Organizing Brushes Question

[Sonesta]

Hi,

I am organizing my brushes and am trying out Shalae's system from "Mastering Brushes". Has anyone else done this? My question is: what if I have a brush set that has several different styles of brushes in it. Where do I categorize it? For instance, do I put the whole set in one folder, or copy it to all the different folders that are required? That seems like it wouldn't work when I get to adding the brush to the preset manager in PSE. I hope all this makes sense. Thank you for your help!

[J9Buckles]

Hi Sonesta! You will generally find that brush sets don't have different styles of brushes in them. The exception will be the brushes that are included with Shalae's e-book. Using Shalae's system you could place them in a folder called "Mastering Brushes Collection" ... or something similar that would help you remember what brushes they are.

 

I wish I had bought this book before I had a gazillion brushes but I do plan to go back and reorganize them with Shalae's system. It will take me a long time to do but will save me a ton of time later. I usually remember what my brushes are by their title but when I forget what I have it's frustrating.

 

I hope this helps you!

[Sonesta]

Hi Sonesta! You will generally find that brush sets don't have different styles of brushes in them. The exception will be the brushes that are included with Shalae's e-book. Using Shalae's system you could place them in a folder called "Mastering Brushes Collection" ... or something similar that would help you remember what brushes they are.

 

I wish I had bought this book before I had a gazillion brushes but I do plan to go back and reorganize them with Shalae's system. It will take me a long time to do but will save me a ton of time later. I usually remember what my brushes are by their title but when I forget what I have it's frustrating.

 

I hope this helps you!

 

Thanks so much! I am so excited to have found this system before I had a gazillion brushes...lol. Up till now I have just put all my brushes in one folder organized by designer. But every time I want to look at one, I have to load it. I tried the ABR viewer and that takes just as much time (imho) to look at them as it does to load each and look at it. So off I go to finish this project!

[Sonesta]

I guess I'm still not quite understanding how this is supposed to work. Should I take all my brushes out of the Adobe Preset folder in Program Files? Or should I just leave them alone. Next question: In my PSE program, when I go to create a new set with all the Word Art, for instance, do I "load" from the new file system that has the ABR and PNG's in them to make the new presets?

Shalae says, "Later we will explain how removing them (ABR files) from the Presets folder will simplify the brush selection method." But I didn't come across anything later in the e-book that addressed this. I'm sure all this is much more simple than I'm making it out to be.

[J9Buckles]

I think you may get the clearest answers to your questions from Shalae herself. Feel free to PM her and I'm sure she will be glad to help you. Since I haven't actually done this yet, I hesitate because I may give you wrong information...and that could just make a mess.

[Sonesta]

I think you may get the clearest answers to your questions from Shalae herself. Feel free to PM her and I'm sure she will be glad to help you. Since I haven't actually done this yet, I hesitate because I may give you wrong information...and that could just make a mess.

 

Thanks...I think I may just do that.

[Guest miss bumble]

I think you may get the clearest answers to your questions from Shalae herself. Feel free to PM her and I'm sure she will be glad to help you. Since I haven't actually done this yet, I hesitate because I may give you wrong information...and that could just make a mess.

 

Thanks...I think I may just do that.

 

I would very much like to know the answer any chance the reply could be seen by all. I've tried this system and I didn't have much luck but I do have Vista and sometimes it throughs you a gremlin.

 

chris x

[Sonesta]

I tried to send Shalae a private message but her inbox is full. Does anyone know how else I could reach her or anyone else who might know how to fix this problem? Thanks.

[J9Buckles]

I'll see if I can find her for you. Hang in there!

[Guest Peppi]

Perhaps I can help you. At the end of my e-book I have a chapter with all the instructions for uploading the new sets. It's after credits and supplies.

First the best thing to do is to take all your brush sets that you have purchased and organzize them (.abr and .png files) in folders on your PC, like you have done if I understand everything right.

Then you remove all the brushes that you have uploaded into your presets folder in PSE by restoring the default brushes, make sure for your safety to have made a copy of the presets folder as backup before resetting the brushes.

Then you create brush sets in PSE using the titles of your folders you have organized, like edging, doodles, wordart, .... For this you choose first replace brushes and then for the next sets load brushes in the Preset Manager. Yes, you pick the .abr files in the folder you have created on your PC, not in the presets of PSE. You load all the .abr files of wordart for example and when you have uploaded them all, choose save set in the a Preset Manager and give it a name, ex. Wordart Brushes.

Repeat this step with all your categories of brushes.

There is a method creating your brush sets by opening all the png files and saving them in a set by using File>create brush and saving the set like before.

I hope this all makes sense

[Guest miss bumble]

Can you explain a little more about taking out the brushes by restoring the preset brushes.

Do I take out the brushes from the presets folder and just leave in the default ones?

Sorry a little slow today.

 

Chris

[Guest Peppi]

I have looked through the chapter again. It's a moment I have done that

It means that you start from the default brushes in the drop down menu to do the following steps for organizing. Click on default brushes and then go to the preset manager and to replace brushes. Pick your first set and then by clicking load brushes your 2nd, ... they will show all up in a line.

I'm sorry I didn't explain very well.

If you click on default brushes and there were some unsaved brushes created by you, they are lost. And I had several problems with PSE5 and brushes at a time I used it and I would recommend to make a safety copy of all your presets folder before organizing. If any of your original brushes that came with PSE5 would be lost, you have a backup. I do that regularly still now. When I backup my files I do backup my presets folder too. But that's another topic.

[Rose Ann]

Sonesta, pardon me if I am repeating what someone else already said, I haven't taken the time to read all the previous posts.

 

I do have several sets of "mixed" brushes and if you want to go through the trouble, after you load your mixed set into the preset manager with the brushes of whatever style you want, you can individually delete the ones that don't match that category. If you do that for each category of brush in the mixed set, you'll have separated them each to their respective places. Or, if you only have a few of the mixed sets, maybe a Miscellaneous category is in order.

 

Holler if you still have questions.

HTH

[Sonesta]

Perhaps I can help you. At the end of my e-book I have a chapter with all the instructions for uploading the new sets. It's after credits and supplies.

First the best thing to do is to take all your brush sets that you have purchased and organzize them (.abr and .png files) in folders on your PC, like you have done if I understand everything right.

Then you remove all the brushes that you have uploaded into your presets folder in PSE by restoring the default brushes, make sure for your safety to have made a copy of the presets folder as backup before resetting the brushes.

Then you create brush sets in PSE using the titles of your folders you have organized, like edging, doodles, wordart, .... For this you choose first replace brushes and then for the next sets load brushes in the Preset Manager. Yes, you pick the .abr files in the folder you have created on your PC, not in the presets of PSE. You load all the .abr files of wordart for example and when you have uploaded them all, choose save set in the a Preset Manager and give it a name, ex. Wordart Brushes.

Repeat this step with all your categories of brushes.

There is a method creating your brush sets by opening all the png files and saving them in a set by using File>create brush and saving the set like before.

I hope this all makes sense

 

Ok...(by the way...thank you so much for your help) I think I've done all this that you recommended. Up until reinstalling the ABR files into the Presets in my PC, that is. My problem now is that in my brush palette (in PSE5) all the old names of my brushes are still there even though they are not connected to anything. Those brushes are no longer in Presets on my PC but the names are still showing up in the palette in PSE5. Even when I select "reset brushes" it doesn't reset anything...it just loads the Default Brushes...the names of the other brushes are still in the palette. I hope you can understand all this.

 

Next, when I do create a new brush set (i.e. Word Art) in my Preset on my PC, it creates it in a funky place...a little subfolder in the Brushes folder. I don't know if this is just a Vista issue or a PSE5 issue or a combo.

 

At this point, should I just start from scratch all over again? I have created the organized files on my PC...that part is finished. Now all I have to do is put everything back together...somehow...lol.

[Sonesta]

Sonesta, pardon me if I am repeating what someone else already said, I haven't taken the time to read all the previous posts.

 

I do have several sets of "mixed" brushes and if you want to go through the trouble, after you load your mixed set into the preset manager with the brushes of whatever style you want, you can individually delete the ones that don't match that category. If you do that for each category of brush in the mixed set, you'll have separated them each to their respective places. Or, if you only have a few of the mixed sets, maybe a Miscellaneous category is in order.

 

Holler if you still have questions.

HTH

 

Thank you so much! That really does make sense. I think I will do this after I get all these other issues figured out!

[Guest Peppi]

Did you try closing PSE5 an reopening it?

[Rose Ann]

If you have made the same mistakes that I made when I first tried to monkey with my brushes, you probably renamed sets you didn't intend to.

That's what I did.

Anyway, I don't have Vista, so I am can't help there, but you might want to re intall your original brushes that came with PSE and then try again. If you want, we can schedule a time to be in the chat room and I can talk you through it.

I have PSE 5 and Windows XP, but the preset manager part should be similar enough that I can help, if you want.

[J9Buckles]

Try holding down your shift key when you restart PSE5 - this rebuilds all of your styles, brushes etc. That may be all you need to do now.

[Guest Peppi]

I had a similat problem with PSE5 when I tried to organize some brushes. But I was on the transition to CS3, so I never tried to fix it. I am of no help here. Perhaps someone knows better than me.

[scrappinchar]

I bought and even had Staples print out Shalae's book on brushes. But, I need to get it out and apply what she has said. I haven't organized any brushes yet. I haven't installed all of them...some of them I just use the png file. I noticed, though, that some of the original PSE brushes don't seem to be on the list anymore. lol I know I need to read up on the brushes situation. And probably refer back to this thread when I do. lol

[Sonesta]

Try holding down your shift key when you restart PSE5 - this rebuilds all of your styles, brushes etc. That may be all you need to do now.

 

 

Ok...I'll try this now and let you all know how it goes!

[Sonesta]

Try holding down your shift key when you restart PSE5 - this rebuilds all of your styles, brushes etc. That may be all you need to do now.

 

 

Ok...I'll try this now and let you all know how it goes!

 

Nope...didn't work either...the names of the brushes are still there in the drop-down menu in the brush palette. Don't know what to do with them. I really would like to get them cleared out before I add my new sets in, but I don't know if that's going to happen. Any more help would be appreciated. I may have to take Rose up on her offer to go to chat together. Thanks again to all of you for your help.

[Guest miss bumble]

i have also tried that and have have still got some odd ones left.

 

Sonesta when i tried to load my brushes into there new set it say's in the book, REPLACE BRUSHES i don't have that as an option I have to go through the pre set manager and I wonder if thats why I cant get it to rename the set. Do you have the RELPACE option. All I'm getting is if I

load the first of the new set then that's the name the set takes on.? I can't make the chat as I live in the UK hope we can get this sorted soon it looks at great way of organizing the brushes. Fingers X

[Sonesta]

i have also tried that and have have still got some odd ones left.

 

Sonesta when i tried to load my brushes into there new set it say's in the book, REPLACE BRUSHES i don't have that as an option I have to go through the pre set manager and I wonder if thats why I cant get it to rename the set. Do you have the RELPACE option. All I'm getting is if I

load the first of the new set then that's the name the set takes on.? I can't make the chat as I live in the UK hope we can get this sorted soon it looks at great way of organizing the brushes. Fingers X

 

Yes...this is exactly what's happening to me too. I just made a new brush set (from the Decorative folder on my PC) and it named it the first brush that's in there...even though I told it to be named "decorative". And all the other names of the deleted brushes are still there too, even though the brushes no longer exist. I don't know.

[Rose Ann]

Just for kicks, Sonesta, try resetting your brushes in the preset manager. See if that gets things back to the default settings so that you can try again.

[Guest miss bumble]

I managed to get rid of mine, all I did was keep shutting down PSE and restarting it and holding down the shift key and they just went did it about 4 times.

 

Now I have another problem I replaced the brushes, loaded the rest got to naming the new set and then PSE say's - could not complete your request because of a program error. I can see it there and when I click on the new set this is the message I get. I click back on the Default Brushes and the new set dissappears.

 

This is VISTA it has alsorts of GREMLINS. Has anyone seen this message before and if so what do I need to do ?

[Sonesta]

Just for kicks, Sonesta, try resetting your brushes in the preset manager. See if that gets things back to the default settings so that you can try again.

 

Yep...I've done this several times too. I'm going to try what Miss Bumble did...holding shift and restarting PSE several times. I still don't know what to do about the name not showing up as I called it though. Anyway...first things first. I'll give this thing a try and let you know.

[Guest miss bumble]

The file name did not show up for me as well ( did not help the first time put it in the worng place opps) but again I'd just kept closing it down, also try to leave it for about 5mins or so I went down for a cuppa.

Well I'm giving up for the night it's 10.30pm here so maybe if I have a goodnights sleep I can come back and try again in the morning.

Sonesta I do hope you can get it sorted to night I'll take a peek in the morning and see how you got on.

 

Chris x

[Sonesta]

Well...here's the latest. I was able to get all my new brush sets where they belong in Presets on my PC. However, the old brush names are still in the Brush Palette in PSE. I have tried multiple times to restart the program using shift and that didn't change anything. But I can live with it this way. All my brushes are where they belong and I can get to them with no problem. Maybe in time the names will disappear. But if not, it's not hurting anything. Thanks again all!

[Guest miss bumble]

I have tried again this morning and no luck at all.

 

I can get them all to the stage of the presets on the PC but they won't stay in the brushes Pallete it keeps saying Program Error. But does not say what and how to fix it, I might have to put them all back as singles and that would be a shame as I do love Shalae's book & refer to it a lot.

 

Chris