After many years and various ways of organizing my digital files, I have finally settled on the system I use now.
Let me preface it by saying that in the almost 15 years of digital scrapping I have over 2000 layouts. I print these layouts as 12×12 prints and put them in Creative Memories strap-hinge albums. I have my albums sorted by themes.
So I have a folder called Digital Layouts. I have 3 sub-folders called _600x600 Files, _Layouts, _PSP Layout Files. Within each of these sub-folders, I have more sub-folders. The same folders in each. Each of those folders are named by the theme of the album where the layouts will be put when printed. For example, Vacations, Disney (which is a sub-folder under my Vacations folder because it is an album on its own), Dogs (with a sub-folder for my current dog Peyton), House, Family (with sub-folders for 4 different family names) to name a few.
As I work on the psp file of the layouts, they are saved in the PSP Layouts folder in a “to be sorted” folder. The finished jpg files are saved in a “to be uploaded” folder in the Layouts folder. And, a 600×600 sized copy of the jpg is saved in a “to be sorted” folder in the 600×600 folder. When I upload the files to my printing website, I then move the files to the correct theme folder in all 3 folders. Then I have empty “to be uploaded” and “to be sorted” folders. I found that putting the layouts in the “to be uploaded” folder helped me keep track of what layouts need to be uploaded since I did in the past print a layout or 2 more than once because I didn’t realize it had already been printed!
With this system, I have the pspimage file in the case that I find I have to make changes. I can then resave the file as a new jpg to be uploaded. That is why I don’t upload for printing immediately either! I have the 600×600 folders because I have kept a spreadsheet tracking what kits/templates I use since 2008 and I put the small image file in there for each layout. And, if I need to share a layout with a gallery, I have the right size file right there!
Yes, saving the pspimage file takes up disk space but external hard drive storage isn’t that expensive these days. I have some project albums that are “complete” so those folders get moved to a backup external hard drive to free up space on my hard drive. And, the large jpg and small jpg files for the albums are also moved to the backup. In other words, the files on my computer are mainly for current projects.
Hope this makes sense!
