by Connie — published on March 30th, 2007
I’ve seen a number of people comment that they burn disks for backups or image storage, but then have trouble with them getting scratched, misplaced, etc. So the question is - how to keep track of them all?
There are many items available for disk storage - but my favorite is this Hanging File Disk Storage. We have 5 at my house.
This hold CD’s & DVD’s in double sided hanging file folder type sleeves & maximizes space. Each box holds 120 disks! There’s a push button to open each drawer. And the units stack nicely. The dimensions are 6.75″ (h) x 13.4″ (w) x 7.7″ (d). They can be purchased here at J & R Music World (a great source for blank disks too!).
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by Heidi — published on March 28th, 2007
I always forget about all these little options. While searching for thumbs.db files,
Unclick this option if it is checked.:
by Heidi — published on March 27th, 2007
Ever wonder about those thumbs.db files or .DS_Store files? Do you need them?
Here is a help explaining what the thumbs.db files are and how to stop them from being created in the future. And no, you do not need these files so they are safe to delete. I deleted my thumbs.db files and got back 100+MB of space!
Here is a quick way to get rid of them using ACDSee Photo Manager. (Searching like this in windows explorer will work too.)
- go to View | Search to get the Search Pane
- In the Search for files or folders named: box, enter “thumbs.db”
- Unclick this option if it is checked.:
- Select Specific folders and categories
- Under the box labeled In any of the following folders:, click on Add…
- Select your top level folder that contains all your digital kits and click OK
- Click on the right arrow
- check Include subfolders
- uncheck Search cataloged items only.
- Click Start
- After the search is complete, select all files by CTRL-A (or Edit | Select All)
- After selecting them, look in the very bottom left hand corner. It will tell you how many files are selected and the size of all those files afterward. The size of all those files is the amount of disk space you get back after deleting all those pesky files!
- Hit the delete key (or Edit | Delete)
- Confirm that you want to delete by selecting Yes
If you wish:
by Heidi — published on March 22nd, 2007
For those of you that get our blog emailed to you, I updated a link in my last blog entry. (That cut & paste got the better of me.) Here is the correct link for the last blog posting:
General digital scrapbooking categories Zip File
For those of you that read the blog here, I have fixed the link in the blog entry.
Sorry about the bad link.
by Heidi — published on March 22nd, 2007
Are you just getting started with ACDSee Photo Manager and want some premade digital scrapbooking categories? There is a simple way to download & import in the categories so you don’t have to create all of them!
This category list follows closely to watch is in our Getting Started Tutorial. We understand and know that everyone organizes differently. (Gosh, Connie and I can’t even agree on the same way to organize our digital kits.) So once you add these categories, you can add, delete, or edit any of them. You can use all of them or you can just ignore the sub-categories. It’s your choice. Connie and I stress that you have to organize your digital collection to match your digital scrapbooking style. The wonderful thing about ACDSee Photo Manager is it allows you to be flexible and doesn’t force you to organize a certain way.
We are in the process of collecting other’s organizing styles (because organizing is an art in itself!) and will make them available here. If you know of someone (or you yourself) that has a good organizing style that might be of interest to others, please email us.
Directions on how to add these categories are at the end.
- Previews
- Types
- Fasteners
- Buttons
- Brads
- Eyelets
- Hardware
- Staples
- Clips
- Prongs
- Pins
- Borders
- Embellishments
- Bottlecaps
- Flourishes
- Arrows
- Charms
- Flowers
- Jewels
- Photo Accesories
- Mats
- Slides
- Filmstrip
- Corners
- Frames
- Journaling
- Tags
- Box
- Labels
- Bookplates
- Tabs
- ChipBoard
- Overlays
- Paper
- Solid
- Patterns
- Stripes
- Paisley
- Dots
- Squares or Plaid
- Floral
- Vellum
- Pockets, File Folders, Envelopes
- Notions
- Ribbon
- Fibers
- Stitching
- Ties
- Lace
- Beads
- Stamps
- Textures
- QuickPages
- Sketches & Layered Templates
- Brushes
- Doodles
- Word Art
- Stickers
- My Photos
- My Digital Layouts
- Color
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
- Black
- Green
- Grey
- Orange
- Pink
- Purple
- White
- Brown
- Gold
- Neutral
- Metallic
- Subjects
- Style
- Masculine
- Feminine
- Childish
- Babyish
- Teenage-ish
- Celebrations & Holidays
- Christmas
- Fourth of July
- Halloween
- Valentines
- Birthday
- Emotions
- Events
- Wedding & Anniversary
- Birth
- Ethnic
- Food & Drink
- Heritage & Vintage
- Hobbies
- Natures & Outdoors
- Camping & Outdoors
- Animals
- Insects
- Floral
- Water
- School
- Seasons
- Summer
- Fall
- Spring
- Winter
- Sports
- Time
- MyFavorites
- Font
- Travel
Digital Scrapbooking Organizing Styles
The following files & instructions will create categories to organize your digital scrapbooking kits. You can use as is, edit them, delete them or rearrange them.
The best time to use the styles is right from the very beginning before you organize.
I would highly recommend picking one style and customizing that one rather than using multiple styles. Using multiple styles might give you a lot of extra categories or duplicate categories.
If you already have started organizing with ACDSee Photo Manager, it will not overwrite anything that you have organized, just add the categories. Here are some pointers.
- Backup: I would suggest doing a backup before you add do the following in case you don’t like you can just restore your backup.
- Delete similar ones: Once the categories are installed you can delete similar ones that you used. (i.e. you used the category “preview” and the style uses “previews”, just delete the previews category.) Don’t ever delete a category that has anything assigned to it and ACDSee Photo Manager warn you about not doing this. If you were to delete the category with images assigned to it, you would lose your organizing for that category.
- Transfer organized data to new style category & delete your old category: If you would like to transfer your cataloged images from one category to another.
- Search on your old category,
- Select all (ctrl-a)
- Bring up the Properties Pane, View | Properties
- Select the new category you want them assigned to (VERY IMPORTANT: Do this step first otherwise you will lose your organization.)
- Click on the old category that they were assigned to unselect it (VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you have done the previous step before doing this step)
- Delete old category
Instructions on how to use these styles:
- Download & save the organizing style categories zip file. Here it is: General digital scrapbooking categories Zip File
- Unzip the file you just downloaded.
- Start Photo Manager
- Select Database | Import | Database
- Select Next
- In #1, Select Information from a text file, including any combination of keyword and category definitions and image information
- In #2, Select where your category text file is saved.
- It is fine to let it optimize database files after import
- Select Next
- Select Next
- Select Finish
- Select OK to allow Photo Manager to restart.
- You should now have the categories that are listed. To see them:
- Go the Organize Pane (View | Organize)
- Under Categories, start clicking on the + signs to expand out the categories to see them all!
by Connie — published on March 20th, 2007
Ok - this may be a lot of enabling, but I will add in some education with it about choosing a memory card for your camera. Before Christmas I purchased a new camera that can take 3.5 photos per minute and I learned that not all memory cards are equal. Did you know that they have different writing speeds? In other words some are better for continuous shooting (which I LOVE! but that’s for another time).
I just found this at Amazon: A 2 gig memory card at a GREAT price and it’s a high speed one: Write/Read Performance: 9MB/sec, 10MB/sec (the others only write/read at 3 MB/sec). And this one also has allows avoids the need for a card reader. Check this out: This ground-breaking card gives you the capability to connect your SD card directly into a USB port by transforming into a USB adapter, via our unique hinged cover, eliminating the need for any readers to offload content to a PC.
SanDisk 2 GB Ultra II SD Plus USB Card $36.99 & FREE Shipping
SanDisk’s Ultra II is the high-performance digital memory solution for the serious photographers. This family of outstanding flash cards provides the durability and high-speed quality needed for advanced amateur photographers and photo enthusiasts. SanDisk’s newest addition is the innovative Ultra II SD Plus USB, which combines USB and SD functionality in a single card. The ubiquity of this new format eliminates the need for a reader or PC card adapter, as it transforms from an SD card to a USB adapter with our unique hinged cover. The superior value for providing two products in one makes this the most unique SD card in the market.
(I may just need to get one!)
by Connie — published on March 19th, 2007
And I’m not talking about layered templates - I’m referring to shapes. I have found that shape templates offer a scrapper so much flexibility!
You can take a shape & cut any kind of paper out of it. They are SO versatile! Long ago I started collecting them. First I started with borders, then I found Karin McCombes swirly shape templates… and there was no stopping… Now I buy them when I see something interesting. Today I added to my collection - this afternoon I bought Jen Caputo’s new circle shapes with decorative borders. Others that make great shape templates are: Eva Kipler, Karen Hunt at SBB has some great edgers, Karin McCombes (Kazadoodles) has some that she calls templastic, Michelle Coleman has Decorative Edges 2 that consist of a template & a lace overlay that are VERY beautiful & decorative providing an old world touch to layouts, and Tracy Ann at SBB has a cardstock set with some wonderful borders that could be used as shape templates.
Then tonite Pillowgirl has a nice set of shapes on her blog which are generously free! So I just had to blog about shape templates!
Here are couple of layouts that I’ve done with shape templates. The border template on this one is by Rikki.
This is Michelle Coleman’s Decorative Edges 2
by Heidi — published on March 18th, 2007
Many of the designers are using filenames that say what is in the file.
For example, you can probably guess what is in this file: ShabbyP_Celebrate_BlueBrad.png, A Blue Brad!
So for each type of elements or color in your organizing system, you just need to do a search on the filename for the element type.
- To bring up the Search Pane, go to View | Search
- In the Search for files or folders named: enter the element type.
- If you have cataloged all your digital kits:
- choose Entire Database
- If you have not cataloged all your digital kits or have added kits since the cataloged function was ran:
- choose Specific Folders and categories
- In the box “In any of following (0) folders”, click on Add… and add your top level folder that contains all your digital kits.
- Click on arrow next to Add… and unclick Search cataloged items only
- Click on Start
- When the search finishes, do a Ctrl - I to select all images.
- Now do a quick scroll through the images to see if they look like what you expected. Hold down the Ctrl key as you unclick the ones that don’t belong.
- Assign the category by clicking on the category in the Properties pane (View | Properties) or Drag the thumbnails onto the category in the Organize pane (View | Organize)
Repeat for each element type or color that you have.
Any questions, email: Email Us
by Connie — published on March 12th, 2007
Many of you with new computers that have Vista have been waiting for this — and here it is!!!
ACDSee has released the Vista Upgrade available for Photo Manager 9!
ACDSee 9.0 - Build 108 - Vista Compatible Update
Download the Vista Compatible Update here
From ACDSee’s website: “ACDSee 9 is now Vista certified, which means it meets Microsoft’s standards for functioning well over Vista. So you can use ACDSee with Vista and be completely confident. The ACDSee team has worked closely with Microsoft to provide features and functions at the highest level of compatibility with Windows Vista.”
If you were waiting to purchase Vista version of ACDSee Photo Manager 9 … you can get it now by clicking on the banner below & downloading the trial there. It will be Vista compatible & will work on both XP & Vista operating systems.
If you have questions, please ask. Use our handy new ‘Contact Us’ button that Heidi added!
And don’t forget to subscribe to our blog. We added buttons on the right to make it easy!
by Connie — published on March 12th, 2007
Many digiscrappers that use ACDSee Photo Manager for organizing have mentioned about PSE sometimes bogging down & that they would like to adjust the settings. So I thought I would highlight this article that has some tips for overcoming performance problems.
The full article is here - Revving Up Photoshop Elements 3 (& applies to other versions too) & covers the following:
Tip 1 - Reset Elements settings
Tip 2 - Disable the Photo Downloader
Tip 3 - Reclaim your System Resources - the biggest cause of slowness
Tip 4 - Take Back your CD-ROM Drive & Remote Drives
Tip 5 - Keep the Editor up to Speed - clear the thumbnail caches (causes slowness in all versions of Elements & PS)
Tip 6 - Keep Your Catalog’s File Size Under Control - do it once a month
Tip 7 - Disable the Organizer - if you’re using ACDSee or another program for organizing your files, this portion isn’t necessary
