[Reminiscing]

I just bought a Mac Thursday. I'm loving it. But now that I've begun downloading some new scrapbooking stuff and transferring my photos, I'm discovering the file system works differently. With my PC I found it easy to just use Windows to organize my files. Mac files are a little harder to navigate.

Do I need to just keep trying and figure it out? Do you organize and access your scrapbooking files and photos directly in Finder or do you use some organizing program, like PSE Organizer or ACDSee or Picasa or ???

Any other PC to Mac advice welcome too!

Thanks!

[MariJ]

Hi! I love my Mac..
I had it before I started digital scrapping, but here's what I do.
I keep my photos organized in iPhoto in events.
What I did with my scrapbook pieces is to make a folder in "documents" called "scrapbook"
Inside that folder I have more folders numbered by my purchases ie "scrapbook 1" is my first purchase, etc.
Sometimes if my purchase was small, I'll have "scrapbook 7-8-9 in the same folder.
It works for me.
I HAVE found that often the SG tags to individual items are descriptive, so if I search in finder for "grass" very often grass will come up.
I don't know if this is helpful for you, but it works for me.

[Sara Arell]

Congratulations on converting to Mac! Don't you just love it? I can't imagine using anything else! As far as organizing, filing, etc., I use my Picasa more than anything but am in the long process of trying to organize things "Ro Style" right now - there's a thread about that - I will see if I can find it for you.

Play, play, play with your Mac - there are lots of different ways to do things! I use IPhoto right now for organizing my photos and I love it! I've found it's the easiest way for me to keep pictures organized the way I want them.

[CRS]

Congratulations, Michele! I'm not a Mac, but I've heard good things!

[Karenowc]

Congrats on converting! I did so about 2 years ago now and I love it.
I keep my photos in iPhoto. I download my digi files into finder folders.
I haven't retagged - really don't need to with mac (photos or digi supplies)
Photos has faces and I can pretty much find what I'm looking for.
I keep a folder of most of my kit previews. When I see something I want, I just start typing the name in the spotlight search and it comes right up!

Like other said, keep playing and asking questions. We all learn that way.

[DaveUK]

Way to go Michele!

I was so tempted with a Mac - and probably will do eventually - but the cost over here is a little prohibitive. I just upgraded to a bigger and better PC because that was within my budget. I hope to go MAC next time around. In the meantime, I hope you have tremendous fun working with your new "friend".

Cheers

[Reminiscing]

Thanks! Things are going really well with my Mac. It hasn't been as speedy, especially with PSE, as I expected, but I was expecting a lot after reading so many rave reviews. And I wonder if the problem is more with PSE. (I use version 9.) It sometimes gets sluggish, and often doesn't shut down when I tell it to, so I have to click "force quit." Is it because I sometimes open up so many files in it? Does having other programs open (such as Mail, the web browser, etc) slow it down? I have a habit of leaving things open to get back to later. Too many fonts? I haven't even installed my brushes and actions yet; I hope they don't slow it down further.

I have learned to use the Finder easily, and love how fast and easily it searches for items. I am just starting to figure out Lightroom and haven't decided whether to use that or Picasa. Meanwhile, I'm scrapping just fine without either!

[MariJ]

Ummm.. I use PSE 6 with my Mac. I know that I'll start to see that dreaded spinning rainbow if I've got a lot of windows open while working or if I leave the computer too long without restarting/shutting down.
(I can usually go two days without restarting, but on the third day it starts to get a little funky!)
It sometimes also appears if I have too many items open in PSE itself.

[SandiC.]

I keep my photos in the finder Pictures folder with a sub folder Lightroom Photos.....that's the start of the organization of the photos, using LR catalogues. I tried iPhoto at first, but I have waaaaaaaay too many photos for that. I'm thinking I may start using iPhoto for my scrapping supplies though. I tried Picasa, but just never got the hang of it.

Ok, importing my scrapping supplies into iPhoto now....18,581 of them. This may take awhile, and then the tagging will begin. Been meaning to do this forever.

[Sara Arell]

When you have your scrapping supplies in IPhoto, do you have to go to the edit mode to drag something into your layout as you do with the photos? I used to be able to drag my photos directly from IPhoto but now have to go to the editing mode to do so....

Just curious, as I've been thinking about changing my scrapping supplies from my finder downloads folder to IPhoto too.

[MariJ]

Sara, from iPhoto, I just drag and drop a photo over the PSE icon in my dock and it opens with the photo in it.
Does that work for you?
I keep my scrapping supplies in "Scrapbook" folders in my documents and I can open them in the same way.

[Reminiscing]

It's funny to find old posts I don't remember posting. I barely remember the trouble I posted about. I didn't like iPhoto and never did get around to using Picasa. The Mac file system, Finder, works fabulously. The search engine is incredibly fast and I use it a lot more than I ever used the search function in Windows. I've been doing a lot of scrappin' and enjoying it on this big iMac screen.