Q&A First Day of Class

**Due to popular demand, we are sharing Lightroom for Memory Keepers again. This class was originally shared on Digiscrap101.com in the spring of 2011.**

A few questions and answers:
Q:What do I do with Mega kits?  I have several of them that are usually from a specific store and they have many designers.   I also have a few kits that are done by two designers.  What do you recommend?

• For stores that have Mega kits I create a folder for those collabs – i.e. “Little Dreamer Collabs”  instead of a designer folder.  Then I put the keywords for individual kits under the keyword just like I do regular designers.   the individual designers contributions with their name but the kit name is under the Little Dreamer Collabs.  When those kits are keyworded with individual designer names in the filenames, I will also keyword those items with the individual designer names.  However, the items are stored in the collab folder.
  

• For Collab kits between two designers, I keyword the designer’s individual items in a kit with their designer name – so in the Imagination kit to the right, I only keyworded the items done by Ange designs with her keyword.  I then keyworded the items by Three Paper Peonies with their designer keyword.    However, the kit keyword under each designer is with all the items of the kit by both designers.  I then store the items by each designer in their individual designer folders.  Because of the keywording,  I can access the entire kit by the kit keyword under each designer, or just the items by that designer under the designer’s master keyword, it doesn’t really matter where I store the files.  

Q:In the past I have organized my kits with the elements and papers in separate folders. Now should all of this be in one folder?

• If you are following my system, you should be putting everything in one folder for each kit.  This will make it much easier to keyword your kits when you get into Lightroom.  Eventually after you keyword by designer and kits, you will move your kits into folder by designer.  So you will not only not be storing separate folders for paper and elements, you will also no longer store items by kits.  Everything by one designer will be in one folder – however with keywords you can still divide it up by kits, etc.   ** However, that said, you can choose to organize files and folders however you wish because I want this to be your system **

Q: Currently I have my stuff organized into one big kits folder, one big template folder and then lots of Misc. stuff in the main folder.  I am working on separating my kits by designer but should I do this with my templates and misc stuff.  Misc stuff includes Alphas, paper packs etc.

• It all depends on how you want to keyword.  If you want to keep your existing file folder structure and then keyword it that way, you are open to do it.  I chose to have everything in Designer folders and then kits so I could easily go back to the kit.   In the long term organization I wanted to be able to find a template or alpha and also quickly be able to find the entire kit that goes with it as well.  I also wanted to be able to easily give proper credit in galleries and forums.  That is why I chose to have Designers/Kits be my baseline for organizing.

Q: I’m confused as to how to set up my organization so I can work from my desktop computer and also my laptop. Do I put my catalog where you do on my desktop computer and then also put it under user on my notebook and just update when I go back and forth? Also  if I import from my desktop can it be transfered to my EHD that I take with me and all the information can be imported to my notebook to use? Maybe I’m being redundant, but I’m trying to sort it out to get started.

• Great question.  I don’t have personal experience using Lightroom with two computers  however, there are others that do.  It is my understanding if you use a portable external hard drive it can be done. You can learn more about using Lightroom on two computers here.

Q: I  have my kits by designer and/or website and also organized by the year I got them. I have a huge collection. Do you just put them all together? Maybe you will answer as we go on.

• I like that you are so detailed and have things organized this way!  At this point you could choose to keep your file structure as is – however, eventually I will be teaching you all to keyword by designer/kit and then move every item by that designer into one folder.  With your organization system as is, you may consider adding a keyword set for website and year you got them – although the metadata for each file will track the year the items were created so it may be a bit redundant.  However this system should be yours – so make it yours!

Keep in mind I have jumped ahead in class to answer some of these so you will definitely want to wait and see the relevant videos before making any final decisions.

Hope that helps.  I will do the best I can to answer your questions in a timely manner as possible – please keep in mind that sometimes the many projects I am working on will get in the way of quick answers! Thanks!