good way to organize digital supplies & kits

[3CUTECRICKETS]

is there a good way to organize and label digital supplies and kits so they are easy to find? i downloaded a few kits but how do you tell each one apart when you are looking for specific papers, elements, etc?

[Designs by Shelle]

This is a good thread to read if you are looking for software to use.
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=14546

[3CUTECRICKETS]

thanks i will check it out..

[danger girl]

I think how you organize your kits depends on how you scrap. I tend to use stuff mostly from the same kit on layouts, so I keep the kits together on my hard drive in a folder by either designer name or store name. In other words, all the downloads for Dianne Rigdon's "In the Gloaming" kit are in a folder labeled "In the Gloaming" in my "Dianne Rigdon" folder. It is tougher to tell at a glance what you have this way. Many people print the previews and keep them in a binder that they can look through when deciding what kit to use.

If you are a "pick and choose" kind of scrapper -using pieces from many different kits, you might want to pull your kits apart and organize the files by kind, for example one folder for papers, and inside a subfolder for blue papers, green papers, red papers etc. The system and categories Ro describes at Scrap Girls (http://www.scrapgirls.com/managing_digital_scrapbooking_supplies.htm) works pretty well for that.

I used to organize both ways, until I realized that I rarely used more than a couple different kits on a layout and I was spending way too much time organizing and not nearly enough time creating. But then I was like that with paper scrapping too, it just took up more room.

I hope this helps!

[Shannon]

Gina Miller has a great organizing system on her blog. Here you go:

http://ginamiller.typepad.com/photos/tips_tricks/organizer.html

[Darcy Baldwin]

I keep my kits intact...naming them by Designer Name_Kit name. I rename all the files in a kit as soon as I unzip it to follow that format, so that if I end up copying elements or alphabets or such into other folders, I'll already have the credit information handy.

I keep this basic system
Alphabets
Brushes/Doodles
Elements
Journaling pieces (includes dating elements, tags, etc)
Kits
My Layouts
Overlays
Paper Tears
PS Actions
Ribbons
Templates

My Alphabets folder has all alphabets that aren't kit specific - meaning they can be used on any layout - not tied to a specific color scheme.

The Elements folder has a ton of sub-folders for each kind of element. I'll copy elements from all my kits that I feel can be used on any layout. That way, if I'm working on a layout and really want a tag that wasn't provided in the kit, I know I can pop into the journaling pieces folder and have an abundance of tags to choose from.

It took me a little while to organize all this, but I did it right in the beginning and have found it a big help!!

[mummytothree]

I do the same as Darcy except I do keep a "designers" folder and in there I keep specific designers the I buy a lot from. I also keep my creative team stuff in seperate folders.

I also have a "New Download" folder and everything is downloaded there and unzipped and them moved to a "NEEDS BACKED UP" folder. Once my needs backed up folder reaches a certain point (500 to 600 MB) I back it up to a DVD and then move the kits to their approriate folder.

[3CUTECRICKETS]

thanks everyone for all the great ideas. I am hoping to get organized now at the beginning before i have a lot of digital things...I don't want to play catch up later.

[Shannon]

:yup You should see how disorganized my stuff is because I didn't stay on top of it. And now I have stuff from the first 5 months organized and then everything I've accumulated since then in my "New Items" folder. :lol So my "New Items" folder has stuff from March 2006 and the whole folder is 16.5 Gigs. :lol3

[justjulz]

Oh yes.. this is something that if you don't figure it out at the
beginning you might NEVER get caught up!

I keep folders by shop. Everythinig I buy at a particular shop
goes in its folder. (I like to be able to tell people where I
bought the items) I dump everything from a kit into one folder
and name it Designer-Name Kit-Name (ie. jane doe autumn leaves)
if there is an alpha with the kit and it is individual letters I
will put it in a subfolder named Designer-Name Kit-Name Alpha.
(ie. jane doe autumn leaves alpha)

I use Picasa (http://picasa.com) to seach color, theme, item, etc. because of the way
I name the kits when Picasa pulls them up I get a list of designers
kits in alpha order by designer name regardless of where I bought
the item and a little click on properties gives me the folder path
and now I know where I bought it!

I have going on 5,000 kits so organization is a MUST... the thing
with Picasa is to remember it pulls the lowest level folder and
every one above it... so EVERY FOLDER MUST be labled correctly...

Hope that helps someone

[sunnie2004]

All I can say is I don't believe any digi person will ever have a fantastic way of doing this :lol :lol but i try to immediately open save the opened folders labled with designer name & what's in it like "jo sho""elements", "papers"," put a pic on the file & wahola i am done i also have 1 folder under documents that claims the name "scrap" that's where this stuff is at, the layouts have their own folder "layout" :) & I also download the unzipped files to a dvd & for being organized sake I do have everything on my ehd.
I do believe there a way for programs like coral snapfire that can help & pse organizer but it is hard work

Best of luck

Caren