**FAQ's & General Information** : For Beginners

It takes very little time to collect hundreds if not thousands of elements as a digital scrapper and it’s important to find a system that works for you. This article describes the ways in which other SBB members are organizing their resources.

File organization software.
There are many software programs available to assist with file organization. Though they are intended to help sort digital photographs they are also ideal for sorting digital scrapbooking elements.
While the features of organization programs vary, they essentially allow you to create a custom catalogue of your files. You are able to “tag” files with multiple keywords and descriptions and when complete, perform a file search with the software to find items that match what you are looking for.
As an example, from within the software, you can choose a background paper and “tag” the file with keywords such as the type e.g. background paper; color e.g. Pink; the pattern e.g. Striped; the texture e.g. crumpled; the creator’s name e.g. Amy Edwards; the name of the kit it is part of e.g. Candy Floss; the place it was downloaded from e.g. Scrapbook-Bytes.com and continue to add as many keywords as desired.
With the above tags you could then search for “background paper” and the paper will be included in the search results, or you could narrow the search if you knew you wanted a pink striped paper in particular by using those multiple terms in your search – very similar to the way in which you use any internet search engine. You can be as specific as you want to make the search process easier for you.
Establishing this type of system is much easier if you are only starting out as tagging can be a time consuming process when your element collection is extensive. However once the system is set up then it is a simple process to tag any new downloads either immediately or at a set interval e.g. Once a week.
As most of this type of software does not change the location of the original file, but simply imports a thumbnail representation of the image you can also tag files on external removable media such as CD’s, DVD’s or external hard drives. As long as the correct media is present e.g. in the drive or connected, the software can be made to search through those collections.
Many popular programs used in digital scrapbooking have companion file organization software. In some cases the software may need to be purchased separately.

Adobe PhotoShop and PhotoShop Elements adobe.com
Adobe Photoshop Album (available stand alone or included with PSE3)
JASC/Corel Paint Shop Pro corel.com
Paint Shop Photo Album (available stand alone)
Ulead Photo Impact ulead.com
Photo Impact Album (included with v10 or named Photo Explorer stand alone)
Microsoft Digital Image Pro microsoft.com
Digital Image Library (included with Suite versions only)

There are also a wide variety of other file organization programs available. The most popular commercial applications include:

ACDSee

Extensis

IPhoto -MAC only

Popular free programs include:

Picasa

FXFoto

Kodak EasyShare

PreClick

When choosing your software consider ease of use, the ability to use multiple tags, the ability to read removable media and the file formats the software can read (some struggle with .png transparency).

File Folders
A system can be successful without the need for file organization software by simply creating a hierarchical folder system on your hard drive. Starting with a single folder called Digital Scrapbooking Elements for example, you can then create sub folders inside according to your preferred sorting method. The benefit of this method is that it does not require any additional software.
There are many ways in which elements can be sorted into subfolders. Some of the more popular ways used by members include creating subfolders for theme e.g. birthday, Christmas, summer; or type e.g. papers, tags, metals, fibers, kits; or creator and/or download source e.g. scrapbook-bytes, Amy Edwards, Anna Aspnes etc. These subfolders can contain more subfolders sorting by color for example. It is simply a matter of creating a system that makes sense to you.
One of the problems that can arise with this system is when elements could belong in multiple subfolders – by duplicating the item and including it in every suitable folder you are effectively doubling or tripling the storage space needed. It is possible however to overcome this by creating a shortcut to the image in the applicable folders.
In addition if you separate items, you may find that you lose crucial information about the element included in the ReadMe files that accompany most downloads such as who the creator is which is important to assure correct credit is given. If the Terms Of Use of the file allows, you could rename the file to ensure it includes this information but then may struggle with unwieldy and long filenames.
This system also requires that you may have to search through many images within a subfolder to find the particular one you want or browse through your removable media.

Printed Catalog
In combination with either of the organizational methods above you can create a printed catalog of image thumbnails that you can search through.
You can print thumbnails either using Windows XP Printer Wizard contact sheet , or your digital scrapbooking software if the option is available. When the page is printed you can handwrite any details about the image such as location, file name or creator name under the thumbnail image. You can also create an index sheet by resizing and arranging multiple images on a page within either your digital scrapbooking program or any program that can handle graphics such as MSWord and then typing the information you need underneath before printing. If you are using organizational software it often permits the printing of a visual index.
The printed sheets can be placed in an inexpensive binder, perhaps even using dividers to help sort by type or theme as preferred. By printing in draft mode you save ink since photo quality images are unnecessary.
This is particularly good idea for images stored on CD or DVD as the media an element is stored on can be quickly located using the printed catalog which would then refer to the location of the image e.g. CD009 or SBB Bloomin Bytes CD.

In conclusion, the advantages of a file organizational software program would seem to outweigh the disadvantages encountered with both it and the advantages of other methods. To be thorough, combining a printed catalog with software would ensure your collection of elements is easy to find and search through. Whichever method you use, it should make sense to you and make your digital scrapbooking easier.

© Copyright 2003-2005 by Scrapbook-Bytes; & original creator/s of tutorials/articles

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