[*bugsmama*]

I am still fairly new to digital scrapping (and never paper scrapped) and am trying to figure out the best organizing system. Right now I everything is organized in folders on my HD (pretty sure it is the same system Ro uses on the Secrets Revealed tutorials). Why would use use a picture gallery type system? What are the benefits to one or the other? How do use the photogallery in PSE? Or is the photogallery just so you can see everything but it is still broken out by folders to open in PSE? I am sure I will have more questions but those are all I can think of now.

[Reminiscing]

The advantage to using the folders in Windows is that it's an easily transferable system not likely to crash. I'm not sure about any advantage to using a photo gallery like PSE Organizer or ACDSee unless you like the way they work. Picasa is super fast at searching and you don't even have to spend time tagging, so that's the best of the organizers. I use the Windows file system and it has worked for me for years. I have Picasa too, but only use it occasionally so far.

I hope that helps. I'll be back to write more if I can.

[JenniferZ]

The advantage of using Windows Photo Gallery (or Bridge or ACDSee or other organizing systems) is that you can keep kits together. I am one of those scrappers that hates to break up my kits. I use WPG to tag items so I can search for items easier. Organizing really is an individual choice. Whatever works for you is the best way! HTH!

[Smiles]

Picassa will let you keep your kits together also - there is a long thread about Picassa you may find helpful.
It doesn't require all the work that many other programs do.

[PBarnes]

I loved using PSE Organizer. I had over 50,000 items tagged - until I accidentally lost my PSE catalogs. I'm giving Picasa a try. I'm still figuring it out so I can't say pro or con on it, but an awful lot of people really like Picasa.

[Becky Roy]

I've been closely watching everyone's posts (and thus their ideas) about organizing and while I can certainly understand the fear in using the PSE organizer when so many people have lost all of their tagging, etc., I like to be able to keep all of my kits together, but I also like to be able to find items from other kits that will go perfectly with a layout I'm working on with just a click of a few buttons - say I'm finishing up a layout and I have a pink silk ribbon that would make the most perfect finishing touch, and I know I have it but I don't know what kit it's in, then all I have to do is click on "pink" and "ribbons" and I can find it in a matter of minutes, possibly even seconds. I haven't had any problems losing information yet, but I do backup often. I haven't had to use the backup yet. I've seen others talking about Picassa, which is really an awesome program for photographs, but I haven't been able to get it to recognize PNG files - which is what all of the digital scrapping items are saved as. So I use PSE organizer specifically for my digi-scrapping stuff. I don't want to spend the $50-60 for ACDSee, although I have thought about putting it on my Christmas wish list.

[Smiles]

Picasa can see pngs. The thread about Picassa tells how.

[jkjundt]

You can avoid losing all the tagging in PSE Organizer by writing the tags to the files. This option is on the File menu. This won't keep the structure of the tags but it will keep the tags associated with the file. These tags can be seen in Windows Explorer or used in other programs. If your PSE catalog does get corrupted, you can import all the files into a new catalog and all the tags will be there (although you may have to rearrange them in the Keyword Tags palette). I reallly like using PSE Organizer to organize all my pictures and scrapbook elements.

[*bugsmama*]

So if you use a photogallery or PSE how do you open the files? Do you use the gallery just to find the path then still use file> open> xxx?