabets, papers, etc, etc, etc.... I purchased a bunch of kits and like the idea of having them together, but I know I could get a lot more use out of them if I had all the alphabets together - any ideas?!? I'm interested to know how some of you seniors out there manage all of your STUFF!

Thanks!

As many of the gals on the team have come to find out i'm a HUGE FAN OF ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ALBUM! It's a very good price at Walmart. And it's wonderful for organizing! I also have an external harddrive attached to my network via usb and all my scrapbooking stuff is on that only. I burn a copy of all my cds to that in a cd folder for quick access and that way I can sort it by creator and type (ie: backgrounds, etc.) Then I tuck the originals away for safe keeping (backup).

But what is even greater... I use Photoshop (and it works with Elements too) you can drag and drop the elements from Album right into your program!!!!

Right now it says I have 25,964 elements in my album... eeek! (this includes my cds and the elements ftp hosted by Sunni/computer scrapping elemnets yahoo group btw - but ahhem.... does not include all of the SBB elements section; only certain downloads); oh boy!

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Do you organize them into kits - or individual elements - how do you keep track of all 25,000 + .jpg's?

First, I have all my downloaded "freebies" in one file called "DigiScrapping." In this folder, I have about 20 other folders which hold the actual elements. I used the same categories for my files as the ones listed here on Download pages.

I have JASC's Photo Album program to organize my photos, but I use the free program Picasa to organize my elements. It's just easier for me to have my elements separated from my photos.

Hope this helps!

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I have five HUGE main categories: Backgrounds, Alphabets, Fasteners, Tags, & Photo Accessories.

They are further subdivided as follows:
--BACKGROUNDS
(1) Scanned
(2) Digital: Art, Artsy, Collages & Maps, Diamonds (Harlequin), Dots, Fabric, Flowers, Grungy, Miscellaneous, Overlays, Photos, SEI, Solid, Squares, Stars, Stripes & Plaids, Words & Numbers

--ALPHABETS
(1)Fabric, Glass & Plastic, Metal, Miscellaneous, Paper, Stamped, Stone & Wood
(Each of these is divided into Square, Circle, or Stand Alone.)

--FASTENERS
(1) Beads, Brads, Buckles, Buttons, Charms & Gems, Clips, Eyelets, Fibers, Hardware, Photo Prongs, Pins, Ribbons, Staples, Stitching, Tape, Wax Seals, and Wire
(When necessary, these are further divided. For instance, Ribbons has the following subfolders: Gingham, Patterned, Plain, Polkadot, Rickrack, Stitched, Ties, & Twill.)

--TAGS
(1) These have the same initial categories as Alphabets.
(2) Then, they are divided into Fabric ---> Laundry Tags; Glass & Plastic --> Dymo & Magnetic Poetry, Microscope Slides, Miscellaneous, Mosaic Pieces, Pebbles, Stickers, Stones, & Tokens; Metal ---> Blank Tags, Bottlecaps, Dogtags, Hardware, License Plates, Metal-rimmed, Miscellaneous, Plaques, Washers, & Word Tags; Miscellaneous; Paper --> Envelopes, Ephemera, Fabric-Textile Swatches, Index Folders, Tabs, & Library Cards, Letters & Postcards, Library Tabs, Mattes, Measuring Tapes, Name Tags & Labels, Paint Chip Strips, Photo Negatives, Postage Stamps, Tags, & Titles; Stamps; Wood --> Blank Signs, Building Blocks, and Deco Items
(3) Tags is divided into Circle, Square, and Other Shapes and then into Grungy, Plain, Patterned, and Themed when applicable.

--PHOTO ACCESSORIES
(1) Bookplates, Frames, Photo Corners, & Slideholders
(2) Frames and Photo Corners have the same subcategories as Alphabets and Slideholders have the same subcategories as Paper Tags.

I also keep copies of each kit and element CD I get on compilation DVDs, so I don't have every element in my collection on the individual element DVDs, only those I like or use often.

HTH!

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><> LeeAndra <><
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April guest for Kelly Thompson and Scarletheels

Wow- thanks! I knew it had to be more complicated than just purchasing Photoshop Album (although, I'm sure that will help) Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

Wow Leeandra!! Thanks for your categories.

TagacCO, one great thing about Album that Amy didn't mention is the ability to tag elements with keywords. I also wanted to keep my kits together and yet wanted to put the kit papers with my other papers, etc.

I use pse3 which includes the Album organizer. I keep each kit together in it's own folder, but I tag each element with the appropriate keywords. I've been slow about tagging everything, because I needed to figure out what keywords I wanted to use. But now I may just use Leeandra's!
Eventually I'd like to tag everything by color too.

hth

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jordan in cinci