FINALLY! A set system to follow, to find files fast!
How many hours have you spent looking for a photo? And how many times has that happened?
Remember that classic photo of your daughter at the game back in 2005? It's the one you wanted to frame for the grandparents that you've spent the last two years looking for. What month was the picture taken? Where did I save my pictures that year? Can you even remember what computer it was on? That was FIVE years ago!
With the photo storage system you'll learn here, within seconds of starting to search you'll easily be able to find photos by event and date of event. This system works with ANY computer operating system: Windows, Mac, Linux, whatever.
Organizing your pictures in a way you can find them is a simple process if you have a system. The biggest challenge in setting up a filing system is deciding what categories to use. I'll give you my serving suggestion, which will make your life MUCH easier once you set it up. And of course you can alter it as you see fit. Follow this system, set it up ONCE, then use it every time you file, and you'll love your computer and be the envy of everyone who knows you.
This system is so easy - here's what my "Pictures" folder looks like:
Pictures
+ 2005
+ 2006
+ 2007
+ 2008
+ 2009
+ 2010
Of course there are sub-folders underneath the folders for each year - for example, the "2005" folder has the following sub-folders:
Pictures
+ 2005
- 050120 Pres Inauguration
- 050303 Cadillac STS
- 050310 Gilson Animals
- 050326 Downs Wedding Reception
- 050413 Arlington Cemetery AF Funeral
- 050502 Las Vegas City and Convention
- 050709 C&O Canal Bike Trip
- 050729 Cedar Point Park OH
- 050903 VA Beach Day
- 050905 IM and Kids In DC
- 050910 Las Vegas IAOMT Mtg
- 050922 Legacy Leader Event
- 051001 Parents' Italy Trip
- 051005 Utah NSE Convention
- 051020 Arl Cemetery With Cooks
- 051024 N. Racker Bday Dinner
- 051029 Williamsburg Trip
- 051124 Thanksgiving Dinner
- 051203 Christmas Decorating
- 051210 M1 Ward Cmas Party
- 051217 Mckenzie Bball
- 051225 Christmas Eve and Morning
You may not be able to figure what all that is, but I know every single event and can remember several of the photos stored there, just from the folder description I created! Not only do I have everything organized and labeled, but I have essentially setup an automatic journal of the highlights of my life that year.
Why sort by date? Because it's an automatic way to remember, and the simplest form of folder setup. Any other method complicates things and forces you to remember a lot more detail to find things. For instance, if you sort by type of event such as "kids sports," you could then break that into sub-folders of basketball, baseball, football, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, etc., but eventually you'd have to sort by date under all of that anyway. Instead, with the system I have above, you can almost always remember WHEN an event took place, making it much faster and easier to find things.
To learn about the reason for the event dates ("050120") setup the way they are above, read my article, "How To Name & Date Computer Folders & Files For Fast, Effective Organization."
One more organizational note for the photo section: I store my own home videos in my photo folder. That way, I have personal photos and videos together for much easier searching, since events are labeled once, with one folder for everything. Also, it's less work for me if the photos and videos both came from the same camera or camcorder, which is increasingly the case. And best of all, that way I can relive memories in both picture and video.
