Problem

Lots of images and files. Lots of time wasted trying to find the one. I like viewing stuff with thumbnails on in Windows Explorer.

Ways of organizing folders:

or

Recently I’ve started doing the latter. Someone would ask for an animation that I created some time ago and I would remember it but not the exact when. But I would remember I did it in Flash. The way the files are organized:

For example, for images that are for a monthly change out, it is “082005 Phone” for the hot new article about a new phone.

Of course I quickly learned the problem with [month[day]year]. Yep. Sorting. Now all my stuff (and I just redid all my stuff at home) to be [yyyymmdd]. It needs the leading zeros. Sort is much easier that way.

I’ve tried out a few ways of organizing all my images at home (photos imported straight from the camera, scans, illustrator files, scanned drawings, flash files, etc), but came back to Picasa again recently.

Set-up

After downloading the program, it goes through all the files. Since it doesn’t index Illustrator or Flash, I’m making thumbnails in .jpg format that is the same name as the software-specific original file. For example: widgetintroduction.jpg for widgetintroduction.fla. Of course, I could export the Flash stuff into something Picasa can index. I’m not sure what the contact sheet would look like then. At least when I make the .jpg I can pick the most interesting part.

File formats Picasa indexes:

• JPG
• GIF
• TIF
• PSD
• PNG
• BMP
• RAW (including NEF and CRW)
• MPG
• AVI
• ASF
• WMV
• MOV

(My digital camera is not all that fancy, so RAW isn’t a factor for me. And at work all the images I look at are jpg or tiff.)

Folders

After I saw the sheer amount of how many images I have, I wondered how to organize it all. So I started moving things around according to the projects] > [medium] > [project] scheme. For example: projects > web > FooCompany > introduction.fla.

Keywords

That works so far. I have a lot (though not nearly “enough” or as many as professionals) of photographs. They’re all in one big folder right now in date naming scheme (20050826 0003.jpg). Good thing about that sort order is that I can select a bunch of images and Ctrl-K to insert the same keywords on it. I’ve also added a key color when it jumps out at me. The keywords are inserted into the EXIF which means someone sharing my computer can search on the same keywords.

Good vs Bad

We all have the good stuff and the not so good stuff. Picasa lets me star stuff. I would love to rate it but one star will work. I can star the production-ready or even things that should go in a portfolio.

Captions

Neat idea, but doesn’t go with the file so haven’t done much with it. It would come in handy if I want to publish via Picasa’s web page maker though.

Labels

Haven’t played with this too much since the data doesn’t transfer to another computer. But I’m thinking of doing it for virtual folders. I can see labeling something “SXC” for everything I posted on sxc.hu. Though that might be best as a keyword. What about a label of “Wedding Day 2005.” That way I can label the photos and the website stuff that I made for that day.

Backup

We should back up our data. How to organize all that? Well, Picasa comes with Backup CD ability. When I make these CDs, I will then put them in my folder. The folder has the rings that open and close so I can add or remove sheets. I can also add a table of contents at the front. I’m thinking this table of contents can just be a contact sheet printed by Picasa. Or if that’s too much, I may just use a basic label system with those stick-on tabs on some of the sheets. I’m unsure of what the labels would be but it’d have to be generic enough to work for a variety of CDs.