ACDsee

[tanteva]

Who uses it? How good is it? Will you go crazy before you have everything organized? Is ACDSee 14 the program you should buy if you want to organize your photos and digiscrap supplies?

I get that it's great to organize your photos by subject, quality etc. But how well does it work for organizing digital scrapbooking supplies?

Any input is welcome.

 

[LaurieW]

I use it for mine- both for photos and for digi supplies, it also unzips. Chris -faery- has info on the original on her blog. I believe Jacqueline uses it as well.

 

[CookingMyLife]

I use the Mac App, not the full Mac version though I do have that also. I won the latter.

I like the app a lot and it's great at finding things that aren't even tagged/keyworded.

 

[petey111]

The Mac App version is on sale for $4.99 until Jan. 9th. I thought it was a steal at $12.99 though I hadn't gotten it yet....I couldn't resist at $4.99!

 

[mrstoa]

Happy Christmas everyone.
Yes, I use it Eva and only for digi supplies. I'm way behind in tagging items. You can make it as detailed as you wish. I'll have to find the web site with details later. On my IPad now.
I am still learning but must say if I ever catch up it will be a wonderful tool
At $5 it's a steal!

 

[janedee]

I use it for digi supplies mainly, not so much for photos. It is pretty time consuming to get everything tagged or keyworded. I was lucky that I hadn't built up too much of a stash when I started. Once you're up to date though, its pretty easy. You just need to use a tagging system that works for you - paper, embellishment, templates, overlays, alphas, then do you want to sort by color and pattern too.

 

[CookingMyLife]

It's like any organization system. It's as good as your input though I will say the App version is really great on searches simply via the name of the product. e.g. a search for 'heart' will come up with every file that has heart in the name. This is where good titling by designers really helps.

 

[tanteva]

Well ... I don't do Mac - I have a proper computer

$31.99 for the program right now. Gee - I'm not sure what to do ... I guess it would take me FOREVER to get everything organized in it ... maybe I should just skip the entire idea.

 

[LaurieW]

Eva- even if you don't tag it, depending on how designers set up their naming- you still get a lot out of search function. I am trying to decide if I should upgrade at that price from photo manager 2009- decisions, decisions

 

[tanteva]

What happens if you move files from one file to another? Does ASDsee keep up with that or do you have to change everything then? Or do you have 1 place where you keep all photos and scrap supplies all the time? Guess there's really no need to move and sort files all the time if the program does it for you LOL

 

[LaurieW]

If you don't tag them, it doesn't matter if you move them, if you have tagged them, you move them in ACDSee and it remembers your tag. I sort two ways- first all my digi stash gets unzipped into a folder called - digiscrap- then I have folders by store,and for my fav designers- makes it easier for me. If I have a project I am working on, I may tag by project name for both photos and supplies, then I can click that and they all pop up. You can also double click an item and get a full screen view- great for my old eyes. You can do edits in the program as well. I like to do my layout resizes in the program for uploading- haven't learned to do it the photoshop way and frequently use fotofusion for my layouts as it is still faster for me.

As far as one place- you can keep them wherever and tell the program what directories you want to look at- which one is your start up when you open the program. You can view fonts as well. YOu can set the background color for viewing png files- helpful if you want to see those pesky white ones. You can delete files and folders as well.

 

[faerywings]

Eva, I have been using ACDSee for years now. Full disclosure: I worked for them for a couple of years too. i had been using PM 12 when it decided it didn't like Windows 7. Or maybe windows 7 didn't like PM 12..... Either way, it started running really really slowly, and hanging up on me.

I tried Bridge - UGH, Picasa, nope, then I liked Windows Live Photo Gallery, but I couldn't get it to "keep" my tags. I would tag things, then the next time I opened up the program, half of the tags would be gone.

I ended up caving and getting PM 14 and it runs real fast now.
I like that Its easy for me to organize things, I would tag my stuff say, 15-20 minutes a day. Its kind of fun to see what you have on your hard drive.
I love that is is flexible: For ex. I have a Main Category of Paper and sub-categories of Solid, Floral, Patterned, Notebook etc. But Anna's papers don't fit into those boxes neatly, so in one click, I added a new sub-cat of Artsy.

I use it mainly for digi-supplies and I'll Rate my favorite photos so I know which ones I want to scrap later.
You can view brushes and fonts which many of the other programs can't do.

it can get temperamental on occasion but I have to say I haven't had any issues with V 14.

The one BIG issue-- you can't move things outside od ACDSee or you will lose tags. At least it was always that way- no idea if that has changed...... but I tend to use it as my browser over using Windows libraries, so i haven't had too much trouble with that.

Hope that helps

 

[CookingMyLife]

LOL Eva, you don't know what a proper computer can be til you have a Mac!

 

[mrstoa]

Chris, I have Version 12 - no problems so far - but would you recommend upgrading when they have another offer?

I am running Windows 7 too.

thanks

 

[clarabear]

I used to do tagging and stuff and it stressed me out. now I just use the search function on whatever computer I have. Works on both pc and Mac. I just have to make sure my labels are good for searching.

 

[CookingMyLife]

Eva, I have been told on another forum that your tags will not transfer to another system, e.b. Lightroom, unless you embed. I've also heard that even the embedding is not reliable. Kayla Lamoreaux has done a whole lot of research on this and she talked about it on a Podcast.

 

[faerywings]

j- There have been some smaller changes to the program, mostly in the Edit mode. But I don't use PM to edit photos all that much, other than an occasional crop or exposure. The other new features in 14 are being able to Rate or Tag colors on the thumbnails, which might be great if you use it more for photos but its not worth anything for digi-scrap files.

As long as PM 12 is working for you, I'd stick with it. OTOH, if you see a really good sale, you can consider that. I had no issues at all converting my PM 12 to 14. I didn't lose a thing, which was a relief!

 

[mrstoa]

Thanks, Chris - I only use it for digi supplies so will stay with 12 for now.

:canada:

 

[suezeeq12]

proper computer? bwahaha! that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one Eva!

All kidding aside - I have the pro version for MAC and I'm a "scrap by kit" person so I don't tag anything besides templates and kit previews. But I can tell you that I dont know if I would know how to scrap without it. I like pictures so I see what I like and just drag it into CS5 and go.

I would def recommend organizing your files by what type of scrapper you are. If you aren't a kit mixer and don't need to see every button you have ever bought - dont bother knocking yourself out and tagging those. I use it as a viewer to see what I have and I just drag it into my layout. Hope that helps you - if not, dont be afraid to ask questions!

 

[tanteva]

That's a great idea, Su - I'm not much of a kit mixer myself, and I've always thought I should copy all previews into one file, so I could easily see what I have and not.

I think I have decided not to spend the money on ACDsee - instead I should "tidy up" in my file with scrapping stuff. I have tons of stuff I don't use, and most likely never will use. Like freebies downloaded in 2007 and such. You know when you are a newbie, you download everything you can get your hand on - like baby girl kits even though you only have a son and so on.