Shoebox for organizing on a Mac
The great thing about the web is that you meet wonderful people & they are willing to share their knowledge! I love learning from others. Katie & I bumped into each other long ago because we’re both librarians. When I saw her excitement about having found this software, I asked if she would write a blog post for our Mac friends. So, thank you Katie for sharing!
This was written by Katie, aka stampnbug
I am a Mac user through and through, but have been so envious of PC users because of their ability to use ACDSee to organize their digital scrapping supplies. I tried organizing in iPhoto, using Adobe Bridge, keywording and then using Spotlight (a Mac feature)?none of these options really fitted my needs.
Recently, My Digital Muse wrote about Shoebox in their latest newsletter. I decided to give it a try. Shoebox is a browser, which allows you to tag (categorize/assign keywords) your supplies. I found it very intuitive and easy to use. I am a still in the process of tagging my supplies, so by no means am I an expert at using this program, but I wanted to share what I have learned so if there are other Mac digital scrappers who might want to try this software.
There are two important things to consider before you begin tagging:
- you need to think for a moment how you would like to organize your supplies so that you can set up your categories. I found the organizing styles page at DigiScrapInfo to be very helpful
- you do not want to move files around once you begin tagging (or paths will be broken) so make sure you files are arranged in a way that you like
You are now ready to begin tagging?quite the undertaking I am finding!
A few tips in regards to tagging:
- you can assign as many tags to each file that you want ? the tags are what will help you search for things, so I feel the more detailed the better.
- you can assign tags to more than one item at a time ? click on an item, push the shift key, and then click on another item in the row ? it will select all the items between the two you selected. OR you can click and then hold down the command key (open apple) and select items one at a time. These two options are helpful to assign tags to multiple items (i.e. ?paper? or ?brads? in a kit)
An example of tagging is listed above. This particular piece of paper is solid yellow. Above the tags is the actual file name.
Another very helpful tip:
- you can customize your toolbar. The first thing I did was add Photoshop to my toolbar so that I can very easily click on an item, then click the Photoshop button?and it will immediately open it in Photoshop.
- There are two steps to be able to add Photoshop (or any other photo editing program) to your toolbar:
- You need to set Photoshop as your default photo editing application. To do this, go to Shoebox preferences, click the photos tab, and then where it says edit photos in choose Photoshop. Close the preference window.
- Click the View menu, choose customize toolbar, then all you need to do is drag the Photoshop icon up to your toolbar (see my screenshot below)
There are two versions available. Shoebox Express is $29.99, which allows you to create up to two catalogs, add 10,000 photos to each catalog, and view 1,000 photos at a time. Shoebox Pro is $79.99 and allows an unlimited number of catalogs and an unlimited number of photos. Visit the Shoebox website at: http://www.kavasoft.com/Shoebox/ to learn more about the software or to download a trial version.
Kathy has a Mac blog Digi Scrap Mac and she has info on organizing PS Actions
We also blogged about another software for Mac’s: Graphic Converter
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