|
QUESTION: This goes out to Mac users who have moved over from PCs as they will know what I mean. I've just moved all my scrapbooking files from my PC (via EHD) to my Mac. The files are all organized the way Ro advised in her e-book, 15 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Digital Scrapbooker.
In my PC days, I'd look for my supplies using the images on the folders (a sneak-peak) to see what each folder contains. I don't see this happening with my Mac folders. Also, sometimes the folder names are truncated, making it really frustrating to find what I want. Is there a setting that I've overlooked which would give me a preview of my folders? If not, are there any tips you can offer to locate files? I'm sure you know, folder names in my Brushes folder like FloralMedley1_Special or FloralMedley2_Special don't really help when trying to select a brush.
ANSWER: I have a Mac and search things by folders like you do. The way that I create previews for my folders is like this: Find the product page of the brush or collection or whatever you want to preview, then right-click (or Option+Click if you don't have a two-button mouse) on the image of the product and select "Copy Image." Then find the folder in your files that you want to see the preview on. Right-click (or Option+Click) on the folder, then select "Get Info." A box will pop up, and in the top left corner, you'll see a blue folder image, just like the one you see in the folder itself. Click on that folder and do Command+V to paste the product preview image onto the folder. Now your blue folder should have turned into a preview image in your window. You're all set!
I do this for all of my collections, embellishments, brushes, etc. It makes it a lot easier to see what you have to work with!
ANSWER: Hi, I have never used a PC for my digital stuff, but the only thing I want to add to the discussion is that I use Brush Pilot to view my brushes.
RESPONSE: Thanks!
QUESTION: I would like to know what is Finder and what are its capabilities? Is it better for digital photo files and digi-kits? I just downloaded Picasa after reading the rave reviews about this program, and I am able to view photos okay, but not all of my papers (from Scrap Girls), and I don't see all embellishments or alphas within the kit at one time. When I type Papers, Alphas, or Emb, only some papers, alphas, or some embellishments show up.
Now that I have a large amount of Scrap Girls digi-kits, I'm overwhelmed with finding things I know I have... I have to click on Windows 7 Explorer program file folder icon, then click on each folder to open each file individually. It's very time consuming to look thru each folder to search. Can you please help me with this? Any suggestions, ideas, comments, or explanation would be greatly appreciated.
ANSWER: I haven't ever used Finder, but I do know Picasa works great, once you learn the tricks. Once Picasa scans everything (you have to give it some help to tell it what to look for and where), you can quickly do searches with a collection name and everything pops up instantly. It's really cool. You have to change the view from the default.
I would give you the exact directions myself, but I recently had a computer clean-up, and I need to reinstall it again. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. However, we've had a lot of great discussions on Picasa with everyone pitching in to give tips. You might want to look at it to see if it helps! Just go to Picasa Discussion.
ANSWER: Hi! I use Picasa for organizing my digital stuff. I tried all sorts of things before using Picasa, and so far, I like it. I have used it for quite a while now, and it does what I want an organizer to do. Using the Finder works also, and it's nice when using the Cover Flow view, but anything that is black you can't see - at least, I wasn't able to view black items.
To set up Picasa to scan what you want to view, go to Tools up in the Menu bar and go to Folder Manager and from there you can choose what Picasa scans.
Definitely go to the Picasa Discussion forum. I haven't read it myself - didn't know there was one! But I am sure that you can find a lot of information there. If you have questions, please write back here. I am sure that one of us can help you out!
ANSWER: That Picasa thread is what convinced me to try it, and I have to say I can't believe how much I love it and how much time it saves. That thread is several pages long and worth reading more than once.
ANSWER: I love Picasa, too. I did have to change some settings. After I used it for a while, I found that some of my things didn't show up. It turned out that I had to set it to see small photos. I don't remember if I had inadvertently turned that off or if that is the way it downloaded. I must say, though, I did a lot of tagging, but with Scrap Girls stuff you don't even need to tag a thing! If I want blue paper, it comes up.
ANSWER: I use Finder; I never could get Picasa to work the way I thought it should, and you can't drag and drop files into PSE or Photoshop on a Mac directly from Picasa the way you can with Finder. You look for it in Picasa and then have to look for it in Finder anyway.
For you PC people: Finder is Mac's folder program. It's even searchable with previews of files. I LOVE it.
ANSWER: I have Picasa, but honestly haven't given it a fair chance yet. But maybe that's because I love Finder so much! I use Finder constantly for everything. You type in one word in the Search box and then you can further clarify the search (i.e., "Images" only or whatever).
RESPONSE: Thanks everyone, I truly appreciate your advice and suggestions. I found out I didn't have .png checked, and when I did, a flood of files started coming in! It's like Christmas all over again. Yea! I got my files visible without clicking on each and every one!
QUESTION: I have about 4,000 photos in my iPhoto on my Mac I got for Christmas. Some are photos taken with my camera. Some are photos the kids have sent me, and some are scanned photos or taken from CDs. My problem is I have no idea where to start organizing them. I know iPhoto is great for organizing, but I don't know where to start. I have several hundred different events and don't know how to organize them into albums or just leave them all in events and try to organize the events. Any help would be so appreciated.
ANSWER: I have all my events arranged by name, but I use a naming system that puts the date first. My latest event is named 2010.05.01 Nana's Birthday. I do this because I like for my photos to be in date order, but I have several events of really old family photos that I like at the top of the list because I would never remember that they were scanned in October 2009.
I think arranging photos is a personal preference thing. This is just what I do, and it works for me.
ANSWER: I use iPhoto Library Manager and have set up several different libraries. My main one, I call Photo Library, then I have the one with photos of my grandson called Austin, and so forth. I have a library for my Reunion (this is the genealogy program I use) photos; another library is called Trips Out West (my sister lives in Oregon and my mom lived with her till Feb., and now mom lives with me); another library called Lake Gaston (annual trip with my girlfriends), and on and on. I have nine different libraries. My main library called Photo Library contains pictures of our house here, our flowers, trips we take, etc. I have over 5,500 pictures in that library, and over 6,600 in Austin's library, and the little guy isn't even one year old yet! Using iPhoto Library Manager has made it much easier for me to keep track of my photos. So, that is a rather long explanation of how I organize my photos in iPhoto!
QUESTION: I'm ready to start downloading some digital scrapbooking collections and files (my ScrapSimple Club needs to go somewhere), but where do I download them to? Do these all go into iPhoto? What suggestions do you have for the download organization - by source (Scrap Girls) or what?
ANSWER: I have all my scrapbooking supplies sorted in Finder. You can search using spotlight or there is a search feature built into Finder and, depending on which version of OSX you are running, you can have the thumbnails displayed as the image.
ANSWER: I have all my downloads go into the Downloads folder, and from there I move things around. I put all my digi stuff that isn't tagged yet into a folder within Documents> Digi Stuff> NEW TAG. That is where they stay until I open Picasa and start tagging everything in the NEW TAG folder and then move them into their respective folders within Digi Stuff. My other folders within Digi Stuff are: abrsetc, alphasetc, calendarstuff, elements, fasteners, frames, journalingetc, papers, quickpages, ribbonsetc, stitching, templates and overlays (the latter two are combined into one folder).
Finder is a good way to organize also; I just didn't find it as good as Picasa. Just my personal preference. I can also use Finder to view my digi stuff even though I use Picasa for tagging.
Another thing I do is, at the same time I am moving the new stuff to tag into the NEW TAG folder, I also put the same stuff into another folder I named Copy, then move files. When I get a long list, I move them to an external drive and store them there. So in case my drive crashes or I lose something, I can find it there and put it back into Picasa. Just added insurance.
I tried using iPhoto to organize my digi stuff quite a while ago, and it just didn't work; I had lots of problems. Bridge didn't work for me either. I have tried a few other programs to organize, but so far, Picasa works best for me.
| 
