Organization Challenge: Week Seven

February 18th, 2008 by Chris

Are we all caught up? That low-key week was very helpful and very much needed for me. After my dental “issues” last week, if I had more to do than just the alphas, it wouldn’t have gotten done. So let’s look at our homework:

1. Back up and Optimize: Done
2. Clean up alphas- so that only one letter or contact sheet/preview comes up in a search: Done!
3. Create sub-categories and tag Alphas: Done!

Yes, even in pain and on pain meds, I was able to work on the laptop to work on organizing. Priorities, right? LOL

This week we are going back to what I had planned for last week: Organizing your brushes. Abr brush files can only be seen in Photo Manager 10 and Pro2 so if you are using another version of Photo Manager,you won’t be able to do this challenge. Or, you can download a free 30 day trial for Photo Manager *winks* You’ll be totally hooked, so be warned.

This will be similar to how we organized out Fonts. However, I don’t tag my fonts, but for some reason I do tag brushes. I am not really sure why I do that. It could be that fonts can usually be put into one folder or category, but brushes, because of the way that there are usually several brushes in one file, fit into several categories. Looking more closely at what I do, I put the brush into broad folders: Collections by Designer, type of Brush (e.g. Stitches, Doodles).

From there, I look at the brush files. To see all of the brushes in one files, double click the files, and it will open up into the Browse window. All of the individual brushes will show up on the left side.

In looking at the files, I can tag the brush with multiple categories.

Steps:

• Create a main folder for your brushes. I keep the default Photoshop brushes in the Adobe presets folder. All of my other brushes, I keep in my scrapbooking folder, just as I would keep my elements and papers.
• Create Sub-Folders based on the system you want to use. You can either use Move To Folder (Alt M) or drag your brushes from the first folder to the new brushes folder.
• Create categories and sub-categories in the Properties pane.
  

TIP: To do this, you Right Click on Categories, type Brushes, click enter. To create sub-categories, right click on Brushes, and type in your sub-category names.

• Working through your files, tag the brushes with the sub-categories.

TIP: As you go through tagging your brushes, add in a designer name or credits if you have them.

• If you want to make a contact sheet to see all of the individual brushes, select the files. Go to Print|Contact sheet. Adjust the thumbnail settings to fit as many thumbnails as you wish on one page. Print and store in a binder for easy viewing!

To use brushes in Photoshop, drag the abr file onto your Photoshop workspace. Select the Brush tool, and they will load into the Brush Tool Box.

For lots of good way to use brushes in Photo Editor, Kristi is running an excellent series on the DigiScrapInfo Blog.

For a great video tutorial on using brushes: Brushes in Photo Manager 10

Tasks for this week:

1. Back up and Optimize (You all knew that was coming,eh?
2. Work on organizing brushes.
3. If you still have more time, tag your stash- 15 minutes a day!