Hello, my name is Linda, and I'm . . .

[lindajay]

. . . a digital photo filing disaster! Anyone else have their photos as disorganized as mine, or am I alone in this world?

I use iPhoto to download my originals, so at least they are in one place (though I haven't taken the time to keep up with key words, etc.). But the oodles and oodles of images I've edited, and saved as layered .psd files, as well as flattened .jpgs, are really a tangled rat's nest all over my hard drive. Oh, and then there are all the templates, downloads, etc. -- which I should be using, but don't know where to look for them! Yipes!

Okay, got that off my chest. Confession is good for the soul. Is there hope for recovery? I'd love to hear about anyone else's conquest over this beast.

[Wendy]

Hi Linda ...

Oh dear that sounds scary :eek:

I reorganised all my things quite a while ago ... I used iPhotoBuddy to create multiple libraries and then I popped each different type of thing in its own library. So I have 2007 holiday, 2007 general, challenge entries etc etc etc

Then I keep a folder system on the hard disk which keeps the rest tidy ... sort of Scrapbook Kits then inside all the different ones in nested folders. Same thing with my layered creations, clip art etc etc :)

Wendy

[lindajay]

Wendy, that sounds like Heaven! :D Maybe you can be my "sponsor" and get me through this challenge.

[Cmcburnett]

Linda, I feel for you. I try to keep my photos and downloads organized. At one time I saved everything by year and then subfiles for different occasions. I ended up with to many directories. Then I organized by different occasions and all years in separate folders, still ended up w/lots of folders. I can find things now, but I'm still trying to figure out a better way. It takes a lot of time to reorganize so I think I'm leaving everything where it is for now anyway. Good luck.

[deedeeO]

Linda,
I feel your pain too. You are definately not alone. I have files and files of photos...I don't even know where to start printing!! And yes, the many cool scrapbooking stuff...if only I can remember where I save them or remember that I even have them. thanks Wendy and Charlotte for the advice. what I need to do is stop taking pictures, but that is just too hard to do...:)

Oh well, I think I'll just start my Cinco de Mayo Weekend now...the thought of starting a re-org stresses me out!!!

[lindajay]

Denise! Misery loves company, they say. Thanks for sharing in my angst!

[SenorSlick]

Linda, I must confess that mine are not organized at all. Oh, I know how to organize, but there are so many now that it seems to me an insurmountable task. It gives me a headache even to think about doing it. Most of mine are just as I shot them, and those that I have modified are simply filed as copies of img.000xx or whatever. Sad part is when I want to find one I remember shooting some time ago, it is very difficult to find it. Worse yet, is there are several CD's with more disorganized photos. Harvey

[CarolLHB]

Linda-try Spotlight and type in .psd
You'll get a zilion hits and will have to do a lot of re-organizing, but spotlight will find them wherever they're hiding.

Lessons learned, eh? :rolleyes:

[lindajay]

Thanks, everybody, for both the suggestions and the expressions of empathy :)

Harvey, I'm like you. I do know HOW to do it, but it does seem insurmountable. I actually do have some semblance of organization, in that I've started the task numerous times. They are all in one folder, but are then divided up into a lot of smaller, internal folders, and that's where things get crazy. Well, I'll let this thread die a respectable death here. I know what I need to do.

[Wags374]

I try to organize every couple of months, but I don't always get to it. Good luck with "recovery"! :)

[Bayla]

Linda,

I feel for you as I'm almost as bad. I tend to rely on my memory as to where to find a certain picture, but my kids just add their pictures in with no thought as to where they are on the HD. To complicate matters, when I got my new PC last year I ended up with the old HD as well and two lots of 'My Pictures'....I'm still in the midst of sorting everything out so that I have everything collected under one roof as it were. Everything I put in now is carefully documented & all my scrapbooking stuff is in separate folders but all the older stuff is taking yonks to sort out and put in order.

Good luck with dealing with it all.

Bayla (who will freely admit that her [dis]organisational skills apply to other areas of her life as well:o )

[hfgerena]

Hello, I'm lost here, does anybody use the PSE Organizer? I do and I have no complains. I also have my own system with the OS/Folders (I love to keep everything on folders, "I don't like to put the eggs on the same basket"), but the tagging and cataloging is under PSE.

For example I have a Catergory (also a folder) called Family Vacations and then a sub-categories (also sub-folders) with the Vacation Name, then when I dowload the picts. I do the dowload to the corresponding folder from the biginning, I do a backup of the originals JPGs folder to a CD and then start editing and save them as PSDs.

I do my backups (Full) to an external HD every week or at the moment if I did too mch work, I also backup the folders individually to CD.

[Edmund]

Linda, I took this couse way back when they first started a few years ago. It helped me out a lot but then again I was brand new to PSE-3. It's in the online training section of this site taught by Matt Kloskowski and titled "Organizing and Sharing your photos".
Eddie

[Bayla]

Hello, I'm lost here, does anybody use the PSE Organizer?

I do use the Organiser extensively....it's the ones on my HD which are giving me the problems.......and Linda I think is on a Mac so doesn't have Organiser

Bayla

[lindajay]

Yes, Bayla is right. I'm on a Mac, so don't have Organizer -- although I do have iPhoto, which I do use. I'm like you, Bayla, in that it's the ones on my hard drive that are a mess.

Eddie -- I thought about that class at one time, but figured it might be based upon Organizer. Is that right? If so, it won't help. Maybe someone can let me know about that.

[Edmund]

Linda, All of your photos are on the hard drive. The organizer only lets you see a thumbnail of that picture but in reality it is stored in some folder some where on your hard drive. The organizer lets you or helps you keep track of all of them with tags etc.
Eddie

[Bayla]

Linda,

You're right - Organiser is for PCs only so that course won't help you!

Bayla

[lindajay]

Eddie, you're right, of course. Bad choice of words by me. But, the bottom line is that I don't have Organizer on Mac. I do have iPhotos, but the pictures that are such a mess are the ones NOT in iPhotos. I don't store .psd files in iPhotos, because of their size.