Organizing for Mac digi scrappers

I've spent the last few days researching, hemming and hawing about how to organize my digital products. There are 4 consumer options* for Mac users and I tried them all before settling on my final solution. Here are my personal impressions, but I would encourage you to test them out for yourself:

Apple OS X Finder with Spotlight (free with OS X Tiger or Leopard)
So I started with the easiest and cheapest - just using folders on my external FireWire drive and having OS X show me previews. Kathy at DigiScrapMac had a blog post showing how she used it, so I followed her structure of creating designer folders. In the end, I stopped doing this because I couldn't browse by type, just by kit/designer.
Pros: easy to keep kits together by designer, free!
Cons: can't tag products, OS X doesn't create a preview for all file formats (with Tiger I had to use 3rd party software to create the previews, which was an extra step).

Adobe Bridge 2 (free with CS3 or PE6)
Bridge is a cool option, because it interacts so nicely with the other Adobe products. You can tag (note: Bridge 2 can tag PNGs, older versions can't) individual files for sorting, and easily open them in PS or PE6. I loaded about 800 items in an dstarted tagging. Bridge had the nicest system for finding files on your various drives, and the tagging window was easy to use.
Pros: easy tagging, can have files anywhere
Cons: sloooow creating and displaying previews when files are on an external drive. Scrolling through took me forever.

Shoebox by Kavasoft ($30-80)
Jessica Sprague offers a class on organzing with Shoebox, and there is a tutorial on how to organize with it at DigiScrapInfo. I tested Bridge and Shoebox simultaneously, and was happy to see that Shoebox kept up alot better. But once I hit about 1,000 items in Shoebox, it started to drag. And when I closed and reopened the program, it had to redraw all the previews, which was taking forever on just 1,000 items (only a fraction of what I have so far) .
Pros: moderately easy tagging (Bridge was slicker), can keep files anywhere.
Cons: Very slow when files are on an external drive. Can't move files once they are tagged, or Shoebox can't find them. Navigation process a little odd. And the $30 Lite version only allows 10,000 items, so most digi scrappers will need the $80 Pro version.

iPhoto 08 (free with a new Mac, $80 upgrade for older Macs)
Although I recently upgraded to iPhoto 08, and happily use it to organize and do basic editing on my digital photos, quite a few digi scrappers pooh-poohed it for digi organization. And I didn't want to mix my elements and my photo, so I used this as my last resort. I was pleasantly surprised, that with a few tweaks, iPhoto 08 works nicely. I wouldn't try this with iPhoto 6 or earlier - the Events feature in iPhoto is what really makes this work.
Pros: tagging is extremely simple, it can handle tens of thousands of items, Events view is perfect for viewing previews, easily open items in PE6.
Cons: runs somewhat slow off external drive, iPhoto has to import the elements into its own database/file structure, can't keep TOU doc/text files with the kits.

So after a week of testing, I am imported and tagging all my items into iPhoto 08. I still have lots to go, and I'm refining my tag sstems and folders as I go. Once I reach critical mass, I'll do a later post showing my organization, with screenshots.

*I didn't test Adobe's Lightroom ($300) or Apple's Aperture ($200). They are both Pro level organizers and out of most digi scrappers price range.

Digi Tools

So now that I'm ready to jump into digital scrapbooking again, I need to figure out what I need.

Computer - check
I've got my wonderful iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, which has been great for photo-editing and orgainzing. I'm using iPhoto for that for years.

Software - hmmm
My mom uses Paint Shop Pro to make tags, so she would be a great resource, but it isn't Mac-compatible. I've still got Corel Graphics Suite 11 11 (circa 2002?), but it runs really slow and crashes randomly since it isn't Intel-compatible.

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements appear to be the most popular among digi-scrappers, and Adobe now has Intel-compatible versions of both. Hubby wants me to get Photoshop CS3 (he uses CS1 at work), but I think it is pretty pricey for just starting out. And since his home computer is a Windows machine, I don't need to give him excuses to hog my Mac!

Adobe offers a 30 day trial download of Photoshop Elements 6, and there are hundreds of digi-scrap tutorials out there for it, so I'm going to give it a whirl. Wish me luck!

Photos - LOTS!
At last count, I had well over 5,000 digital photos in iPhoto. We bought a DSLR in June, so the amount of photos I'm keeping in a month has TRIPLED. Yes, I said keeping. I trash after I upload to get rid of the out-of-focus, eyes closed, 12 of the same thing, etc.

Printer - set, for now
I scrap 8x8 in paper form, so I don't really need a wide format printer. I've got a HP Deskjet 5650, which uses the 57/58 photo cartridges. They aren't pigment inks, though, so they can't withstand water damage. So I'll need to upgrade to a HP Vivera printer or an Epson, eventually, but I want to do more research first (and see if I really stick with this).

Books and Tutorials
Even though I haven't digi scrapped since 2005, I've been keeping up with the trends. I subscribed to Digital Scrapbooking magazine last year at CKC, I check Jessica Sprague's blog and have Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 2 idea book (still looking for the first one), and I recently bought Scrapbooks, Etc's Digital Scrapbooking 2. In fact, it was their Collages and Ali Edward's posts about Words + Photos and digi scrapping with her new products that got me off my duff to finally stop reading and actually do this!

Designs
I've also been collecting random freebies from a few favorite designers and from the magazines. So I've got a some stuff to work with in zip files dumped on my external drive. I need to get them organized. And let's face it, hard drive space is cheap, so I'll probably be adding LOTS more!

I think I've got the basic tools. Now to get organized!

Digital Scrapbooking, Round 2

This is my second attempt at maintaining a personal blog. I'm also doing a family photo blog, so I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself to post regularly.

The main focus of this blog will be documenting how I incorporate digital techniques into my scrapbooking. I originally tried digi scrapbooking in 2005, back when Photoshop Elements was still version 2, and before the incredible range of digi products by designers. I'm a fairly experienced designer, but it was still an exercise in frustration.

The industry has come a long way since then, so I'm looking forward to trying again. I still like playing with physical things, so I expect I'll be sharing paper, hybrid (isn't there a better word for this?) and full digital layouts. And I still have a huge paper stash to work with, anyway.

I plan to enjoy the journey. Hope you do, too.