Anyone else using ACDSee photo manager?

[faerywings]

Oh my goodness, I am like a kid in the candy store with this one! I have been finding lost pieces and parts to so much of my digi-stash.

I've been ACDSee Photo Manager to organize my digiscrapping supplies & photos for about 5 months now. It's flexible for cataloging & powerful for searching.

A couple of great things about it are that you can search for whatever you've tagged and view white png files. I love how I can find just about anything I need with just one click!

You can find tons of helpful tutorials at digiscrapinfo.com, like Getting Started and Organizing your Alphabets. And a 30 day trial can be downloaded at the top of the tutorial page at that site.

DigiScrapInfo.com has a lot of helpful information related to digital scrapbooking. Nothing is being sold there. Just good advice when you get stumped while digiscrapping and organizing your stash.

You can pm me if you need more information.

[Lauri]

Yep, I have been doing the 30 day trial for almost a month now, ever since I found that site and their tutorials on the program! It is a nifty program, once you figure out how it all works!! But the tuts sure help, and I'm going to buy the full version once the trial ends, since I've organized so many of my kits now!!

[Dawn6599]

I have the trial and am trying to decide whether to buy or not.

Maybe you guys can answer a question. I have tried keywording and then searching by multiple keywords. Say background, blue. But it does not work. I can search by background and pull up all backgrounds or by color and pull up everything by color but not both. Supposedly you are able to do this using keywords. Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Or is this a bug?

I like the program, but I've been using digitalscraproom and don't want to reorganize everything unless I absolutely love the program.

[Lauri]

I don't organize by keyword, I've been tagging my files under categories. But I notice even with tags it is inclusive - for example, if I tick the background and blue boxes, it will show ALL my backgrounds, not just the blue one. I have to just tick the blue box under the category backgrounds to show only the blue ones. Maybe it's the same way with keywords! Hopefully someone will come along who knows more about it and help you!!

[bensenc]

Hi Dawn,
Using keywords alone doesn't allow for the flexibility that using categories does. But you should be able to put search in the quick search box for
background blue
and that will pull them up. There options that need to be adjusted though - so that only keywords are searched (because if it includes file names, you can get brads & other things). If you have Hello.com -- I am bensenc & can help you. Switching over to using categories is very fast & I could help you with that.

[bensenc]

I don't organize by keyword, I've been tagging my files under categories. But I notice even with tags it is inclusive - for example, if I tick the background and blue boxes, it will show ALL my backgrounds, not just the blue one. I have to just tick the blue box under the category backgrounds to show only the blue ones. Maybe it's the same way with keywords! Hopefully someone will come along who knows more about it and help you!!

Hi Lauri,
Try out the match any/all option at the top of the right organize pane.

If you use Match Any - it will bring back all blue backgrounds. And Match all will bring back all backgrounds & blue items (probably what you're getting now).

If you have questions or need help - you're welcome to ask at Digiscrapinfo.com

[Dawn6599]

Hi Dawn,
Using keywords alone doesn't allow for the flexibility that using categories does. But you should be able to put search in the quick search box for
background blue
and that will pull them up. There options that need to be adjusted though - so that only keywords are searched (because if it includes file names, you can get brads & other things). If you have Hello.com -- I am bensenc & can help you. Switching over to using categories is very fast & I could help you with that.
Thanks Connie. I decided to go ahead and buy ACD, especially since DSR is now discontinued. I'm a bit disappointed that it can't search multiple keywords like a normal database, even more so since the help file seems to say that it can. (maybe I'm misreading it). But I have been categorizing like crazy and I think it will work well for me ultimately. Thankfully it is very fast to categorize. Much more so than anything else I've tried.

Oh, if you do check this post again...can you tell me if I can open files in PS from within ACD? I have found that I can drag and drop them, but I tend to double click which of course opens the ACD photo editor. Can I customize this or have an "open with..." option?

Thanks for your response. I'll find my way to digiscrapinfo.com eventually ;)

[bensenc]

Hi Dawn,
My sister helped with this .. she's the other half at DigiScrapInfo.com

1) You want to assign your default editor to be PS.
Here's how you set it up:
Configuring the default photo editor --

Go under Tools -> Open in Editor -> Configure Editors
click on Add (browse to your choice, select it)
select it, then click on 'Set as Default'

to use it......... select an item or items & use Ctrl E

*or you can always click & drag your items from Photo Manager over to your photo editing program too

2) For searching for keywords, you are right the Quick Search is a basic search and doesn't do what you want it to do.
If you want to use keywords and search on multiple keywords you need to use the search pane.
View | Search
Expand out the Properties section
Click on Add
This is where I am unsure which keywords you using. ACD has its keywords & IPTC has its keywords. Expand the one you using and select keywords.
Then you can click on <Click to Set> and add one or more keywords
Then you can choose "is any of" or "is all of" (first matches any of the keywords and second forces the match of all keywords)
Click Start

[Dawn6599]

Thanks!

[KrystalW]

I had started the task of organising on my laptop. I was loving it. I have a question for you Connie, Can I organise on my PC and when I get my new laptop transfer it over somehow? That would be a real time-saver.
I look forward to your response.

[KrystalW]

Don't worry. I have just been to your site and have found my answer. Excellent. I will be able to start straight away.

[bensenc]

I had started the task of organising on my laptop. I was loving it. I have a question for you Connie, Can I organise on my PC and when I get my new laptop transfer it over somehow? That would be a real time-saver.
I look forward to your response.

Yes, just back up the database, then transfer the files to the new computer (making sure that the file tree remains the same) and then restore the database.

And with ACDSee's license you can use it on 3 pc's.

[Vivvi]

I had just decided to buy digiscraproom when I found out it had been discontinued. Can you tell me if ACDSee keeps a list of what you use when you do a layout that you can just print out when you've completed it?

I need to be able to find stuff much much quicker than I have the ability to do at present - which is why I'm looking for some really great way to organise everything.

[bensenc]

Hi,
We have found a way for ACDSee to do that. You can read the instructions here. (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/phpmyfaq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=8&id=23&artlang=en)

Also, when I finish a layout, I take a few minutes in Photo Manager & put the items used in the notes about that layout file - so that I can refer back to them later (without printing anything).

[Vivvi]

Hey, thanks. I didn't want to go ahead and buy it if I found I couldn't do what I wanted with it. This sounds like a great solution.

[shazzt]

I have found it to be really helpful - not that I am using anywhere near the features that Connie is (too lazy sigh). But the search feature is so quick that I find it works even if you are lazy (like me!!).

[bensenc]

(Connie's read the help section farrr too much! :) )

Sharon - I think you do a great job with it from reading your posts! Rawk on girl!

[bjc]

it also took me awhile to figure it out...and a LOT OF HELP from connie...thank you so much connie and the website..... also was thinking that if i followed the idea to keeptrack of all the things i use in the lo then can i do a copy and paste and make it a layer in photoshop...so i will have the info when/if i go back to that lo and want to duplicate some of the ideas???

also, can you use acdsee in mac???? or if not how would you organize your scrapbook stuff in mac????

[maryjos]

I do not believe there is a version of ACDSee for Mac. Not sure of a good low-cost program for the Mac. Apeture is the program widely used for digital file management, but it's $300. IView is another but that is $200. ThumbsPlus used to make a Mac version but I think they dropped it. I did find this product for $50 but not sure how good it is:

http://www.mediadex.com/intl/index.htm

[bensenc]

Hi Bobby,
here is what some of us are doing -
http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/phpmyfaq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=7&id=7&artlang=en

And in ACDSee - then I put the info into the jpeg info for that layout.