MichaelsMomJo Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I realized I had posted this in another thread a few months ago, so I copied the post and here it is for those who wanted it. I keep all of my supplies in their original folders organized by collection. I then created shortcuts to every item in a collection which I dragged into folders that I set up in MyDocuments\Scrapbooking\Supplies. I was working in the folder view when I did this so I could just drag the shortcuts from the right side (preview) into the correct folder in the tree on the left. I work in Thumbnail view so I can see everything. The categories I created are: Alphas - Metal - Patterned - Solid - Tag - Wood and Chipboard - Themed Borders Bottlecaps Brushes Buckles and Sliders Buttons Charms Coasters Custom Shapes Flowers Hardware - Adhesives - Bookplates and Plaques - Brads and Rivets - Eyelets - Frames - Hinges - Nails and Screws - Paper Clips - Photo Corners - Photo Tabs - Pins - Pointers - Slide Frames - Staples Journaling Paper Mats Overlays - Fabric - Grunge - Patterns Papers - Checks and Ginghams - Dots - Florals - Geometric - Paisley - Plaids and Tartans - Solids - - Blues - - Greens - - Neutrals - - Oranges - - Pinks - - Purples - - Reds - - Yellows - Stripes - Swirls and Scrolls - Themed - - Animals - - Beach - - Boys - - Christmas - - Easter - - Food - - Girls - - Halloween - - Maps - - Outdoors - - Patriotic - - School - - Seasons - - - Fall - - - Winter - - - Spring - - - Summer - - Transportation - Worded Patches - Printed - Solid PNG Templates Pockets and Envelopes Quick Pages and Layered Templates Ribbons - Bows - Fibers - Folded - Ricrac - Straight Paper Scraps Stickers Stitching Tags - File folder tabs - Hanging Tags - Labels - Misc Tabs Tassels Textures Word Art I know this sounds like a lot and you might even wonder how I can find anything, but this has made it so easy for me to locate exactly what I want when I'm not working from one kit. All of the folders and subfolders are visible in the left pane of my window, so I just scroll up or down to get to the one I want. To use the item, I just drag the shortcut onto my Photoshop workspace and, voila, the file opens. I have left all my collections in tact, and did not have to waste space with duplicate files in order to separate items out. It took me a full day to organize my supplies because I literally have hundreds of kits, but now when I get a new one (like my ScrapGirls and ScrapSimple club items, for example) it takes me about 5 minutes to sort the shortcuts into the correct folders. Whew, that was long! Try this, if you want. It really works for me and it's worth the initial effort to get it set up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virago Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Try this, if you want. It really works for me and it's worth the initial effort to get it set up. [/quote] Thanks Jo. I will test it out now. Wendy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandiev Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Wow, Jo! That's awesome! I really need to get all of mine better organized. Thank you for sharing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staciemag Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Thank you for posting this! You have no idea of how helpful this is to me! Okay, I best get going. I have lots of organizing to do. Stacie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathleenSD Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 When I took Shalae's brush class, she gave us some organization tips and I sat down and organized my supplies similar to your technique - except yours is more detailed. I might break mine down even further - it does make things easier. I also print contact sheets cause for some reason, I need to be able to see it on paper sometimes. I have my scrapbook supplies on a portable 100G harddrive that is USB powered and is only for scrapbooking supplies and my creations. Its in the root of the drive as g:/0_Scrapbooking so its right at the top and I can't miss it. I have a 300G portable drive for my photos. I can just connect both to my laptop and scrap anywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDecker Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Great suggestion Jo, I guess I am a bit muzzy headed this am (no coffee yet). How do you make the shortcuts though? LOL See, silly and I am quite computer literate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 [quote name='sailbeachcatz177' post='87082' date='Jan 21 2007, 08:32 AM']Great suggestion Jo, I guess I am a bit muzzy headed this am (no coffee yet). How do you make the shortcuts though? LOL See, silly and I am quite computer literate![/quote] While, viewing all the files in a folder, click on the first file in the folder, then hold shift and click on the last file. That will select them all. You can also go to Edit-->Select all or use Ctrl+A. Then right click on any selected file and choose Create Shortcut. This will create shortcuts to all the files. The shortcuts will be placed in the same folder in which you are currently working. You can distinguish them from the actual files because they will be named Shortcut to... and will have the little shortcut arrow in the corner. Then you just need to drag the shortcuts into the category folders where they belong. I work in Windows Explorer view when I do this so that I can see my my contents in the right pane and the tree of all my category folders in the left pane. I hope I was clear enough in this explanation. If you want any screen shots, let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 [quote name='KathleenSD' post='87063' date='Jan 21 2007, 07:36 AM']When I took Shalae's brush class, she gave us some organization tips and I sat down and organized my supplies similar to your technique - except yours is more detailed. I might break mine down even further - it does make things easier. I also print contact sheets cause for some reason, I need to be able to see it on paper sometimes. I have my scrapbook supplies on a portable 100G harddrive that is USB powered and is only for scrapbooking supplies and my creations. Its in the root of the drive as g:/0_Scrapbooking so its right at the top and I can't miss it. I have a 300G portable drive for my photos. I can just connect both to my laptop and scrap anywhere![/quote] I keep my supplies on my laptop, with backups on my external hard drive and on DVDs. The reason I keep them on my desktop is because I don't travel with my external, and I definitely want access to all my supplies when I'm not at home. I scrap everywhere! BTW, I see you liked my Disney blinkie. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dawnsmemories Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I love the detailed list... I am working with ACDSee and I think I will include some of you categories.... Thanks for sharing! Dawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crush4dolphins Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Wow your list is much more detailed then mine. Funny I got a laptop for Christmas and I finally just got all my page kits extracted and ready to be organized again. I have Digital Scraproom but the contents didn't transfer as I would have liked so I have to redo it and I think I'm going to go more detailed like your list. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickypow Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Thanks so much Jo! I really like the idea of creating shortcuts, I hadn't thought of that and my stuff is all organized in kits right now cause I didn't want to split it up, but I don't use alot of things that I might use if it was better organized! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sharebear57 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Great category list, Jo! I use the PSE organizer to organize my files, so it doesn't really make a huge difference to me what folders they are in, but I am definitely going to steal some of your categories for tagging! Right now, I just things tagged as "Paper" or "Embellishments", so if I need to find a certain photo corner, it takes me 45 mins to wade through every single embellishment I own. Your categories will make things a lot easier for me! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest siraacsa Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I am going to reiterate on how good Jo's system is. The best part is that because you keep the collections together as well as seperating them out you can search for your supplies either by kit or by type. Cause sometimes even if you are using a kit you just need some extra little detail from somewhere else. Wel done Jo I think you have the perfect system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDecker Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 This is great Jo thank you! I am going to see if PSP will let me use the browser with these shortcuts before I go to far with it. I will post back in a bit, dh is using my computer to format an external HD and wants me to limit what I do until it's done! It had better be by 9! LOL I want to Join Jan's chat tonight! He might be giving up his computer if not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Ann Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 I LOVE the short cut idea! I am going to try it. I hate to split up collections but didn't know what else to do. Thanks for the idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennylynn Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I've already sort of organized my supplies by some of the topics you mentioned, but I moved the files to folders instead of doing shortcuts. I see that when you post a LO to the gallery, which I haven't done yet, everyone gives credit to the kits used. All I have are file names and they are from a variety of digi scrapping sites. How do you know what kits you're using?? I could list the file names but I doubt that would be very helpful. This is why I haven't posted any LO yet Any tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Launa Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 This is great! I was going to ask y'all what you used for storage to not bog up the computer memory since the files are so large! The external hard drive is a great idea! What does everyone else use? Thanks for all your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monika Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 This is so helpful. I wanted a way to organize without moving the files from their original folders...and without duplicating everything. Thanks for the info on creating shortcuts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Ann Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 [quote name='Michael' post='86706' date='Jan 20 2007, 10:30 PM']All of the folders and subfolders are visible in the left pane of my window, so I just scroll up or down to get to the one I want. To use the item, I just drag the shortcut onto my Photoshop workspace and, voila, the file opens. I have left all my collections in tact, and did not have to waste space with duplicate files in order to separate items out.[/quote] Jo- As I was organizing, I got to wondering what you meant by the left pane of your window.... Do you mind explaining a little more? Is that a view? Or is it something that Photoshop has that Elements doesn't? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sharebear57 Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 [quote name='jennylynn' post='96801' date='Feb 8 2007, 11:24 AM']I've already sort of organized my supplies by some of the topics you mentioned, but I moved the files to folders instead of doing shortcuts. I see that when you post a LO to the gallery, which I haven't done yet, everyone gives credit to the kits used. All I have are file names and they are from a variety of digi scrapping sites. How do you know what kits you're using?? I could list the file names but I doubt that would be very helpful. This is why I haven't posted any LO yet Any tips?[/quote] Hi Jenny, Welcome to ScrapGirls! I know it can be confusing when you have a zillion files to figure out who to give proper credit to everytime. I am sure everyone has their own system, and hopefully others will want to chime to offer some advice on this issue, too. Some suggestions might be to rename your files when you get them to help clue you in to what everything is. (like naming your file WebsiteDesignerKitDescription). Or, if you are using Windows, you can right-click on the file and go to Properties->Summary (simple) and there are fields for you to add info to the files. I use the PSE organizer for my digi-scrapping files, and I have the items tagged according to which website they come from. Then I try to include the designers name and kit, etc. in the actual filename. With some of your older files, you may not have taken the time to do this kind of thing (I know I sure didn't!). If that is the case, and you use one of these files in a layout that you want to post, just include as much information as you have and put a note at the bottom asking for anybody who recognizes these items to PM with the info so you can update it. As far as SG products, they make identification easy for us by naming all of their files DesignersinitialsCollectionDescription. There is a thread somewhere on the board that lists all of the designers initials and their names to make ot easy for us to figure out who is who (although, after you've been here awhile, you won't even need to reference that list, lol!) So, I HTH, and feel free to ask any other questions that come up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted February 11, 2007 Author Share Posted February 11, 2007 [quote name='Rose Ann' post='97991' date='Feb 11 2007, 12:00 PM'][quote name='Michael' post='86706' date='Jan 20 2007, 10:30 PM']All of the folders and subfolders are visible in the left pane of my window, so I just scroll up or down to get to the one I want. To use the item, I just drag the shortcut onto my Photoshop workspace and, voila, the file opens. I have left all my collections in tact, and did not have to waste space with duplicate files in order to separate items out.[/quote] Jo- As I was organizing, I got to wondering what you meant by the left pane of your window.... Do you mind explaining a little more? Is that a view? Or is it something that Photoshop has that Elements doesn't? Thanks. [/quote] When I'm organizing my supplies, I am simply in Windows, not Photoshop or PSE. Open your My Documents Folder, then look at the toolbar icons on the top (if you have XP). One of the buttons says Folders and has a picture of 2 file folders accordioned together. Click this button and your window will split into two panes. The right pane (larger one) is your currently active folder. The left pane is a tree of the contents of all your drives/folder. Each one can be expanded by clicking the + sign or collapsed by clicking the - sign. This view is what you used to be able to see when you used Windows Explorer in Win 95 or 98. HTH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickelle Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Thanks for the info on your organizing system! I think it's really similar to how Ro organizes her supplies, although probably more detailed. Sounds great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 [quote name='mickelle' post='98269' date='Feb 12 2007, 01:38 PM']Thanks for the info on your organizing system! I think it's really similar to how Ro organizes her supplies, although probably more detailed. Sounds great![/quote] It is similar as far as how I group the supplies together and the categories I've created. Where it differs is that I create shortcuts to the original files and categorize those rather than splitting up the actual collections. This allows me to work easily with one collection if I so desire, while also allowing me to search through my supplies for a particular type of item. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 [quote name='mickelle' post='98269' date='Feb 12 2007, 01:38 PM']Thanks for the info on your organizing system! I think it's really similar to how Ro organizes her supplies, although probably more detailed. Sounds great![/quote] It is similar as far as how I group the supplies together and the categories I've created. Where it differs is that I create shortcuts to the original files and categorize those rather than splitting up the actual collections. This allows me to work easily with one collection if I so desire, while also allowing me to search through my supplies for a particular type of item. And since I've used shortcuts, I didn't have to waste space with duplicate files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Ann Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Jo- Thanks for the explanation!! It was way easier to organize with that explorer pane open!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickypow Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Jo, can you just come over my my house for a day or two and organize my stuff FOR me?? *grin* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 [quote name='chickypow' post='98318' date='Feb 12 2007, 04:03 PM']Jo, can you just come over my my house for a day or two and organize my stuff FOR me?? *grin*[/quote] Sure, Erin! Of course, it'll have to wait until late spring or early summer. I'm dying to visit BC in the summer, but winter just isn't my season... LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickypow Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 HAHAHAHA!! Oh come on...why not? Don't you get enough chill, snow and drizzle in Conneticut?? But seriously, are you thinking of visiting BC?? If so let me know before hand and we'll do lunch/dinner! *grin* (or I'll cook you dinner while you organize my stuff for me...heehee) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelsMomJo Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 [quote name='chickypow' post='98325' date='Feb 12 2007, 04:14 PM']HAHAHAHA!! Oh come on...why not? Don't you get enough chill, snow and drizzle in Conneticut?? But seriously, are you thinking of visiting BC?? If so let me know before hand and we'll do lunch/dinner! *grin* (or I'll cook you dinner while you organize my stuff for me...heehee)[/quote] It's a deal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 [quote name='Launa' post='96851' date='Feb 8 2007, 09:26 AM']This is great! I was going to ask y'all what you used for storage to not bog up the computer memory since the files are so large! The external hard drive is a great idea! What does everyone else use? Thanks for all your help! [/quote] I love my external hard drive. It was my Valentine's present last year. (He named the drive "I Love April"-- so romantic.) We have several computers, so I can use whichever is available. (Kids, Homework, and all) We also have a 250G internal hard drive (this isn't one with all the program files on it ours are on 2 drives, and this is a third) in the main computer which I also store everything on. I use a win match software to syncronize the files since I downlaod or save to whichever is more convenient. The Wolverine ones that get their power from the USB port are great. I have one with card reader slots, and I accidently forgot to bring the power cord on vacation last Summer. The internal battery only lasts so long. I'd planned to do so much scrapping too. They also have cases you can put a regular hard drive if you know what you are doing. They do need to be plugged in, but are a less expensive option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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