New to ACDSEE

[monandrews]

I just purchased ACDSEE 2009 and I'm ready to start organizing. My question is...Do I need to catalog files before I do anything else, or can I just start organizing? Thanks for your help!!!

[carlalee]

I've been using ACDSee PM for just over a year now. I guess I never have cataloged anything BUT everything is tagged. :-) -c-

[hejeva]

No need to catalog, just start organizing.

[Meryl]

Congrats on purchasing ACDSee - you will love it :) Do remember though, back up and optimize (in that order) regularly, one thing ACDSee is not renowned for is stability, you need to have something to go back to if you have a problem.

Do take a few minutes to read this tutorial (http://digiscrapinfo.com/wordpress/2008/01/22/speed-tagging-with-kristi/), it is a wonderful system and will save you lots of time!

If I were atarting out I'd also be glad to use one of the downloadable organizing styles (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/joomla/acdsee-photo-manager/organizing-styles) available.

Happy organizing!

[landofoz]

thanks meryl,i am a NKOTB and everything seems to be happening at once.
i just purchased Acdsee before i went in the comp, so i have not had much time to use it but the few times i did , it crashed or i get a message saying Acdsee has encountered a problem and we have to close. but i did read your tutorial and printed it out so that will be a big help to start with.

[kaylaugh]

Hi, I would love to help you get your ACDSee working properly. Is it crashing when you first open it or only when you attempt to open certain folders? The first thing I would check is the filepath length. The folder it starts on or that you attempt to browse to might have a file in it that exceeds 255 characters...now that's the entire length of the file path from the drive letter to the end of the file name. So for example:

"S:\Digital Scrapbooking Library\DigitalScrapbookingCollectionMoreScrapbook ing_Kits\DDE\DDE_Creative_Team_Spring_Doodles\DDE_ Creative_Team_Spring_Doodle_CollectionDDE_Creative _Team_Spring_Doodle_Collection\Doodle_Word_Art_Blo ssom_Bloom_Margarete_Antonio_DDE.png"

would be too long. You can see if you have a lot of folders nested inside folders just to get to your scrapbooking supplies. You can use Windows Explorer to un-nest or rename folders to get that length down if you think that's the issue. (Right-click on a file and choose 'Properties' then copy the location and paste into a word processing program...there's usually a status bar at the bottom that will tell you how many characters long it is.)

If that doesn't seem to be the problem, here's a link to a tutorial (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/joomla/component/content/article/51-errors/135-locking-or-crashing-acdsee-initial-install-errors) that might help. HTH and let me know if you have any questions.

Kristi

[faerywings]

Hi LandofOZ- glad to have you join the ACDsee Addicts.
How are you doing with Kaylaugh's instructions? If you need any more help, please post back here or you can post over at digiscrapinfo.com :)

[monandrews]

Thank you for your help and advice!! A special thanks to Meryl for the tips on backing up and optimizing. I am going to print the tutorial and start using. I just set it up to work with two computers using a EHD. I got that from digiscrapinfo.com (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/joomla/acdsee-photo-manager/common-questions/52-updating-or-transferring/191-2-computer-how-do-i-use-acdsee-photo-manager-on-2-computers-with-the-same-digital-kits-on-a-ehd)

I am going to start tackling everything.....photos and kits. I think I'll start w/photos.

Oh, does anyone have advice on loading new kits?

[kaylaugh]

My best advice is to have a place to unzip new kits to. then you can tag them then move to wherever they belong in your file system. This way you have a workflow and can keep track of what you've tagged and what you haven't. But this isn't really necessary until you're actually tagging your kits (you said you're starting with photos.) As far as tackling your main stash, just start at the top of the folder list and work your way down. It's pretty easy to find where you left off...one folder has tagging and the next one doesn't...lol! Hope that made sense!

Kristi

[monandrews]

It makes lots of sense!!! Thank you to everyone for your help. I started this afternoon during my kids nap time and I got all my pictures from 2005 and half of 2006 tagged. It's going pretty quickly!!!

[jennilynn10]

I'm just starting with ACDSee also. Thanks to everyone for all the great info.

[MaryDeb]

I am almost through my 30 day Free Trail of ACDSee 2008. Hmm wonder if I should now step up and buy 2009 instead..?

[faerywings]

Mary Deb- are you using Photo Editor 2008?
Photo Manager 2009 is a different software.
PE is the photo editing and PM is the organizing.
HTH!

[MaryDeb]

I am using the Photo Editor 2008, it does everything!