[candyK]

I actually have some layouts--and now I'm not really sure how to file them away. I had them by the subject, but that got to be a lot of files, so them I tried by years...then I have to go through them all! what is a long term solution? I'm getting rid of the jpeg versions to save some space and want to keep just the psd files. Does this make sense?
Thanks,
candyK

[tinkerbell11]

Hi Candy!
There are always different ways to name/organize. I know many ladies have EHD's to backup there layouts and photos, I do and I also use Carbonite, you can also think about having an online backup system too. I am the opposite of you I actually keep the jpegs and not the psd's they are a much bigger file to store, but that does mean I can't go back and change something on a layout because I don't have it in layers. It is mostly a personal preference.

[JenniferZ]

You could move them to an EHD -- I have two EHD's to back-up my files and save space on my C drive. You could also burn the PSDs to DVD and use the jpgs to make a contact sheet of the DVD contents. The PSDs take up way more room than JPGs. It's really a personal preference. I just moved over 100GB of scrapbooking supplies to my two EHDs to save room on my C drive. It took almost a whole day, but my hard drive has gained some much-needed space!

[candyK]

I do have an EHD for them--its just i don't know how to keep track of them. Sort by years? OR by person? after you've been doing this for a couple of years and you want to find a particular layout what do you wish you had done?
candyK

[April Showers]

I sort by year, but my mind works chronologically. I sort them by the year the photos were taken. Often I won't actually put them in the folder until I've printed so I don't have to go through them all to see what I've printed already. I save both the jpg and psd files. I just bought bigger hard drives. Cards and recipes have their own folders too. For older (like my childhood) and heritage pages, I sort them into decades.

[AggieB]

I save project files & jpg both in separate directories. I periodically move the project files onto hard drive because they do take up a lot of room. I have been naming files by challenge or chat name (that's what I mostly do) and then year. I guess I haven't been doing this long enough, because I haven't had to break this up yet. It's a good question, though. Let us know what you come up with.

[Pab]

Well when it comes to space. Just buy new EHD's as needed, they make 2 TB now. I like to buy the ones that stand up like a book for storing. Personally I keep both types because I know I may need to do a do over someday ha ha. Plus I use my own creations as templates and just change out photos and papers and such to come up with new LO's. You pay for other people templates, so I figure I can use mine also free of charge. ha ha

[April Showers]

Sometimes if I alter an embellishment - like making a ready made tear two-sided- I'll just open up the psd file of the layout I did it in and drag the parts I need onto my new page. I will sometimes change them up a bit to make them work for a submission call too. I have used the psd files on numerous occasions. I don't get rid of any of them.

[PBarnes]

I save my .psd files off to DVDs (plus have Mozy.) I post almost all of my layouts here at Scrap Girls so it's easy enough to look through them here and then find the corresponding dated DVD that they would be on. Also, if I've done an album, I make sure that the DVD has the album name on it too.

[Ande43]

I have all the PSD's in one file....and move them to my EHD as I do them. I keep a file of JPEG's 12x12 and one 8x8 which is what I print out. The JPEG's (8x8) I have sub folders for each person I do the most of ...Occasions like weddings...and Misc and also a file for each of my adult kids so all the LO's involving their families are together. the 12x12 are just all together. I copy the JPEGS to the EHD too and also have Carbonite.

[princessrunningfingers]

I save all my PSD layouts to DVD's, filing them chronologically. That may not be the best way, but it works ok for me. I'll follow this thread to see if someone comes up with something that I like better.

[Reminiscing]

I have made folders for album projects, ie. "Alex's Graduation Book" but mostly I just give my layouts pretty good file names and dump them all into my folder called "scrapbook pages." When I'm ready to print some pages, I can scroll through the folder, viewing thumbnails, and easily pick out the ones I want. To easily pick out the high res jpegs, I put "PRINT" at the end of those file names. "WEB" is at the end of my file names for low res copies I share online.

[caprimom]

I'm currently reworking my entire file structure so I'll share what I do.

I name all of my layout files like this: Layout_Date_Challenge_Title_Status. Example: Layout_20101230_DigiDare209_RAK.tif. Just by looking at the file name, I know that the file is a layout instead of a card or desktop or siggy or some other project. I also know the date I created it. If it was for a challenge, I know what challenge it was for. I can also tell that it's complete since there is nothing after the title. For layouts that I'm working on, I add _InProgress to the end of the file name.

While I'm working on a layout, I save as PSD. When it's done, I save as TIFF. Make sure you choose LZW/ZIP in the dialog box. If you do this, you'll find your layered layout files are half the size of a layered PSD file. Then I delete the PSD.

Then I create a full resolution JPEG, run ScrapSimple Tools - Actions: Clarify 11301 Mini by Heidi Dillon on it, and then resize to 600x600 and save for web. I add _600 to the file name. After that, I delete the full res JPEG as I don't print often enough to just keep them around. Whenever I choose to print, I can generate another print sized JPG from the TIFF file.

I included a screenshot. When dealing with computers, it takes so much to explain something that's quite simple.

Attached File(s)

•  file structure.JPG (22.53K)
  Number of downloads: 8

[debikins]

I use PSE7 to create my LOs. I save my layered files as tiff files because I can still access the layers later if I want to change or use as a template but I can see what the LO looks like in the icon which I can't do with PSD files. I label all my layouts (and photos actually) like this ...year-monthday_name of LO (ie. 2011-0101 New Years Day antics) which makes them order chronologically by photo content. In windows7 I can sort by month to see what layouts I did that month (which will include layouts of photos from across the years since I don't scrap chronologically).

I save all my layouts in a folder named "Layouts". I have similar folders for Pictures and Digital Scrapbooking supplies. In the Layout folder I have subfolders (cards, Layouts_tif (for my layered files); Layouts_web (for jpeg low resolution files), Inspiration (for challenges or scraplifts ideas).
In the Layouts_tif folder I have it subfoldered by year (i.e. 2002-LOs_tif) designating what year the photos in the LO were taken. In the Layouts_web I just let the computer order them by folder name which is chronological by date of photos. If it gets to be too many I can always add subfolders for years later.

I don't have trouble finding specific files with this system. Now only if I could be as organized with my digi-supplies...still trying to decide the best software (windows live, Picassa, ACDSee or PSEOrganizer) will work best and what online backup will work with an EHD so I don't have to keep my stuff on my internal HD slowing my computer down. ANyone want to comment on that issue, I'd be happy to read all about it.

Debi

[candyK]

I'm considering online backup for my goods. Can either mozy OR carbonite OR ??? include the EHDs and more than one computer? OR do I end up having to pay seperately for each? I tried a system before and couldn't get it to do my ehds.

also how horrible is getting it set up? I'v eheard horror stories of being unable to use your computer for days while it starts backing up??
Thanks--advice appreciated!
candyK