Tagging elements?

[ayaandjudah]

I've seen a lot of threads here about organizing elements, etc.

Can someone explain how to do this?

I ask because I tend to use kits but sometimes need something extra. Would my folders no longer be by kit?

Or could I go to the tag system after I use a kit and am looking for something extra?

And what program do you use? Are they free? Did it take you hours to tag everything? I have a lot of GB of stuff.....

[AmberK]

I use ACDSee to organize all of my kits and I love it! Its super easy to tag things- just drag and drop into the appropriate category. I leave all of my kits intact too. ACDSee is not free but I think they have a trial version and they often have sales on the program too!

[Scrapper007]

I have tried both ACDsee and Picasa but they both ran incredibly slow for me (and often crashed). I am now using Windows Photo Gallery and have had no problems!!

[ColleenSwerb]

I'm a kit scrapper, but I have favorite element packs and alphas as well. I started separating out all my alphas into one big alpha folder in my main SSD folder (I organize all my SSD stuff by designer otherwise). I started a favorite elements folder as well, for my frames, stitches, etc. I only pull out full packs of things to put into different folders, I don't separate my kits.

I have ACDSee and never tag anything anymore because I just don't scrap that way. I find a photo I want to scrap, and then go through my designer folders to find a kit that speaks to me.

I feel like that's confusing to understand. Here's more of a visual.
Digi-scrap Folder
SSD
~>Alphas
~~>XYZ alpha by Designer
~~>XYZ alpha by designer
~>Elements
~~>ABC elements by designer
~~>ABC elements by designer
~>Templates
~>QP Albums
~>Designer
~~>Kits
~~>Elements/Etc

[mummytothree]

I use ACDSee too but I only tag previews now. When I first got it I spent weeks (yes weeks not hours) tagging my stuff (and I only had about 60GB) in hundreds of catogories. Then I got a new laptop and didn't have ACDSee on it for a while and realized I wasted all that time for nothing!!!! I just didn't venture outside of kits very often and when I did it was for things I used over and over again (frames, certain staples, stitches) and I knew where to find those!!!

So when I finally put ACDSee in my laptop I only tagged previews into "Event categories": ie Summer, Spring, Halloween, Christmas, Boy kit, Girl Kit ect...... The only thing I am really religous about tagging now are my photos, it's so nice to click a category for my oldest DD and have all her pictures from the last 8 years right at my fingertips!!!!

[kristijoy]

I use Windows Photo Gallery (it's free). You tag the files, but don't actually move the files around. I keep all my kits physically in folders by Designers Name. So if I find something I like in the tags I can then go look in the folder at the rest of the kit. I do this alot.