How do you stay organized?

Post your tips & tricks here for creating slide shows with ProShow Producer. This could include suggestions for style and content in addition to working with the software itself
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How do you stay organized?

Postby KatzInAZ » Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:18 am

Hi!

As the volume of slide styles, templates, backgrounds, images, masks, frames, etc. grows, I'm finding it more and more difficult to remember exactly what I have. Sometimes I end up recreating a style that I already had - not a great use of time. OR - it takes forever to sort through the templates to figure out what they do, which I want etc. etc.

So - I'm putting the question out there - how do you keep all of your resources organized so they are easy to find and utilize.

Thanks!


Kathy

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Re: How do you stay organized?

Postby anitaemile » Mon Aug 16, 2010 10:01 am

Hi Kathy

I can only give you info on how I organize my proshow stuff. Maybe you will get some ideas on how to do it, ( or not to do it :lol: LOL)..Under styles I categorize all styles ( you probably already knew you can make your own categories) so they are easier to find .
I keep one main folder with styles, and that folder has a separate folder for each style pack . All style folders are named by the style pack and have a number first. Eg: 001 memorial styles. 002 travel styles, etc.
In that folder i keep everything I could retrieve in case something crashes. ( the styles and their graphics )
That folder is on an external drive.
I also have main folder with all graphics that I use when I am creating styles. , . I often delete graphics in the main folder if I haven't used them for a while, knowing I can still find them back on the external drive.

Images go in folders and are grouped by year and month ( 1008001 would be 2010, august , picture 1) )under pictures, and older ones are also on the external drive. Sometimes I make sub folders for images I use for styles I am working on, and usually delete these when I am done.

When I create styles I pull from my image folders and from my graphics folder, and make more as I go in photo shop. Saving the new ones in the graphics folder and with the styles once they are done, on the external drive.
So every created style has his own folder , named with a number in front of it.This folder has both the style files, and the graphics on the external drive and I pretty much work from the main graphics folder , adding and deleting while I am working.


Anita.

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Re: How do you stay organized?

Postby KatzInAZ » Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:59 pm

Hi Anita,

Thanks for the tips. I haven't religiously categorized the styles so that they make sense to me - so that's something I'll tackle right away. I have graphics on a separate drive, but not the styles - great idea! I like the idea of having a folder for each if it requires additional graphics to keep the style and graphics together. That would help as well.

My graphics (scrapbook papers, graphics, masks, frames etc.) is huge - so I'm trying to sort out how to remember what I actually have. I started trying to create contact sheets to flip through -but that quickly became cumbersome.

Need to figure out that - and if there is a way to do something similar for the styles themselves (maybe just being more descriptive with the name/category would work :) )

Again - thanks for the ideas! I appreciate it.

Kathy

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Re: How do you stay organized?

Postby BarbaraC » Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:42 am

Kathy, after having been forced into meticulous categorization, I can tell you this: However you decide to do it, it'll be wrong in certain situations. If all images are stashed with their respective shows/templates/styles, when you go looking for an image, you won't find it unless you can remember what you had used it for. I'm extremely familiar with that particular scenario. Eventually I realized that duplication is the answer. I still stash those images with the items where they were used, but I also have a monster "Resources" folder that's divided into sub-folders that make sense to me. If I'm looking for dogs, I can find them, or if I'm looking for fabric, I can find it because each of those things has its own clearly named folder.

Duplicating is good, and tripling is even better. I trust neither my computer nor my memory. :(

Barbara
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Posts: 133
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Location: Arizona

Re: How do you stay organized?

Postby KatzInAZ » Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:51 am

Great suggestions Barbara - thanks!

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