Organization

What we have going on around here is file OVERLOAD! I have mentioned in other posts that I have been collecting freebies from various places online for the last several years. In the past I've just saved them to a CD or DVD, labeled that and put it in with my pile of other CDs awaiting the day when I become a full-fledged digital scrapbooker. Hah!

Well, lately I've been collecting in great quantities! I now have an EHD (external hard drive) which means I can collect a LOT of stuff... and of course I am doing just that :) But, what good is it to have a bunch of stuff to work with if you don't know what you have or where to find it? So, I have come to realize that organization of these files is somewhat important (an ever-so-slight understatement). heheh.

So, I'm beginning to form my own system of organization.
For now it looks like this:

1. I keep all my files zipped. That way I know that I'm not messing with the original files! I unzip folders on an as needed basis (which at my level is not very often yet!! hahahah).
   


2. I click on the zipped file and save the preview of the contents in my Previews folder, (Most designers save a .jpg copy of the preview in the .zip file, I copy and paste this to the aforementioned folder) I keep the Preview folder on my Desktop for easy access. Inside the Preview folder are the following folders:
   
• /Kits - paper packs also go here
  
• /Templates
• /QPs
• /Project 365 stuff
  
• /Misc: Anything that is not one of the above or a full kit/sampler - word art, elements only, etc.


3. Next I sort the files into, Scraps/By Designer - Here I have a new file for each of the different shops/forums I've registered with and picked up freebies from. Here's an example, I'll put the RAK I won from Christie Lemmon here - Scraps/By_Designer/InspirationLane/ChristieLemmon. The reason I do this is, some forums in order to earn points for posting a LO you have to use all their stuff. With this system, I can easily go to the shop/designer's folder, grab what I have, throw something together and voila - I'm ready to post! I do NOT do this with all my downloads, just the ones that I have paid for and the freebies that I find on the forums that I will consider posting to in that hopefully not-so-far-off-day when I become an official digital scrapbooker. ;)
   


4. Next I put a copy of the same files into, Scraps/All_My_Stuff - under one of the following folders (this is so that when I scrap and I pull from anywhere to put my page together, when I just don't care about mixing stuff or I don't know whose stuff it is that I want to use, I can find what I want by category).
   
• Alphas
• Brushes_Masks_Actions
• Calendar_365
• Elements > Element_Clusters
  
• Fonts
• Frames_Shapes
• Hybrid
• Kits_Samplers_Addons
• Papers
• Quick Pages
• Templates
• Word_Art

One cool related thing is Picasa! Picasa scans your whole computer (or only selected files if you wish) and grabs all the photo files so that you can easily see, edit or upload them from one place.

I like it.

It is a program that basically accomplishes the same thing as my Previews folder, except the files have to be unzipped in order to see them in Picasa, and since I keep mine zipped, that's why I use the Preview folder plan (Picasa sees my Previews of course). When I get to the point of unzipping all of my stuff, it will be REALLY cool to see every single thing I have SUPER easily!

Anyway, I've got a long way to go on organizing, but that's what I do for now.
Feel free to leave me some tips, or tell me what you do in the comments :)