How do you organize your alphas in ACDSee?

I use ACDSee (and I'm not going to quit, so don't try to change me!!! LOL). But I've had the hardest time coming up with a system to tag and organize my alphas. I'm *mostly* a kit scrapper, but sometimes I do like to mix-n-match alphas with other kits, but it takes FOREVER to go through all my kits and find an alpha that works. And when I've tried tagging alphas with ACDSee, somehow I've totally messed up and I just have a big mess. So anyway, I'm about to take on the task of figuring out that big mess and organizing those alphas. So what do you do? Does anyone have a system that works well?? TIA!!

HAHAHAHAHA - my line was going to be - I don't anymore, I quite using it and so should you! LOL

I only did it by designer name, color and material. That way I could find a black alpha or a metal alpha or a paper alpha. Otherwise, I didn't do them much more than that.

I'm super lazy, I just tag all the A's as alphas. That way I just klick on the alpha category and I see everything. By only tagging one letter it doesn't get too overwhelming. For CT stuff I tag with designer and store too.

Alphas are one thing I still tag, because alot of times I have a particular style of alpha I wanna use and if it's not in the kit I'm using then I wanna be able to find it!!!

I use to just have an alpha tag but it got to overwhelming, then one day last year this subject came up and Nikki posted her method (categories)and I stoled it....even though it wasn't for ACDSee!!! Here is her post

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/forum/showpost.php?p=290819&postcount=4

Here is the whole thread incase you might want to investigate others methods!!!!

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18496&highlight=alpha

ETA: I will tag the "sheet" if they are not separated but if they are I only tag the "A"!!!

I tag the A. I tag by style - 2D, 3D Silhoutte, 3D Embellished. I also tag for material - fabric, acrylic, chipboard, stamp/doodle, metal, sticker, glitter, etc and by shape - round or square.

Alphas, stitching, word art & kit previews are all I tag. I don't break up kits so if I dont' tag the alpha in it I may never find it again.

um, I'm a bit.. well.. ok, you asked... i think my little obsessive behavior is also in the earlier thread mentioned...

I make contact sheets, if the alphas do not come in one sheet, because sometimes the alphas are a mix of upper and lower, and I like to see the whole sheet, because sometimes the color is not uniform throughout. It's a function in the create menu...

Usually 3 contact sheets - lower, upper, numbers & symbols / scripts. So, method is just to make the contact sheet, then tag with the below categories. Then blanket caption and author the whole kit / alpha and "put it away".

Categories: basically just two large ones, with subsections - Alpha (lowercase, uppercase, number, symbols, scripts[int'l] ) and then the general Materials (cardboard, chipboard, corkboard, denim, doodle, epoxy & glass, fabric, felt, glitter, metal & wire, tinfoil, ribbon & tied, wood)

there is some redundancy... and I have in no way finished tagging my stash... but if i get at least the previews and contact sheets of alphas tagged, i feel like i can find most anything... HTH!

I tag the A and 1 from each alpha.

I tag the A and 1 and the symbols. I then tag the color, designer, and style.

I have lots of style categories for alpha but am at work so I don't have them all here. Those I remember.
Lowercase
Uppercase
Brush
Script
Metal
Basic
Chipboard
Square
Circle
Teeny
Paint
Template
Fancy
Office: notepaper
Office: kraft
Office: cardboard
Felt
Mixed: color
Mixed: case
Mixed: style

I literally collect alphas so this is the only way I can remember to use them.

I can put the rest of my categories up tonight if anyone is interested...

I'd love to see the rest of your categories

Warning: tagging in ACDSee is practically a hobby for me (heck I get more tagging done than scrapbooking....)





Under the bling heading: I have glitter and beads. Under fabric, I have denim and felt.