I have a huge mess and i cant find out how to credit the right person ..

[hitomispouken]

Right now i have a huge supply thats almost in 8 GB of space and i thought i had everything very nice and neat.
My method of organizing everything has been by folders for example
Alphabet, stiches, kits, words, frames, embellishments, etc...
But right now i have downloaded so many freebies around the net and everywhere at the same time that when im using the supply i have i cant figure out who made it cuz i cant fin the txt file from the maker or its just mixed up with other makers stuff.

Have anyone been trhough this problem also? what should i do with all my supply? im not sure if i can still use everything as they were onces freebies and still not being able to credit the person who made it.

What do you do in this situation??

[diturpin]

Have you divided up all the kits? Is that why you don't know who created what? If that is the case, yes, it is very hard to keep up with who created what.

I am not organized :) so I don't have this problem! LOL! But it is a difficult balancing act.

I can't speak for other sites on the web, but here at DSP there are a few organizing tricks built into the file names (the folders) from the store. The freebies here on the site don't necessarily follow these rules.

Each file folder starts out with some numbers and letters...
For Example... 07_K_McKenzieCountry.

By looking at the name I know that this is a Page Kit made by Lauren Bavin. Here's the code:

The first two numbers are the designers "code numbers." You can get a list of them from the store here (http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=3&chapter=30).
The next letter is the type of file (K=Page Kit, W=WordArt, E=Embellishments, A=Add On Pack, T=Template or Quick Click, P=Plopper or Quick Page)
So, without doing anything I can keep my designers sorted by the file folder name and what kind of kit it is.

If I am looking for a specific element, I use Bridge and just search for "lace." Our designers are great about using descriptive names that are usually searchable. If not, I'll sometimes just add the descriptive term to the file name.

A lot of folks use ACDSee which is an organization tool that lets you tag items (ex. ribbon, lace, background, and so on).

Hope that helps a little.

[HeatherH]

Someone else asked the question recently about whether they could still use the supplies if they could not properly credit them and Lauren Bavin, Lead Designer here at DSP said yes. Designers love it when you give credit as much as possible, but if you can't then they understand and you should still use the supplies. She said this is supposed to be a fun hobby so don't stress too much!:)

[Wanda]

I guess it all depends on much time you want to spend trying to sort everything out again. When I first started I made what appears to be a fairly common mistake--I separated my kits by element type and found myself in a situation similar to yours--I couldn't figure out what belonged to what. I finally decided to bite the bullet and work to return everything to the right kit. I did it by using the preview page or contact sheet that comes with most products. It was a painstaking effort but I was eventually able to accomplish it.

But...my stash was probably only about a tenth the size of yours. So, what I might recommend, is unless you really, really (really!!) like the freebies that you just trash them, especially those from sites where you can go back and get them again. Then before you start collecting again look around the DSP site for the many discussions and recommendations for organizing. I use ACDSee and love it--in fact I can't imagine trying to digiscrap without it. You obviously want to be careful not to trash anything you've purchased.

Diturpin's comments about how DSP organizes its products is right on the mark. I've stopped using nearly all my non-DSP products but when I was using them, I ended up organizing them as close as I could to how DSP does it. So, an example would be:

xyzSite_K_kit name (designername[usually FirstinitialLastname])

Good luck. It will definitely be a project but will be worth the time spent when you are able to easily find what you want and be confident that you can properly credit it.

[Lynnie]

And, when you post your layouts - mention that you don't remember the kit/designer and if we know it, then mention in a comment to the layout. YOu can backtrack a little that way :)

Lauren's right, it is a fun hobby, don't stress too much! Credit what you can.

[felynn]

You can use the items even if you don't credit. It's courteous to credit but no one will be mad at you if you don't. The only time you MUST credit is if you want to submit your pages for publication.

Don't stress about it too much and promise yourself from now on to use some sort of system to keep track of the designers. Many designers label the file names with their initials or last name. And you can always post and ask for help with credits in your description.

I keep everything in the original folders and use organizing software to "tag" each item in a category (frame, ribbon, paper, etc). I also use the software to add notes on the designer and kit each item came from. This way I can still find everything I need by looking for a category without having to break up the kits.

The best organizing software (imo) is AcDsee but if you're looking for a free option Picassa is very good.

[Limequilla]

I feel for you, hitomispouken! I didn't split any kits, but I have all kinds of things in all different directories and my mess is more disorganization and finding what I want when I need it.

I started trying to divide my stuff into colors which seemed a good way to sort. Brights and pastels, then the color, but I never figured out how to use Picassa and I get dizzy scrolling up and down with it.

For the people who tag their items by categories, what categories do you use? I was once in chat and somebody started reeling off their lists -- Oh, my, it was beautiful. Ribbons, bows, frames, but then sorted by other tags. Lace ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, well, you can imagine the depth it went into. I was speechless. (but only because I was trying to figure out how to copy her list. LOL!)

Edited to add: Never mind on my question -- I went down a couple of threads and there is exactly the answer to my question posted by Neko.

[felynn]

Categories is a really personal thing I think. Some people can not function unless they have stuff tagged in such detail that it would drive other people nuts. I'm kind of in the middle I think. A great place for "organizing styles" is digiscrapinfo.com. They are pretty much dedicated to tutorials for ACDsee but their organizing hints and tips can be used with or without the software. Here are some links to various styles of organizing:
Organizing styles (http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/joomla/acdsee-photo-manager/organizing-styles)

There are also tons of threads here at DSP on the subject. It comes up a lot.

[Kathleen]

I agree categories is a personal thing, but I found I started with the things I was always looking for - frames, tags/tabs, journaling elements, flowers, and kind of built from that. I think your organization system evolves as your scrapping comfort does.

[Janet]

If you want to just start fresh - just email the store (mailto:store@digitalscrapbookplace.com) and ask that all of your orders be refreshed. Then you can start there with downloading those items. It won't help with any bonuses you've earned, but it should at least help to pare it down.

[Wanda]

Well, I probably overstated in my original reply--I didn't mean that you necessarily HAVE TO get to a place where you know where everything came from. I'm just more than a little compulsive when it comes to organizing things so wanted to explain how I ended up fixing my problem.