nice i love it

Oh thank you all! This is great for a newbie, and exactly what I came here to find out!

Digital ScrapRoom is a site dedicated to the cause of digital organization. You might find the information there helpful!

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~Cheryl

Im gonna get organised starting today, for 3 times I have found myself buying a kit because I love that and that fastener, and after a good look I found I allready had a very similair fastener, just my luck....so I got to organise fast

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Happy Scrappings, Carin

Designing in CT Teams for:
Jana McCarthy, NewlifeDreams, Bronwen van Esch, Lorie Davison, Mimilou

My blog My Gallery My kaboodle My Scrap 4 hire & extraction site

I really like using ACDSee. I organize my kits by placing the related zipped downloads in a single folder. I also include the .jpg preview in the folder. Using ACDSee, the jpg preview is part of the folder thumbnail, so I can see what the zip file contains. I can access the contents of the zip folder directly.

When I get to the point where I want to burn a CD, I have all the kits already zipped. Then I copy the preview images of the kits on the CD to a temporary folder. I print contact sheets of these jpg files, screen print a directory listing, then put them all into a notebook.

I spend a lot of time browsing through my notebooks, looking for exactly what I want. (and I do mean notebooks!) There is a way to set up a database of online and offline files so you can search by keywords, but I haven't spent the time to figure it out.

I organize like this:

I have my Scrap Kits Folder, and within that I have specific folders for different items (Papers, Fasteners, Ribbons, Word Art, Overlays, etc and Preview and TOU/Read Me files). Each time I buy a kit, I rename all of it's contents like this: DesignerName.KitName.Element or DesignerName.KitName.Preview, etc. Then I divide up the kit so that all of the pieces go into the correct folders that I already have. That way, when I start with a photo, I go into the papers folder and look for papers that go well with it. Then I add from there. It is easy to find the matching elements, because if I end up choosing, say AmyBleser.GoThisWay.Paper1 as my background paper, and then I want to add some ribbon, I just go to my ribbon folder and check if there are any AmyBleser.GoThisWay.Ribbon(s). If not, I just continue to peruse my ribbon file until I find one that matches or that I like.

It sounds more complicated that it is, but it really works for me. I just started organizing them this way recently, and I when I am working on my project in DIP and I still have all the elements that I used open in the program, it is MUCH easier to credit them, since the name of the designer and the kit are right there. This saves me from searching through my folders after I am done, looking for that paper, so I can remember who it was who made it when I'm going to credit it. Also, it saves me the trouble of searching when I know I've got a bit of lace somewhere, but what darn kit was it in?? Now, I just go to ribbons, because I know I'm looking for ribbon, and oh - look! There is the lace, and it was from So and So's Whatever kit! You know what I mean?

I also make sure I save the TOUs and Read Me files the same way (DesignerName.KitName.ReadMe) so that when I need to check the TOU, I just jump over to that folder and I can find her terms of use very easily.

I also save the previews this way (DesignerName.KitName.Preview), so I can browse them really quickly when I am stuck and see if there is a particular kit that will work for me. Once I know which kit I want, it's easy enough to gather the pieces together that I need.

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~Samantha~
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