Since ACDSee is on sale this month, I've been wondering if I should pick it up. I'm perfectly happy with the Library function of DIS. I've only got about 9 Gb of digital elements, so I think I'll be okay for a long time. But every time I'm labeling stuff, I wonder if I shouldn't upgrade now and save the trouble of recategorizing it in the new software. Any opinions?

Denise

So long as DIS allows you to export your labels back into your files as IPTC metadata... you can always move to a new program later and not worry about it.

If DIS doesn't write any of the labels back to your files (just keeps it in a catalog), then I would abandon it right away and move to another program that allows you to do this (if keeping your labels is important to you). Otherwise, you'll need to start over some other time.

I would suggest moving to ACDSee now - you dont want to have to be n the position of redoing it all as your collection grows - trust me lol
Especially as now there will not be any more DIp versions.

__________________
see my gallery here My Gallery!
Need help with your program? Check out the new Tutorials!

Sign Up for the FREE Newsletter!

keep in mind that programs that allow the use of writing the catalog data back into the IPTC data of the file (or a sidecar) will avoid you having to do all this manual re-entry. ACDsee allows this to a certain extent (with JPGS) but fails in areas like writing to sidecar files with PNGS and RAW.. Lightroom and PSCS3 write directly to the files but use keywords to do so...

What do you use Pesto?

__________________
Serena Thomas

So, if I'm understanding Pesto's response properly, ACDSee will write my unique label information into the file itself as long as it's a JPG, but not in the case of PNGs. From what I've read, the Library function of DIS/DIP is just a separate system that categorizes picture files. I don't believe it is doing anything to the files themselves, a.k.a. altering the IPTC metadata (which means absolutely nothing to me, sadly).

OTOH, if someone like Shellyrae can use it (since I assume she has way more files than I will ever have), it sounds like it will take care of my needs quite nicely. I only want to use it for my digiscrapping goodies. Filing my photos by download and month has always been plenty organized enough to keep me happy.

Thanks, everybody!

Denise

Yes.. if you are happy with just tracking your scrapping goodies in the methods you have now.. then you can just keep doing it that way. However, I strongly suggest you look into cataloging your photos in the same way.

Say you want to scrap (or just view/print) a photo of a flower in summer and your theme is yellow... you could remember where that flower photo was based on the folder date/time.. or you could have IPTC keyword data that says: flower, yellow, summer, tulip with a 4 star rating. Then, in the catalog software, you just search for these keywords and use a rating filter and boom... you instantly find you photo.

I have well over 60,000 digital photos all cataloged and keyworded and can quickly find exactly the photo I might need for a client or for personal use.. I use a variety of software depending on what I'm doing such as Thumbsplus, Idimager, ACDsee, Bridge and Lightroom. It's some work to get things going.. but so long as you keep at it as you download the images, the reward pays off in the long run.

Good luck!

There's a caveat to all this that Shelly Rae mentioned, but may have gone unnoticed. Microsoft has discontinued DIP and DIS. They are no longer supporting it and at some point, it will cease to function. Boo! Hiss! Hiss! I would make the change now while your collection is small. You never know when that may change. It sort of sneaks up on you and you suddenly realize you have WAY more than you thought you did. Personally, I would use ACDSee because it will allow you to transfer your files to CD/DVD (through ACDSee) and remove them from your disk while retaining thumbnails for your view ease.

I am very much afraid that all of us die hards are in for a sad future. I hate PSE, but gonna have to learn it. Future Windows updates will eventually end any possibility of using my program and that is probably not that far away. Once a new version of Windows comes out, they stop supporting the oldest ones to force people to move on. I have XP, but 2000 and ME are already dinosaurs and will soon disappear. Then again, maybe I'll get the ACDSee editor. It's supposed to be very good and very friendly.

__________________