Paperclipping: The Video Podcast | Design Your Story

I agree with Anna that I don’t like to spend time organizing digital files. It’s supremely tedious… I just put kits in folders to use and purge every once in a while. Otherwise, I also use spotlight to do free searches. I do this for my photos and digital design elements, because there’s always new materials coming in, so I’m on to the next thing…no looking back!

I’m on a little bit into the episode, but I wanted to comment about organization. I use ACDSee for my digi supply tagging and I don’t find it time consuming at all, and I tag EVERYTHING — every button, bow and paper (sorted by colour). My “trick” is to tag each product preview as it’s purchased but then I only tag every other item in the kit once I’m about to use it. I can tag a kit in about 3-4 minutes. Beyond the benefit of having items tagged, I can quickly scan through my supplies and find kits that have never been tagged, and I know that I’ve never used them. And, if there’s a kit that is one or more years old that has never been tagged, odds are I’m never going to use it and I can go ahead and delete it. (And hopefully make more refined purchasing decisions in the future!)

Interesting discussion on tagging!

As a designer, I don’t tag my items because until this show, I didn’t know that was an option for me. I mean, I’m aware of what meta data is, but I don’t mess with it. I don’t intend to start tagging my designs because I think this is really something that is best left to each individual customer. What if I don’t do things the way someone likes? Then I’ve wasted my time and their time. And how am I to know what organizing system they like to use? Kinda confusing to think about doing this on my end. LOL!

It seems like with things like this, everyone has their own preferences… and many times (because it is so easy to get a hold of designers’ ears in the digital community), designers feel pressured into doing things a certain way to keep customers happy. Some customers want all their files named in a certain order and they get upset when a designer doesn’t follow their pattern. Sure, it would be a pain to find out you have to rename 30 files! But there are programs out there that will rename files for you in under a second. Maybe someone likes files zipped up in a certain way and they get upset that a designer doesn’t do it “like everyone else” because they have to move things around a bit after unzipping. Or maybe they want previews included in the downloads and there wasn’t one. Conversely, I’ve heard people complain that previews were included. You just can’t win, really! ;) Either someone is unhappy and having to run back to the shop to save a copy of your preview or they are deleting the preview you included, grumbling at you. LOL!

It seems like there are so many potentially good things we could do with our files–it’s almost overwhelming as a designer. I think most designers are doing good to remember to create their items at 300 dpi, save their files to be both high quality and as small as possible (trimming .png files and whatnot), zip things up properly (with out those pesky extra Mac files, Izzy!) and to keep downloads under 50MB a file.

I think that all designers try to present people with a nice, clean, orderly and quality product. What a customer would like to do with our items after purchasing them (tagging, renaming, reorganizing) is really up to them! Yes, there may be a little “Assembly Required” once you download a digital product. But the actions a customer may be going through after she unpacks a product are things she wants to do for herself so that she’ll be able to find her supplies again. When you get into that realm, there are so many options, preferences and personal tastes… it makes me dizzy to think about trying to please so many people! I think there’s a little DIY action involved when you want to be that organized with your own scrapbooking supplies. ;)

I really like the Copy and Close script and Supply Tracker scripts used together from this site (free).
http://speedscraps.blogspot.com/p/free-scripts.html

I use Anna’s Credit Tracker too. It’s fabulous. It takes a little setup work, but once it’s set up, it’s all automatic. I tag my kits as I download them, and I never have to worry about it again. If I use something from that kit, it’s tracked. It even creates the bb or html code for you. And, you can quickly toggle it on and off, which I love because sometimes my actions or design work gets in the way. So I can turn it on when I’m scrapping and turn it back off later.

Enjoyed the show, as always!

One thing that makes it difficult for designers to pre-tag kits is that PNG files do not store metadata. It’s a big limitation. So, a designer could theoretically embed tagging data into JPG papers and even PSD/TIF templates and quick pages, but not elements. And, yet, the elements probably take the most time to tag. Because I’m a kit scrapper most of the time, I find it easier to just tag the previews with some general key words, like color and theme, and maybe with a few items that stand out from that kit. For me, that’s good enough. I don’t have time to waste tagging and organizing stuff that I might not ever come back to, so this method for me is a good compromise.

As for an action that would help you tag supplies, that’s really far beyond the scope of actions. Actions are really just a pre-recorded series of steps. Now, a script could potentially help with something like that. Anna Forrest @ PickleberryPop knows her way around scripts. But, she’d still have the same limitation with the PNGs not being able to hold a tag. And, speaking of Anna, she has out some awesome new “title builders” that use your alpha letters to create titles. It’s pretty sweet: http://www.pickleberrypop.com/shop/product.php?productid=8265&cat=0&page=1

On to sticker actions… I could absolutely write a sticker action. I’ve used Atomic Cupcakes sticker action in the past. It adds a bit of bevel to the shape and a drop shadow, I think. But, Steph, if you want to send me your process I’d be happy to whip you up an action that does what you are talking about. That’s the perfect application for an action. Anytime there’s something you do over and over, and action can probably save you time doing it. I love actions for things like resizing, trimming files, and even making my previews. If you ever think, I’m tired of doing this one thing over and over, then an action might just be the answer! And, if you have any action ideas, feel free to send them to me. I do create custom actions and if the action has broader appeal, ie. I can sell it, you get it for free. (I’m not trying to sound like an advertisement LOL. I am just passionate about saving time and one way that we [photoshop/elements users] can all do that is with actions!)

doh! Shows not shoes :)

1) Veer.com always has really good, high quality fonts, but they are pretty expensive. Myfonts.com fonts are usually pretty good. I tend to find a foundry that I know is good and stick with it. I have learned though, that there are reasons expensive fonts are expensive.2) From the research I have done, Post Script fonts are becoming obsolete. Open Type fonts are amazing to work with, but you need to have a version of PSCS or another program that will allow you to access the the extra features included in the OT fonts.3) I scrolled through that post and don’t see a card….? I would suggest download the app for your iPhone called “What The Font” and you can take a photo of the type (or upload the image) and it will find likely font matches for you. It’s done by the people at Myfonts.com. You can also send them images and have them try and match it up for you. I would love to know if it works for you!

I’m sure it’s flipboard you are thinking of. It’s wonderful!

I’m hoping someone can help me with some issues I’m having. I use an iMac and it’s almost full. I’m a paper scrapper who’s also been collecting some digi supplies that I’m dabbling in. A computer upgrade isn’t in the cards right now, so I think I need to move some digital supplies and/or photos onto an external drive. I already back up everything with Time Machine. What’s a good external drive for a Mac to relieve some of my space issues? Also, would you recommend something different for Time Machine (as I use two that I rotate in and out of the safe-deposit box every quarter, and one has died and needs to be replaced.)

So to sum up, I could use a recommendation for an external drive for a Mac to move some stuff off my hard drive. Also, how do people do this? I have 18-thousand-plus photos in iPhoto, but I really hesitate to move any completely off my computer. And, if I move digital supplies off, do I just open them in PSE on my computer? How does that work?

And any different recommendations for a Time Machine drive?
Thanks for all the great shows and info!

Thanks for reading my comment on Tagging. Its nice to read what others have to say about this. In terms of organizing my supplies this has been one of the great advantages of moving to digital to me. I have tagged my supplies my type and color. So if its a blue button I have tagged it blue and button so I can find either way. I’m finding that this is really helping me use my stash effectively. One designer who has done tagging in the file is Lie Fhung of http://www.ztampf.com. For the designer I think it would be worth the time to include their name as a tag, as a minimum, so then I could search all my supplies for items by a designer.

I just wanted to say how grateful I am to have these shows to listen to. Being in school and working makes it difficult to find time to do anything but housework and school work with the left over time. The digishow allows me to get a digi-fix each week while I drive or clean. So thanks so much!

One request: I love how Noell has a cohost on the roundtable. Any chance of making Katie a permanent voice on the show?

Do you know what else is cool about the snipping tool? When I make a snip of scrapbook pages for inspiration, I not only snip the page, but also the user name, and the credits list. So it’s all in one handy file! It makes it easy to scraplift and to give credit to the original designer later.

I forgot to say that you can get high-resolution copies of Wordles, too, by using the Print option and printing to pdf or svg (you just need to get the appropriate drivers). The svg’s could even be used with electronic cutters… imagine the possibilities!
http://www.wordle.net/faq#pdf

Hey Noell! I love the look of that card, too. I suspect it’s from the 1930′s; I collect vintage packaging so I can spot the decade pretty well :) I think this was probably hand-drawn, but I did spend a few minutes looking for fonts, and here are a few with a similar feel:

http://www.threestepsahead.com/typography.php

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/marksimonson/mostra-nuova/

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/tilde/huxley-vertical/

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/bomparte/sidewalk-cafe/

They’re strongly vertical and a bit deco-y. I’d love to see how you use a cool vintage font like this!

My favorite font site is definitely My Fonts. As I’m becoming a better scrapper, I’m finding that the fonts that I used to think were ‘so cool’ are actually really badly made, and look horrible on my layouts! Plus, if I’m spending money on a font, I have to be pretty dang sure I want it.

I also really like Font Squirrel, which is a sister site to My Fonts. They have really high-quality fonts, that are free. :)

Since Macs moved to OS 10, it’s not important to have postscript fonts any longer. OpenType or TrueType fonts work just as well. The big problem back in the day with fonts was corruption with true type fonts went printed to high-end printing presses. That’s not so much a concern anymore. However, fonts can slow things down, so looking for reputable sources is still a good idea.

I am using an Iomega 2 TB with my iMac and it works wonderfully! We actually use a 2TB Time Capsule as our backup for Time Machine.

:) It’s done. Steph gave this away as a little gift to her subscribers at The Daily Digi. If anyone isn’t a subscriber and missed out, it can be found here: http://www.wendyzinescraps.com/blog/2011/01/who-doesnt-love-stickers/