Rats!

[ClickyBang]

Not the cute kind that tickle, either, the kind you say when you really want to shout something age restricted instead!

Yesterday I wiped my laptop and reinstalled my operating system. I remembered to back everything up before I began, and my computer is now set up so that any future hard drive fiddling will leave my personal files untouched.

I just finished restoring my image folder - the one that contains all my photos, scrap kits and random clipart - and installing the photo manager that I've been using that is just perfect for tagging... I then went looking for the database file that had all my tags loaded into it and guess what... :annoyed: no file.

I now have over 5000 images to retag!

The whole idea of getting an EHD has rocketed up my list of priorities, believe me :mad:

[Leslie]

Crikey mate.

My laptop crashed a few days ago two days after I had backed up onto all three of my EHDs.

So I feel for you. :)

[thecharmed01]

Owch!!!

I havent started tagging my images yet, what do you use?

[nafeesa]

I keep meaning to tag my photos. and I do backup onto my EHD... but I just am so lazy about REAL organizing <sigh>

I'm in a scrapping slump. Maybe i'll just organize for a while LOL

[scamptx]

LOL, Rebekah--I'm on overwhelm, so that's all I've been doing. Trying to figure out the best way to organize on the Mac (a challenge!) and can't seem to move into create mode.

I did learn something new though--for those of you who have Adobe Bridge, if you tag with keywords there, it becomes part of the meta data and stays with the product.

Now I've only tested this on my Mac, so don't know how it shows up on PC, but I'm pumped with this little piece of info!

[nafeesa]

aww scamp! don't get too overwhelmed! :)

i love meta data tags. in Windows I can use my windows explorer to add meta data tags to my images, and I am doing this while reorganizing.

[thecharmed01]

Oooh I have bridge, but I have no idea what it does LOL

What does it dooooo?

[GrandmaCrys]

I keep meaning to tag my photos. and I do backup onto my EHD... but I just am so lazy about REAL organizing <sigh>

I'm in a scrapping slump. Maybe i'll just organize for a while LOL

Hurry - Nafeesa - get yourself to my house! You could be in *Tagging Heaven*! :D

I'm in a scrapping AND organizing slump.

Matter of fact, all the chatter about organizing sounds like it's being spoken in a foreign language! :help: :help: *Meta Data*??? :confused: I'm so computer illiterate. :(

I love Bridge too, for tweaking my photos, but for organizing? Where to begin? :worried: :worried:

[scamptx]

I have tagged all my kits in Bridge with the designer name. (That's only the first step, I haven't had time to go further...:() What I like about that is that now every paper, element, piece and particle in the kit has the designer's name in the meta data.

My next step is to figure out how I want to tag, then this is what I'm going to do:

Open Pages (for a PC, MS Word ) and type the keywords that make sense to me. CS3 and CS4 support keyword hierarchy so here’s an example…

Fasteners
Frames
[tab]Corners
[tab]Frame Clusters
Paper
Ribbons

[tab] = an actual tab, not the brackets and letters! In this case, Corners & Frame Clusters are subfolders to Frames.

Save your file as .txt. Then from Bridge, open the Keywords palette. (On the default workspace, it’s in the lower right section hiding behind the Metadata tag. Once in the Keywords palette, right-click the down arrow on the right side of the bar. Scroll down and select ‘Import’ or ‘Clear and Import’ based on whether you want to retain the keywords you already have. Select the .txt file you just saved and you have keywords!

To do this with the designers, my text file looked like this:

Designers
[tab]02 DSP Designers
[tab]05 Suzanne Walker
[tab]04 Tina Chambers
[tab]06 Kim Liddiard

and on down the list. (My last entry is 99 for non DSP stuff which is about three things, I think!)

Lauren also posted a tutorial for smart folders (which may only be CS4) here (http://create4u.blogspot.com/2008/11/technique-tuesday-smart-collections-in.html).

And here's (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Bridge/3.0/WSBCB2D1F5-98B8-45cc-950A-58E8347FD2F8a.html)the Adobe help for using keywords in Bridge.

I'm still learning about Bridge, but as a new Mac user, it's quickly becoming my organizer of choice...

(This thread should prolly be moved over to the tools and organization section--:yes:)

[shazzt]

My sympathies on losing your stuff - I have had that happen and it is not fun!

I use Bridge tag too- although I have to say that I don't spend a lot of time on it. Scrapbooking stuff I rely on using the file names for searching most of the time. DSP is pretty good at giving things meaningful names. I am trying to get better at tagging my photos though!! You do need a fast machine though - Bridge can be slow otherwise (although CS4 is a vast improvement).

[ClickyBang]

Man, I'm as terrible at keeping up with threads as I am at actually tagging things! In the two months since I first started re-tagging, I think I've done about five hundred files - only 4500 to go, not counting the bits and bobs that I've been picking up along the way since!

I think part of the problem is that I've also decided to change the image managing program that I use - the new one is able to write to metadata, so the tag will be forever etched in the code of the image - but it's not as fast to tag things as before.

The thing about choice... you can keep changing your mind (and creating more work for yourself!)

[scamptx]

Yep. I am right there with you!

What program did you change to? (I like to make sure that I know all the choices!)

[ClickyBang]

Yep. I am right there with you!

What program did you change to? (I like to make sure that I know all the choices!)

I use linux, so I have a range of programs available that most people would never have heard of - I switched from KPhotoAlbum to DigiKam, which comes with most default KDE installations. It's really easy to navigate, and can export straight to Flickr and online sites etc. And the best is it's all free, hehe (although there is a bit of a learning curve at the beginning).

[shazzt]

I think that using the metadata to tag is definitely the way to go. Relying on databases is so ..... unreliable :(

[scamptx]

The more I play in Bridge the more I'm liking it. I love the fact that my tags go to the metadata, and I'm finding it really easy to jump around so I can mix and match elements and such. So far I've tagged EVERYTHING! by designer, and have tagged the obvious word art and overlays. Those are things that I like to be able to search fast...

I'd love to hear how anyone else uses Bridge to organize. (I may have said that before! :rolleyes:) And pseudo_nz, I admire your computer skills! I pat myself on the back just for knowing enough to understand what you're talking about, but realize that the level of knowledge needed to work with it is not in my immediate future! :D

[Carla]

I guess that I am more illiterate than I thought! You gals are speaking Greek to me. First...what is tagging and why?

All of my kits are neatly arranged on my EHD in folders named by Designer. I have so many kits that it is hard to keep up with them. Some, I haven't used in forever!

[scamptx]

Carla, before I changed over to Mac, I was using ACDSee to organize my kits. The advantage for me is that I can see more than one kit, or elements from several kits, or lots of word art without having to open every folder to see what's there.

Tagging is adding a keyword to something --a file, element, paper and/or anything-- so that it's searchable. How you do that depends on what you have available in the way of software. The latest that I've read about is Picassa--it's free, and lots of folks seem to think it's working well. I have PSCS4, and have been learning about Adobe Bridge, and that is working well for me.

I don't do a lot of tagging because I'm a) too lazy, b) want it to be perfect, and c) don't really use tags as extensively as I could even if I did have everything tagged. I do like to be able to search all the word art I have, and I do like to be able to find overlays. Lots of times a Page Kit has a bit of word art in it, or an overlay. Those can stay buried in the kit and forgotten, but if it's tagged, then when you do a search for word art, that word art will show up too.

I'm not really good at explaining things--I'm more of a show and tell person. Hopefully someone more skilled than I am can come along and perhaps make this clearer. I'm also in the baby stages of learning what I can do on Bridge.

BTW, I have all my kits filed by designer as well. Makes life easier, I think!

[ClickyBang]

And pseudo_nz, I admire your computer skills! I pat myself on the back just for knowing enough to understand what you're talking about, but realize that the level of knowledge needed to work with it is not in my immediate future! :D

I'm a self-confessed geek, but not a very good one - I'm very much an end-user, and have arrived at whatever semi-competent level of computing skills by poking around and breaking things more often than not, lol.

That said, I'm in complete and utter awe of the amazing skills that people have with their graphics programs. I might be able to punch a couple of commands into a terminal, but it's nowhere near as pretty as some of the layouts about the place!