Organization Programs

[Alyson]

I'm wondering if anyone has found any programs or software that are excellent for organizing all your digi scrapbook products or pictures?

I have in mind the kind of thing I want, so I'm wondering what's out there. I would love to have some kind of software that allows me to tag items (i.e. ribbon, red, stripes, etc...) and then search for certain things later. If there's nothing like that out there, I may just have to invest in creating it. I think something like that would be great and would allow quick searching for an item among the thousands of files in my digital scrapbook supplies...kind of like searching for clipart in microsoft word or searching for a webpage on google. Of course, it may take too much time to tag all my items, so maybe it wouldn't work.

I've often thought that kind of a system would be great for pictures as well. I would love to be able to tag my pictures with the name of each person in them as well as the event/location. That way, I could do a search for Easter, or for grandma (or for both) and see all the pictures that apply. It would be especially nice if you know you have a picture of grandma on Easter that you are specifically looking for but don't remember where it is located.

If anyone knows of a program that will do this, please let me know. If not, I'd still love to hear about the programs that are available. Thanks!

[alb52]

i think a lot of people really like ACDSee (http://www.acdsee.com/).

[Alyson]

Thanks! I have heard of that, but I didn't know what it was. I'm going to check it out now...so excited!! I tried the free Adobe Photo Album. It was great for photos, but wouldn't download most of the scrapbook stuff.
Thanks again.

[Kelly]

you might want to check out PIcasa too... :)
-kelly

[Alyson]

I actually have Picasa, but I couldn't see anyway to tag items and to be able to search for them using those tags. Maybe I missed that. I downloaded the ACDSee 30 day free trial and so far I love it! It's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I think I'll end up buying it, but I'm going to contemplate it for a few weeks first. It will take me forever to tag all my scrapbooking stuff, but it will be so convenient once I'm finished. Haha, I just thought about that...I buy too much stuff and will probably never be finished. :)

[Amaris]

You may never be finished but if you can get caught up then it is only being done when you buy something new which is better than what you have to do from the start.

Question as well. How does ACDSee work with the Photoshop Pro, CS3 or PSE not sure what program you really use those are the ones I know of so far?

Donna

[Alyson]

Donna, ACDSee doesn't really work with Photoshop. It's just a way to organize your stuff. I still haven't got all my stuff organized with it, but I have a bunch of stuff tagged. ACDSee basically accesses your files, wherever you have the stored, and then you can tag them with things like color, style, shape, or whatever you want. You can also tag your photos. Some of the tags I use are person (I have a tag for each family member and each friend), event, location.

After you have things tagged, you can search by clicking on one person's name, and it will show you all the pictures you have of that person. Or you can search something like yellow, striped paper and it will bring up anything that fits the description. I hope that makes sense.

[Amaris]

Alyson,

How does that help you know where things are to find them from PSCS or what ever other program?

Donna

[Kelli West]

I think it works like this....
example: your looking for a ribbon that is blue so you type in the search of ACDSEE blue ribbon... and everything that you have tagged with those words will show up. If you type in RED anything taht you tagged with the word RED will pop up. It helps you find stuff faster..make sense?

[Alyson]

Yeah, Kellie is right. It's a separate program that you have to open if you are looking for something. It really helps if you are looking for (like Kelli's example) a blue ribbon and you don't want to go look through all your folders for a blue ribbon that works. You type in blue ribbon, and all the ribbons you have tagged as blue and ribbon will show up in a preview area. You can then drag the paper, embellishment, etc straight to your open photoshop workspace.

Below is a picture of my ACDSee workspace. The right side shows some examples of the tags I use...I tag everything by kit and company as well as other things. The two circles show that I've selected DSM, paper, and if you could scroll up I also selected Blue. The spot with two stars lists those things I've selected all together. The spot with the one star is a search box where I could type in "digital scrapbook memories blue paper" and get the same results. The thumbnails are the results that come from that search. Does that make sense? Ask more questions if I'm being totally confusing.

[Amaris]

Thanks everyone.

I have gone to using ACDSee Pro and it is working great.

I appreciate the explanation of how using that to find things helps you put it into PhotoShop CS2. That is what I have gone to that way I wont have to change programs in the near future after the PSE doesnt have enough features.

If this beginners class is half as helpful as everyone has been I will learn alot on Wednesday.

Amaris

[kpgambill]

You can use ACDSee with any photo editor. There is a way to set the option to open your digi items right into the photo editior. I will have to go look up the instructions. But it is very compatible. There is tons of info on digiscrapinfo.com They are very helpful with any questions you might have.
I will go look for the link to set up your photo editor.
Hope that helps someone.
Kim

[kpgambill]

http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/joomla/component/content/article/50-beginning-questions/199-default-photo-editor-how-can-i-get-acdsee-photo-manager-to-automatically-open-all-my-images-in-my-photo-editing-program

Here ya go. It is a long address but it will take you right to the question and show screen shots.
Kim

[Deb Ranner]

I use ACDsee with photoshop. I have two monitors and photoshop sits on one monitor and ACDsee sits on the other. when i find scrapbook stuff in acdsee i put it in the photo bucket and when i have accumulated what i need i simply drag it into the workspace of photoshop on the other monitor. you can also just select edit with photoshop. but I love the dragging option.

Deb

[Amaris]

I am loving the ACDSee program and PhotoShop CS2 but it is taking forever to get taged and organized even though I am doing it from the beginning.

Amaris

[Alyson]

Amaris, I know exactly what you mean. I waited about 11 months after starting digital before I got ACDSee. I still don't have everything tagged. I've have tagged everything with colors, kit, and designer, but that's the only tags that are finished. It's a daunting task that gets put to the side to accomplish homework and actually do some scrapbooking. :)

[Kelli West]

Alyson, I was just thinking about how sweet you are! You always are so kind to help everyone out! I always look forward to reading your posts!! I hope school is going well, and that work is too!! Thanks for all the help you give us all!

[Alyson]

Kelli, you are the sweet one!! Thanks for asking about things with me. School would be better if I weren't so addicted to this site...LOL! Actually, it's going good, and there's only 3 weeks left of summer semester. Work is work...I never want to go, but it's usually cool while I'm there.

How are things going with you? How is your work? Have you been doing a lot of photography this summer?

[Kelli West]

work is work...hehe!! At least our big freezer that we keep all the icecream and frozen fruit in is no longer breaking (it broke 3 times in 2 and 1/2 weeks leaving us with a melted mess of icecream!!)!!! But it's good. Photography is going well. I have 3 wedding in august, and i have several family pictures coming up soon. I love it, I just keep learning more and more! I'm glad to hear you only have 3 weeks left of the summer semester, and that work is going as well as work can! Lol..yeah!

[Alyson]

Wow, three weddings in August! Do you think you will make photography a full time thing at some point?

[Kelli West]

I would LOVE full time! Photography is the best thing! I just love going out to do wedding shoots! They are my fav! It just all depends if it goes full time. right now I am not really advertising. All the work I get is from word of mouth. I just need to take it to a whole-never-level....

[montmeag]

haha, what is a whole-never-level? Is that when you say never and end up doing it?

[montmeag]

If so I do that all the time. BTW, that's awesome about 3 weddings in August. It's a busy time of year. I should know, that's when we got married.

[Kelli West]

haha, what is a whole-never-level? Is that when you say never and end up doing it?

oh, haha... it's acutally a quote from MAD TV! Lol... the "never' part is actually suppose to be "another level" but the way they say it is "never" level... sorry to confuse! It basically means taking it up a notch!! :P

[montmeag]

I knew what the expression should have been, but had never heard it the other way. I thought it was funny. I can't stay up late enough to watch MAD TV. DH does though. I am definitely not a night person. Funny thing is, I'm not really a morning person either. I'm a sleep person.:)

[Kelli West]

you sound like my husband! If he could sleep all day he would! I don't know how he does it! my body automatically wakes up at 6:00 am not matter what...i hate it!

[tpowers]

Alyson- I know that you said you are going to buy ACDSee. I was just on their website. They have it for $29.99. It says that it is 40% off. I think that I am going to buy it too.
Do you like it so far? Is it user friendly?

[digimad]

I bought it and I am totally loving it. It is really helping me use my supplies more effectively. I am still tagging everything, which may take a long time, but so worth it! I love that you can search for things by color, shape, type, etc.

[Alyson]

Teresa,
I love my ACDSee as well, and I think it is user friendly. If you get it and you have questions, I (and I'm sure others here) would be happy to help you figure it out. I'm like Madeline, I love looking things up with it, but I'm still tagging everything and it will probably take me a long time. I have slowed down on the rate I acquire new stuff, so maybe I'll make some head way in the tagging. ;)

[kmsarles]

Does anyone use Adobe Photoshop Elements Organizer? We had a really weird thing happen yesterday. My husband was organizing our photos Tuesday night, and for some reason Wednesday night the files had mysteriously dissappeared off of our computer. Neither of us touched them. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening before? It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen!

[montmeag]

Now that you mention it, I had a couple of LOs that are not where they are supposed to be. I don't know where they are. I wonder if it's related.

[RobRob]

Kelly that is so weird! I use the elements organizer but have never had anything like that happen. The only thing that I can think of is it didn't save your albums for some reason? But the pictures should (hopefully) still be there. Can you click on "show all" at the top and them find them somewhere in there? You'd have to re-organize them but when I can't find something that is where it usually is. Good luck!

[kmsarles]

No, it was really bad. The pictures were gone from the computer. We tried to reconnect and nothing. We tried to search manually and nothing. I actually searched through every photo on my computer by thumbnails looking for them... they were gone. My husband downloaded a file recovery program and recovered about half of them. We're done trying to find them, I just wondered if anyone else had experienced the same thing.

[liway]

I'm curious about the PSE organizer too Kelly as that is what I've been using to tag all my goodies. I don't have that many as I'm very NEW to Digital, but it's a long process and I would hate to think I might have to start all over. I have everything tagged by Designer, color, product (paper, ribbon, brads, etc.) and haven't started my photos yet. Is there a reason that this system won't work down the road??? I'd sure love to know now instead of later!! :-)

Sorry about the files Kelly - I've never had that happen. Hopefully they show up soon!!

[Alyson]

Kelly, that really stinks about your files! I would be devastated if I lost a bunch of my pictures...I guess it's about time for me to do another backup.

Lisa, the only thing I could see, is if you get a different version of Photoshop...you will have to keep your current version just for the organizer if the new version doesn't have the organizer.

[liway]

Okay ...thanks Alyson! I have PSE6, so hopefully that will do me for while! Thank you!! :-)

[Ginger]

I am pretty new here, but want to join in on this one. I have PSE 6 and have been using that to organize. Is ACDSEE a lot better to work with? Many years ago I used the original ACDSEE to organize my stuff and loved it. But I don't believe that ACDSEE is MAC compatible, is it? That factors in as well.

What is the best?