Category Archives: Computer Tips and Tricks

Computer tips and tricks and other geeky (but fun!) stuff outside of scrapping

Pinterest for Scrapbookers

Post by Heddy

on the fly border by Kristin Rice – Kstudio

I found out about Pinterest through Katie’s post about the site back in April 2011. Fast forward to the present and you’ll find me on Pinterest every day! If you haven’t experienced it yet, Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site. It’s a simple concept, but since it’s so visual, I’ll walk you through The Daily Digi (TDD) on Pinterest. You can find TDD’s pins here. TDD organizes its pins into several boards (topics), like this:

I know that’s probably hard to see, so here’s a close-up on a few:

You can choose to follow one specific board or follow every board by a particular user.

Once you’re following a few boards, pins from those boards will automatically show up on your Pinterest page for you to browse. If you want, you can choose to re-pin them onto one of your boards, “like” them, and comment on them.

Scrapbooking Pinboards

I happen to think that Pinterest is one of the best things to happen to digi scrapbooking since drop-shadow styles. Why? Because now I can locate all of my “favourite” pages onto a pin board! I love the inspiration in the galleries and in the past, I would “favourite” pages in the gallery where I saw the page. The trouble was that when I wanted to view it again, I had to think pretty hard to try to remember which gallery I saw it in.

Enter Pinterest. Here are some of my recent favourite pages that I’ve pinned:

Each one is linked back to their original gallery post so I can find it again and check out the page credits. Now I have hundreds of pages by various scrappers using many different designer products all located in one handy spot.

You can easily pin layouts you like, too! Here’s how:

1. Find a layout you love. I love the title on this page by our very own Trina. I also have a very similar photo of one of my own kids so I know this is a page I will want to refer back to.

2. Copy the URL of the image.

3. Open another browser window/tab with Pinterest. Hit the “+” sign at the top right of the screen. It looks like this:

When you do that, a dialog box will appear:

Select “Add a Pin”

4. Paste the URL, select the image, select a pin board and add in some information. I add the name of the scrapper to pinned pages.

Once you hit, “Pin It”, you’re done. The page is now pinned to your scrapbooking pinboard.

A recent development has been “pin me” buttons in galleries. In galleries with this feature, all you need to do is hit the “pin me” button on a favourite page and it will automatically connect with your Pinterest account (assuming you’re logged in) and take your through the pin posting steps.

Scrap Pin Boards

There are so many awesome scrapbooking boards to follow. Here are just a few:

Challenge Inspiration by Sweet Shoppe Designs
Scrap Stuff by Kellie Turner
Scrapbook Layouts by Kim de Smet
Scrapbook Layouts We Love by Scrappin Bunnies LLC
Layout Love by Marisa Lerin
Scrap It! by Katie Nelson

Many scrapbooking stores are on Pinterest now. If you check your favourite store’s site, you may find a link to their Pinterest account.

You can easily find more pinboards by searching for key words like “scrapbook”, “layouts”, “digi scrap”, etc.

I hope you have fun on Pinterest!

Unfortunately, we are not able to respond to Pinterest invitation requests at this time. If you would like an invitation, try going to your favourite scrapbooking store forum and asking if one of the users there can send you an invitation. I’ve seen this work out for many scrappers.

What Metadata Is and Why You Should Care

Post by steph

This post was co-authored by Kayla Lamoreaux and Steph. Kayla is the owner of Digiscrap101 and has a vast knowledge of everything to do with organizing digi supplies and photos. She has worked with and/or explored almost every program that can be used for organizing digital supplies and photos. We recommend Kayla’s tutorials and classes for anyone wanting to learn more.

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to my photos – I LOVE making them pretty.

I recently finished our family fall photo shoot and I couldn’t wait to process the images. As I processed the photos with my favorite Lightroom presets, I was in heaven.

And yet, after processing that entire photo shoot, I still spent a good portion of time adding metadata to my images.

Why would I do that?

To some, metadata isn’t fun, pretty or desirable.

To others, metadata is that geeky thing they would never tell their friends they are into.

Actually metadata is that really cool & shiny gadget you never really knew you needed until you enjoy the benefits – then, you’re hooked.

To put it very simply, it is the modern version of writing on the back of your photos. If you’ve ever inherited boxes and boxes of photos, you know first hand the importance of doing that.

The great thing about today is that we have the technology to embed those writings along with other information directly into the files of our photos. This information goes with that file or photo everywhere and can be accessed in many different programs and sites (more on that below).

Automatically metadata is added when you snap the shutter on your camera. Most cameras embed the camera make, date, time, model, serial no. and even the lens you used and the settings. This is called EXIF data.

Some cameras even come with GPS capability which automatically embeds the GPS coordinates where you took your images into the photo file.

What this means is that because of technology, future generations will know a LOT more about our images and lives than we knew about those who went before us.

However, it still isn’t enough. Digital photography means that we are now taking more photos than ever before. Which is translating into a lifetime photo collection that can easily number into five to six figures of individual images.

With this plethora of photos, I believe that adding metadata to our images becomes a necessity if we want them to be relevant to future generations.

So let’s review: Automatically your photos tell a story about the camera you used, your lens, camera settings and maybe where you were when you took the image, but what about the things that will connect future generations to your story? Metadata is one of the most powerful tools you have to preserve your story for future generations. Today we’ll talk about three pieces: keywords, ratings and captions.

Keywords are the hints to the story of your photos. Think who, what, where, when.
Ratings are the guide to importance and/or quality of your photos – they help to distinguish your most important images.
Captions are the stories behind your photos.

If you are interested in looking at or adding some metadata, here’s how:

In Windows: Right click any photo or file and select Properties. You can see a lot of information under the General tab. You can also add more details such as a rating and captions under the details tab.

In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements: go to File> File Info. You can enter a lot of information right there and it will stay with the file in each format you save it in.

In Lightroom: all text, tags, descriptions, etc. are automatically added to metadata.

In Flickr: Flickr keeps metadata intact and when you add tags, comments, descriptions, etc. in Flickr it is added to the metadata. Katie will often have her extended family add information to photos from events through Flickr.

Be careful, some programs advertise that they write keywords, ratings, and captions to the metadata, but they often don’t. The best way to know for sure is to add some tags and captions with the program in question, save it, and pull the file into another program to see if the information is there. If you are backing up online, you will want to make sure that the site you are using supports metadata in the backup and restore process.

The best part about metadata? Metadata isn’t just for the future, it also helps you now. Imagine having a library of 30,000 images. Because of the metadata you added, you are able to narrow down exactly what you want in seconds. Can you imagine how much easier it would be to create when you can find what you need in seconds?

So yes, metadata is geeky. It is also one of the most powerful tools available to us as we endeavor to manage our photo libraries and preserve memories for future generations. I hope you’ll take advantage of it!

P.S. Jan in Alberta was the random winner from the comments on yesterday’s feature post about Anna. She won $10 in product from Anna.

P.S.S. Be sure to grab our free Playbook from DSD if you haven’t already!

This post has 16 Comments...leave yours?
Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks, Just for Beginners Posted on November 8, 2011 by steph |

Organize your bookmarks

Post by Katie

When’s the last time you cleaned out your bookmarks on your computer? Do you have an organized system for bookmarking ideas and articles that you want to revisit at a later time? If you are like many internet users, you have bookmarks scattered all over the place. It’s tempting just to add a link to a favorites list, or throw it into a bookmark browser, but if you put a little thought into organizing a system, you will save yourself a lot of time and hassle down the road. A few years ago, I (Katie) just haphazardly added links to my bookmark bar. Now I’m very organized with how I save bookmarks!

I’m a firm believer in using folders to organize bookmarks. As you can see in the image above, I only have 2 saved links that are not filed in a folder. Everything else is grouped and categorized. Here’s my approach to bookmark organization:

USE YOUR TOOLBAR WISELY

Learn how to create folders in your bookmark bar and find tips for managing bookmarks in your browser of choice.

I keep only the basics bookmarked in my toolbar to keep it clutter-free and useful. I have several folders that help keep me on track. My most helpful folder is the “DAILY” one and I’ve spent time whittling it down to include only the sites that I must visit each and every day. I’ll let you take a peek inside so you can see how I’ve set it up.

This is the only folder of mine that is not organized alphabetically. Instead, this folder is arranged by an order of how I should prioritize my daily tasks.

I always start my day by reviewing my calendar since that will influence everything else I do that day. I use Google Calendar which you can read about here.
Checking my email is also a top priority. I use gmail. I’m a Google girl! You can read about my email management system here.
Next stop is the Digital Scrapbooking Inspiration Flickr group. Steph and I approve all images before they post to the group to keep out any possible ads and inappropriate content. This means I need to visit this site a few times each day. Here’s more information about Flickr.
K12 is our virtual academy (homeschool) website. I need to log in every weekday.
The Daily Digi is this website. I log in every day to be sure that my post is up if it was my turn, or to read anyone else’s posts. I never miss a day, unless I’m stuck camping in the wilderness. lol!
TDD team is a link to the team forum for The Daily Digi. We are always working behind the scenes on great stuff for YOU! That’s another daily stop on the internet for me.
Scrapbooklady refers to my own blog scrapbookladypages.com – I always double check my posts and follow the comments.
Family refers to a personal blog for my own family members.
Toy stands for Toy to the World which is a blog I share with my kids dedicated to our love of Legos and other fun things.
The Pinterest link is my place for a little “me time” each day. There may be days when I skip this one, but that makes me sad to do so. You can read my Pinterest tutorial here for more information.
Hootsuite is the best site I’ve found for using and managing Twitter. It’s the only way I use Twitter! You can follow The Daily Digi on Twitter right here. We also have a Twitter tutorial here for more information. I’m on twitter almost every day. I do slow down my twitter posts or even take a break on the weekends.
Facebook is the place where I go to interact with many online friends and keep up on digi news. You can connect with The Daily Digi and The Digi Show on facebook.
The Digi Show is the website for the podcast that we do each week. I try to visit this site each day to keep up on comments from listeners. You can get updates about new episodes by signing up here.
Capture Your 365 is Katrina Kennedy’s website for her 365 community. I’m participating in a new project 365 during the school year so I’m trying to visit this site each day. I have fallen behind lately though. You can read about Project 365 and other fun alternatives in this post.
Google Reader is the final stop on my daily bookmarks to visit list. There are many days when I never get to this one, but I like to keep it in my daily file in hopes that I will keep up with my blog reading by doing a little each day. I read A LOT of blogs so I can stay informed about digi happenings. I also just love to read blogs! Here’s some more information about Google Reader.

I’m not going to take you through the rest of my folders, but I have used a similar thought process in putting each of them together. Every folder has links to regular tasks I need to do for that subject. These are used ONLY for frequently visited links. I will discuss the “pin it” and “read it later” later on in this post.

SYNC OR BACKUP YOUR BOOKMARK BAR

Your bookmarks are only useful if you have some way to access them from other computers and/or a way to back them up. Part of the reason I never used to put much thought into my bookmarking system is because I had lost several collections over the years when I upgraded computers or had a hardware crash. I also didn’t like that I could only use them on my home computer. Bookmarking technology has greatly improved over the last few years and there is no reason why you can’t keep your favorite links safe and available to use anytime. Google Chrome lets me sync by bookmarks and I can easily access them anytime I sign into my Google account. I know Firefox has similar benefits. There are work-around ways to sync bookmarks/favorites in any browser using third-party apps such as dropbox and xmarks.

USE ONLINE BOOKMARKING SITES

One of the reasons I can keep my browser toolbar so neat and organized is because I make good use of several online bookmarking sites. You could certainly argue that it might make more sense to just keep everything in one place, and there is nothing wrong with taking that approach. I have found that online bookmarking serves a different purpose for me than saving a favorite in my browser. Again, I use my toolbar to bookmark the things I use on a very regular basis. It is the quickest and most practical way for me to access those frequent links. External sites for bookmarking are helpful to me for other reasons, especially because I save thousands of articles, images, and ideas! There are many great sites such as Evernote (one of Steph’s favorites) and StumbleUpon, but there are 3 sites that I love and use the very most to help me keep track of everything I want to save.

Delicious. I’ve posted about Delicious before and I will still sing it’s praises. I’ve used this site for several years. This is where I file about 50% of the links I want to save. Before Pinterest came along, I used Delicious more like 98% of the time. I currently have 2,944 links in my account but that doesn’t overwhelm me because every one of them is tagged and easy to find. I keep all of Delicious bookmarks private since I post a lot of writing and blog ideas there, but you can also choose to share your links with an audience if you would like to. They’ve recently introduced stacks to make the site more visually appealing (and I believe also to compete with Pinterest). I can access the links I’ve saved from any computer just by logging into my account.

Pinterest. It’s been amazing to see how this site has spread like wildfire through the digital scrapbooking community! I’ve posted about Pinterest before and I’m still just as passionate about it today as I was when I first discovered it. I love that site! I would guess that I’m saving about 45% of all the links I want to bookmark to Pinterest now. I currently have 1,462 pins in my account and I add more every day. I love that it’s like a visual directory of recipes, project ideas, and inspiration. It’s also fun that I can share my finds with others! The social aspect of Pinterest is very rewarding for me. You get to “pin” things to your board instead of “bookmarking” them, but it really is the same thing. It’s just bookmarking made fun!

Instapaper. This is a relatively new addition for me. The reason I like Instapaper is because it syncs across several platforms (computer, iPhone, and iPad for me). It’s like file folder to stick things in that you just can’t read right that minute, but plan to review soon. It’s not meant for keeping track of thousand of links. It’s not a tool to organize and tag large collections of web pages, it’s meant to store links that you would like to read once and then discard. It would become unwieldy to use this as your only bookmarking tool. Instapaper fills a gap that all these other tools have left behind. Delicious fills about 50% of my bookmarking needs. Pinterest fills about 45% of my needs. My toolbar bookmarks are home to about 4% of my other links (albeit, the very most important ones!) so that always left me with some links that didn’t fit anywhere. I didn’t want to go to the effort to add a url to Delicious, Pinterest, or even file it in my folders if I just wanted to review it later. I used to always just bookmark those pages in a folder called “misc.” but I rarely got back to them. Now that I can access these saved links on devices like my iPhone and iPad, as well as my computer, I’m actually reading the articles I’ve been saving for later. When I see that the list is getting too long, I know I need to spend some time reading the saved items.

FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

Not everyone will need to be saving thousands of links to refer to. Because I create content for a few blogs, a podcast, online classes, tutorials, and more, I need to keep track of a lot of information. I also homeschool 2 teenagers and have many other interests and responsibilities in my everyday life that mean I can use a lot of internet inspiration. If you are a more casual internet user, you might not need as many resources. There is no right or wrong way to create an organized bookmarking method, the key is to find a system that works for you and stick with it! It’s not as difficult as it seems – in fact it took me A LOT longer to write this post than I usually ever spend on keeping my bookmarks organized! Now that I have my own methods established, it is all very automatic. It’s also a very worthwhile task because I have easy access to the many wonderful things I find online!

katie big

P.S. Theresa was the random winner chosen from the comments left in yesterday’s post. She won $10 in product from Girl Boy Girl Designs!

This post has 11 Comments...leave yours?
Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on October 18, 2011 by Katie | Tagged bookmark, bookmarking, bookmarks, un-digi, undigi |

Using icons instead of folders

Post by Katie

In Episode 7 of The Digi Show I (Katie) read an email from a listener that mentioned using icons instead of folders for her organizing system. This is very easy to do on a Mac with the free img2icns app, but she also included that this could be done on a PC as well with the right tool. I went on a search and found iconverticons and gave it a try. I’ve since been perplexed and somewhat mentally consumed by the whole idea of changing my folder systems to icons. I’m not the only one – a few listeners have gone down the “rabbit hole” as well and the comments field has been hopping with tips and tricks being passed back and forth. I love that I have been able to learn so much from our listeners and I thought it would be fun to share some of this information with all of you.

Icons vs. folders

I currently use a folder-based system for organizing all of my digital scrapbook supplies, documents, and photos. You can read more about it in this post. I also got the inspiration to have a folder just for previews (in each of my categories) from Steph after writing that post. This has been an incredibly easy and effective organizational system for me and I had no plans to change it. When I found out about the icon maker, I wondered if my whole previews folder had just become obsolete?

Here’s a little peek at how my current system works. This is a look inside my “Summer & Beach” folder. On some of the folders, you can see a preview image because I took the time to go in and change the settings on each folder by right clicking on it and going to “Properties” then “Customize” and then under “Folder Images” choosing the preview image to show up as the default image. Obviously, I have not done this for all my folders and I don’t worry too much about it because I mainly use my preview folder when I want to look at the choice for the “Summer & Beach” category.

Now you can see the difference with the 3 folders I changed to icons (Anna, BGD, Flergs/Kay Miller)

The preview is the icon that replaces the folder. When I click on that icon image, it still opens the folder. Cool!

What program should I use if I’m on a PC?

These are the programs that were mentioned the most often in the comments of The Digi Show episode. (all of them are free)

IcoFX – drag the kit preview onto the IcoFx screen. Choose 256×256 size.
ToyCon – open the little box image and then move the file you want to convert right onto the box. Choose 256×256 size.
iConverticons – you upload the image right on the website and then download the .ico file. The download will include several sizes, use the biggest one for the most flexibility.

The basic idea behind all of these programs is that you will store your converted .ico files in the folder with the kits they belong to. Right-click, go to “Properties” then “Customize” then “change icon” and then you will find the .ico file in your folder and select that as the icon image. It’s critical to keep your .ico files in the same place so that Windows knows where to find them. Don’t move them after you’ve customized the icon view on your folder.

Some users like to have a separate folder just for icons and that works well also. That would work well if you are batch processing, which a listener said you can do in the IcoFx program. When asked what the reason was for keeping the separate folder, one of the commenters responded:

“There are several reasons I learned the hard way why it was best to have a single folder (this is for Windows Systems):

1) As suggested when you use the batch files under Tools it is very easy to change multiple previews into icons at one time – if you wanted the icon to remain in each folder you would have to do them individually. In batch processing when you assign these icons to their respective folders navigating is a breeze because Windows “remembers” where you were last when you hit the “Change Icon” part of the Properties Window. So it always brings you to the Folder Icons folder first. In fact, I always change the preview name to this convention: designername_kitname_kit_preview. Thus when I need to assign the icons in the folders’ properties I can quickly and easily find each icon – C’s for CarinaGardner or the E’s for EchoPark, etc….

2) It is a safe way to preserve the Icons IMO and prevent them from “looking” like duplicates in the kit folder and accidentally being deleted. If you navigate into a folder you can see the icon file and the preview file appear identical in any of the View by Icons mode.

3) Windows architecture sets up its own internal icons in a separate folder which can be found stored in shell32.dll located at C:\Windows\System32\. Not that I believe Windows programmers are infallible, but it is my belief that icon indexing is faster when the icons are stored in a single place. Since this is a system file you can’t view it directly but you can extract the system icons out of it…guess how…yep… with IcoFX! I briefly contemplated finding a way to get mine into a .dll file but decided it was best not to mess with Windows OS for fear of retaliation of the Microsoft gremlins ;>)

4) If anything ever happened to a digital kit folder it would be easy to restore the icon(s) rather than remake it/them. Keep a backup of this icon folder in a safe location.

5) With Windows if you save the icon inside the kit folder and at any point move that folder the icon will not stay linked as suggested because the directory path to the icon has to remain intact. Once you move the folder with the icon you are altering the path to the icon. This is why it is so important that the icon not be moved once it is assigned. Have Lyndel try this and she will see for herself that her nice icon vanishes back to a mundane yellow system folder. Put it back and voila! instant icon again.

* a sidenote for Mac users – The img2icons app for the Mac is just drag and drop the preview into a box and then drop the folder into the same box and it instantly converts.

Do I really need icons?

Do what works for you! I still love my folders of previews so I’m not quite ready to delete them yet, even though it’s not necessary to have the previews in a folder and the changed icon files. I guess I will give it some time and see what works for me. I do love the beauty of icons instead of folders and it really appeals to my nature as a visual person.

Where I’m really loving the icon idea the most is on my computer desktop. I love to have fun wallpapers loaded on my screen, but I also keep some vital folders on my desktop. Now I can create beautiful icons to look nice with the background on my screen. I love learning about new tricks on my computer! Here are some fun links to check for free icons to download:

Special thanks to Debbie, Joan, Lyndel, and all the other listeners/readers who helped me with research and advice for this post! I really appreciate it!

katie big

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on September 18, 2011 by Katie | Tagged computer tips, digi, digi scrap, digital scrapbook, folders, icons |

Does your computer need sleep?

Post by Katie

sleep

sleep tight by Kaye Winiecki

Does your computer need sleep? I (Katie) have often wondered if I’m giving my computer the rest it needs? I’ve heard conflicting opinions about whether or not you should actually power down your computer each night, or simply let it go into sleep mode? I generally let me computer go to sleep, which means I have changed the power settings to go into sleep mode after a certain period of inactive use time. When I come back to my computer, I can quickly start it up again without having to go through a full power up cycle. I also have a password on my computer so whoever logs back on after it’s been sleeping, needs to know the password. This is a good security measure if you use your computer in work or public locations. I only restart my computer if I need to install updates or if I’m packing it to go on a long trip. Sometimes, I will fully restart my computer if I’m having a lot of problems getting programs and files to work properly. For some reason, a good restart seems to clear out the bugs.

I asked some of our team members here at The Daily Digi to tell me what they know about the sleep/power off question and here’s what they had to say:

Heddy – I use Windows 7 and my instruction manual specified that the computer would work optimally if put to sleep each night and not fully shut down.
Wendy – Some computers are set to run updates and upgrades only during shut down or restart. Closing out of programs can free up memory and hard drive space taken up by temporary files. Restarting clears log files that keep things running smoothly. That said, my computer is very stable and I only restart it once a week. However, it is set to sleep after a certain period of inactivity.
Kim – I have a laptop and I completely shut it down every night and start it up in the morning. It runs hot (and I just burned out a cooling fan that I’d only had a month) so I try to turn it off to let it get nice and cool. During the day when I’m a work, it sleeps. I’ve had this laptop for 3 years and haven’t had any issues other than reheating once. [Knock on wood.]
Karen – I turn my laptop completely off at night, but my desktop goes to sleep after 20 minutes of not being used. I actually don’t know what’s better or worse, but I had an old PC laptop with my last job that, no joke, could take 20 minutes to fully power up, so with my Macs at home, I just got in the habit of not shutting them down unless I had to. It’s also partly a convenience. Our iMac is in the living room, so there’s very often someone on it. I don’t think it would have time to sleep!

As always, the team brought up some great points to help me in my research. After reading Heddy’s comment, I realized I should start with the manual for my own laptop. I use a Dell XPS laptop and run Windows 7 Home Premium. The user manual is available by clicking on the “Help and Support” tab in my start menu. After searching on sleep and restarting, I found these helpful bits of information:

Using sleep

You can put your computer into sleep mode instead of shutting it down. When your computer is asleep, the display turns off and often the computer’s fan stops. Usually, a light on the outside of your computer case blinks or turns yellow to indicate that the computer is asleep. The whole process takes only a few seconds.

Because Windows will remember what you were doing, there’s no need to close your programs and files before putting your computer into sleep mode. But it’s always a good idea to save your work before putting the computer into any low-power mode. The next time you turn on your computer (and enter your password, if required), the screen will look exactly as it did when you turned off your computer.

To wake your computer, press the power button on your computer case. Because you don’t have to wait for Windows to start, your computer wakes within seconds and you can resume work almost immediately.

Note

When your computer is asleep, it uses a very small amount of power to maintain your work in its memory. If you’re using a laptop, don’t worry—the battery won’t be drained. After the computer has been sleeping for several hours, or if the battery is running low, your work is saved to the hard disk, and then your computer turns off completely, drawing no power.

When to shut down

Even though putting your computer into sleep mode is the fastest way to turn it off and the best option for resuming work quickly, there are certain times when you need to shut down:

When you’re adding or upgrading the hardware inside your computer—such as installing memory, a disk drive, a sound card, or a video card. Shut down the computer, and then disconnect it from its power source before proceeding with the upgrade.
When you’re adding a printer, monitor, external drive, or other hardware device that doesn’t connect to a USB or IEEE 1394 port on your computer. Shut down the computer before connecting the device.

Checking your own computer manual is the best option to help you figure out what’s best for your system. It’s a good idea for energy conservation, and for the long-term care of your computer to have some way to let it rest when not in use. Laptops especially run hot and the fan has to work hard to keep things cool. Change your power settings to let your computer sleep when you aren’t going to use it for awhile. Your computer will be happy for the naptime!

katie big

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on September 4, 2011 by Katie | Tagged computer maintenance, computer tips, digi, digiscrap |

Pinterest 101: a tutorial

Post by Katie

heart trails by Anne Dejong

The Daily Digi is a digital scrapbooking site dedicated to bringing you the best information, resources, and inspiration in digital scrapbooking. Download our FREE Digital Scrapbooking Manual, sign up for our newsletter to receive free goodies, and become a member for the best deal in digital scrapbooking.

*We apologize, but we are no longer able to accommodate Pinterest invite requests. We cannot respond to user questions about Pinterest, please direct those questions and issues to Pinterest Support.*

I think it’s safe to say that I (Katie) have done a pretty good job of promoting Pinterest lately. I promise I’m not affiliated with Pinterest in any way, I’m just a big fan of online sources of inspiration, and I have found a lot of that since this new site entered my life. Pinterest is a place for visual bookmarking that you share with others. It’s a great way to keep track of all those things you’ve been wanting to try, and a fabulous way to discover new and inspiring ideas! I’ve posted about Pinterest here before, but today I want to give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to get the most out of Pinterest.

Pinterest has taken a unique approach to get people interested in the site – you have to be invited to participate. You can request an invitation right on the site, but be warned that it takes a long time before you will get one. You are better off to ask a friend who is already on Pinterest to send you one. I’ve also seen a lot of people asking for Pinterest invites via twitter and facebook and someone is always willing to help out. Do you see the genius in this plan? Requiring people to secure an invite, is a great way to spread the word about the site!

The first thing you will want to do is to setup your account. You can sign in using your existing twitter account or facebook account. The benefit of using one of those social media accounts to sign in, is that you can find people on Pinterest that you already interact with on those other sites. You also can log in to Pinterest using the email and password you establish when setting up your account.

When signing up, you will be prompted to create some boards. Pinterest suggests a few basic boards with titles. I suggest accepting those and editing them later on. (See step #4) If you want to edit them at this point, just go ahead and change the names to topics you think you might like to file inspiration under.

Your Pinterest experience will be completely shaped by who you follow. You will see “pins” from the people you choose to follow and so they will create the content of the site. I have found that this can really make or break Pinterest so I feel like it’s important to have a few inspirational and safe friends to follow to get you started. Then you can refine your own interests as you explore and become more comfortable. When you create your account, you might be automatically following others from the social network you used to sign in. You will also be automatically following the Pinterest account. I immediately “unfollowed” Pinterest because they do repin links and images that I might not feel comfortable having my children see. One of the rules in our house is that we use our computers in common living areas and so everything should be appropriate for all ages. It’s just something that is important to us. I realize that not everyone will feel the same way, so if that isn’t a concern for you, you will probably find some very interesting things by following the Pinterest people.

You can use twitter, facebook, yahoo, or gmail to help you find people you might already know.

If you want some Pinterest buddies to help you get started, we are happy to help you! All of the following accounts are family-friendly and will most likely appeal to those who are interested in topics like digital scrapbooking, memories, photography, home decorating, yummy foods, and fun ideas.

The Daily Digi – We have a Pinterest account now! Follow us for fun ideas and inspiration to help you make the most of your memory-making and memory-keeping activities.
Islandmom – Yes, I finally convinced Steph to take the Pinterest plunge! She’s just getting started, but she already has a knack for finding fun things.
Katie Nelson (that’s me!) Also known as “Katie the Scrapbook Lady” – I’ve become a total Pinterest addict! The day just isn’t complete for me without a visit to Pinterest.

You can follow all of of someone’s boards, or just pick a one or a few to follow. You can also unfollow a person or certain boards at any time.

Once you have a few friends to follow, look around their pinboards and see if you can find anyone else who looks familiar or interesting. You can always unfollow them later on. You can click on who I follow or who follows me to find some fun people.

It’s time to create your own pinboards and start pinning (see step #5). Some people chose not to repin anything and just use Pinterest to follow others. That is perfectly fine, but it’s even more enjoyable when you get involved. You can “like” pins which is liking adding them to a “favorites” file. If you “repin” them, you will want to sort the pins into boards. After browsing through a few pinboards from friends, you will probably have a pretty good idea of what topics you want to focus on. You can always rename and rearrange your pinboards so don’t worry too much about getting them “just right”!

Here’s a peek at my boards:

These are the titles of my boards:

Word (quotes, sayings, typography)
Photography Fun (ideas for taking and displaying photos)
Gallery Walls (I love frame and picture groupings)
Artful Inspiration (Art & artsy stuff)
Silly Stuff (things that make me giggle)
Digi Scrap Love (digital scrapbook layouts that inspire me)
Sweets and Treats (yummy stuff that I probably shouldn’t eat)
Healthy Eats (food that I should be eating)
Dream House (a girl can dream…)
Dream Destinations (my bucket list for places I would love to go)
Color Me Happy (I’m inspired by colorful things)
Crafty Fun (projects I would like to make)
Holiday Fun (I love to celebrate!)
Toys and Joys (a place for Legos and other fun things)
Garden (yard and garden ideas)
Sew Fun (all the stuff I say I’m going to sew someday)
Organization (good ideas for organizing)
Book Love (favorite books)

To edit them at any time, I just go to the boards from my drop down menu and I can edit each one individually or even rearrange the order they are displayed in.

It’s also helpful to be be sure each board is categorized properly – this helps others find your pins. Just click on “edit” for each board and select the most appropriate category.

Now you are ready to start pinning! The easiest thing to do on Pinterest is to “repin” something that is already there. As I’m browsing on Pinterest, I find the image of photos on a wall that I want to repin to my own boards. As I hover over the picture with my mouse, the option appears to either “repin” or “like” it. I choose “repin” and it prompts me to categorize it to one of my boards. I choose Gallery Walls and click on repin. I could also automatically share this pin on twitter or facebook by using the buttons at the bottom.

What if you want to pin something you find on another site? You can go to “add a pin” and then enter the url and description.

The easiest way is to just add the bookmarklet by dragging the “pin it” link to your brower toolbar.

I use the bookmarklet all the time. When I’m reading through blogs, I use this little tool to add pins as I find ideas I want to save. If I wanted to pin a layout from yesterday’s post here on The Daily Digi, I would just click on the bookmarklet while I had The Daily Digi post open on my screen.

Once I click on the pinning tool, I will see all the images from this post pop up on my screen. I simply need to use my mouse to hover over the one I want to pin and then click on “Pin This”.

I then choose the board I want to pin the image to and type in a description.

You can even mention other users if you want to notify them about the pin.

Pinterest is still a fairly new site so the etiquette is still evolving. It’s best to follow good general guidelines that would apply to any social site such as; polite and kind comments, not infringing on copyright, crediting the original sources, and avoiding too much self-promotion. Pins are meant to be shared on Pinterest, but occasionally, someone might ask to have a pin removed because of a copyright issue. If you want to share the pins you find outside of Pinterest, use the tools provided to share on facebook or twitter. You can also embed the image on a blog using the embed tool Pinterest provides. This ensures that the credits and source of the pin stays intact.

So if I want to share this amazing layout from Lynette Penacho right here on The Daily Digi (which I totally do want to share it here!)

I simply use the embed code found on the right side of the screen.

Source: sweetshoppecommunity.com via Katie on Pinterest

Pretty cool!

More Pinterest links to check out:

As you can see, Pinterest is a fun and exciting place to hang out online. I can’t wait to see what’s new every time I login. I hope you enjoy it as well!

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on June 12, 2011 by Katie | Tagged Pinterest, pinterest 101, pinterest tutorial, pinterst how-to |

How To Create a Word Cloud

Post by steph

A word cloud is grouping of words. There are many fun a creative used for word clouds (especially in home décor). We have talked about Wordle on several episodes of the Digi Show. Katie and I decided awhile back that it would be fun to do a post on Wordle. As I started researching, I found a couple of other sites that do similar things.

Most of these sites do not export high resolution images. I found a great work around by using a free plugin called doPDF. Installing doPDF creates a printer option called doPDF. When you print, select doPDF as your printer and you will be prompted to find a location to save the file to. This will save the file you created as a PDF. When you open the PDF in PSE or PS it will be a high resolution image. You can also open the PDF in Illustrator and save the file as an SVG file for use with your personal cutter or save it as an ai file to create text paths, etc.

One of the other online apps that I found to create word clouds is ABCya.com (I thought that was a super cute name). It’s geared to kids, is super easy to use, but has less options than other sites.

My favorite of all of the sites is Tagxedo. This site has almost limitless possibilities for customizing your word cloud! I created a little video showing you how I created a word cloud and some of the features it has. I also show how I export to a PDF using doPDF and bring the word cloud into Photoshop to use it on a layout. Have fun playing!

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks, The UN-digi Posted on June 5, 2011 by steph | Tagged tagxedo, video tutorial, word cloud |

Understanding Photobucket’s terms of use & privacy

Post by Katie

You might be surprised to see me (Katie) posting about Photobucket since I’ve made no secret of my passion for all things Flickr-related. I definitely prefer Flickr to host my images online, but there are times when Photobucket has been useful for me as a digital scrapbooker, especially as a creative team member or back in my designing days. I’ve used Photobucket to upload my layouts to our private Daily Digi team forum. Then the images are there when Steph (or I) are ready to write the posts using them. The other team members do this too. This is typical practice for designers sharing previews in their own private site and team forums as well. Using Photobucket is a low cost way to host images for these purposes, but are you aware of Photobucket’s terms of use? I have to admit that I wasn’t until Steph mentioned some useful facts (and some concerning ones as well) about the site’s TOU & terms.

USE PHOTOBUCKET

If you want to use Photobucket, it’s pretty simple to figure out. You will need to sign up for an account. You will be asked if you want to have a free or paid account. The free account it now VERY limited. I used to have a free account, but the traffic that The Daily Digi generates quickly made me lose my bandwidth allowance early each month so I upgraded to a Pro account for $2.99 a month. You can save a little more by signing up for a 1 year plan at 24.99 (which happens to be the same yearly rate Flickr). Here’s the comparison between free and pro accounts:

Capture2

Once you have your account created, simply use the “upload now” button on the top toolbar to add your photos. You will see a lot of advertising on photobucket, unless you have a pro account.

The sharing links to the right of the photo will give you the codes you need to share your photos in email or on websites. If you want to post to a forum, just use the IMG code. Once you click on it, it’s copied to your computer’s clipboard, then just go to the place where you want to paste it and your image will show up. Very easy!

PHOTOBUCKET PRIVACY

Capture3

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know much about the privacy options on Photobucket until just recently. I always thought I was ok because I had made the selections pictured above on my photo privacy. Then I logged out of photobucket and searched for my user name which showed up as a link. Once I opened up that link, I could view everything that was in my photobucket account! I’ll explain why that is a problem in the next section. Several Daily Digi team members pointed out a simple protection that I had overlooked so I want to be sure to share it with you.

See this little padlock symbol? If it’s open like in the screen shot below, it means your images are not private.

Capture

Just click on the padlock to set the album as private. You will need to do this with each album. There are sharing options if you want to use photobucket for hosting photos to share. Even if you mark something as private, you will still be able to share the image codes in forums just fine.

Make sure your padlock is closed if you don’t want anyone to find your images.

If you sign into to Photobucket using your facebook account, be sure you check out your sharing settings within your account. Photobucket recently changed the settings with this option to automatically post images to your facebook wall. You will have to allow access at first, and then go in and change the sharing options after you are logged in.

PHOTOBUCKET TERMS OF USE (TOU)

Why all the fuss about who can see your images on Photobucket? It all comes back to the terms of use (TOU) that are associated with Photobucket. Like many TOU documents, this one is lengthy, but this is the part that Steph brought to my attention:

From Photobucket:
By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Photobucket Services, you hereby grant to Photobucket and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked “private” will not be distributed outside the Photobucket Services. Photobucket and/or other Users may copy, print or display publicly available Content outside of the Photobucket Services, including without limitation, via the Site or third party websites or applications (for example, services allowing Users to order prints of Content or t-shirts and similar items containing Content).

Basically, if someone can see your image on Photobucket, they can pretty much do what they want with it. This is a good thing if you are looking for content to use. Steph originally checked out the TOU because she was looking for photos of a Disney ride that she wanted to use on a layout (which is allowed). However, this is a bad thing if you don’t want others using your images! If you don’t mind sharing them, then no need to worry, but with many digi scrappers using Photobucket to post layouts and previews that designers don’t want to go public until a certain date, this is certainly an area to be informed on.

CAN I USE FLICKR TO POST TO FORUMS?

Team member Trina taught me how to use Flickr instead of Photobucket for sharing in our private team forum. I’m so happy to know about this option, because you can select copyright protection on photos on Flickr. You can also have private and public images in the same album at Flickr. Refer back to this post for more instructions on how to use these features.

I’ve marked this layout as private in my Flickr account so you can see how this will work to share the image but not allow total access. Go to “Share This” and choose “Grab the HTML/BBC code”

Be sure to select the BB code. You can also choose email options to share this way. When you use these tools, it creates a “Guest Pass” for you photo so it is only viewable to those who you want to share it with.

Then copy and paste the code into the forum where you want to privately share the image. Others will be able to see the image and copy and paste it for team purposes, but when they click on the flickr link included, it will say that this is a “private photo” and it will remain that way until you change the settings. Pretty cool trick!

Do you have any tips or tricks for using Photobucket? How do you share your images in team forums? We’d love to hear from you!

katie big

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on February 9, 2011 by Katie | Tagged flickr, photo storage, photobucket, photos |

Digi Downloading Tips

Post by Katie

computer-tips-and-tricks

One of the first things a digi newbie needs to learn is how to download and unzip files. Surprisingly, there are many ways to manage downloading, so even a seasoned digi veteran can always learn a few tricks in this area as well. I (Katie) have been digital scrapbooking for almost 6 years now, and I only recently streamlined my own downloading process thanks to something that Steph mentioned to me in a podcast.

Here’s my current process:

As soon as I complete an online digital scrapbook purchase (or find a high-quality freebie), I immediately save the zip files to my computer hard drive. All my downloads go immediately to a folder labeled “downloads”.
After I’ve accumulated a few downloads (never waiting more than a day or two), I use the unzip them all tool (it’s free!) to quickly unzip multiple files at once.
I quickly check all unzipped downloads to be sure there were no corrupt files and that I got everything. That’s the main reason why I never wait too long to do this – many sites keep the download links active in your account for a few days. It’s also much easier for a shop owner to go in and reset download links on a recent purchase rather than having to wade back through months of orders to find yours.
I delete all my zip folders once I have unzipped the contents. I know many digi scrappers keep these for their files, but I don’t feel like there is any need to do this.
I like to consolidate my unzipped download folders at this point. I generally like to have only 1 file per kit or product. I may keep subfolders within that main folder (especially for alphas), but I like to keep it all neat & tidy. You can read more about my organization process in the post Digital Scrapbook Organization – 3 Ways.
Once my files are consolidated, I move them to my external hard drive organization system. Sometimes, if I plan to use the download right away, I will also keep a copy on my laptop so I can easily access it.

It’s a pretty simple system and it works for me. However, not everyone is the same and there are other ways to accomplish the same tasks, so I thought it would be helpful to share what some of our team members here at The Daily Digi do to manage their downloads.

Heddy’s process:

With scrap supplies, I download into my SCRAP DOWNLOADS folder and unzip right away. This is because I’ve had corrupt zip files in the past and it can be a pain to have a download reset by a store after a certain amount of time has passed.
With kits, once I unzip them, I organize them right away by renaming the main folder DESIGNER NAME – KIT NAME and creating sub-folders ALPHA, ELEMENTS, and PAPERS. If a kit has two or more paper zips, I consolidate them all in one PAPERS folder to make it easier to scrap with. I also drag the kit preview into the top folder and tag it in ACDSee right away. Later on, once I’m ready to actually use the kit, I tag the individual elements and papers. (This makes it very easy for me to know which kits I’ve scrapped with before and which ones haven’t been used.)
Once I’m done those quick steps, I delete the zip folder. I’m embarrassed to say that I used to keep my zip files in a folder up until last year! I had about 80 GB of them! After doing some research, I found out there’s no need to keep them and I happily deleted them (and freed a bunch of hard drive space!).

Melissa S.’s process:

I download zips into a folder, then unzip them using unzip them all onto my main HDD and re-download any corrupted files if necessary.
I unzip them into the designer’s name and then leave them however the designer organised them otherwise. I delete all the extra folders for the Mac.
I keep my zip files until I have about 4GB then burn them off on to a DVD as a backup. I delete the zips and then backup my supplies onto an external HDD using Synctoy. I don’t use the HDD all the time as they tend to go flakey. So I have 3 copies. I on DVD, one on my HDD and one on my External HDD.

Lauren’s process:

I use ALZIP and when you right click over the zip you can click on “extract ALL to folder” which i love!
I also agree on unzipping right away because of the issue w/ improper downloads and what not.
I also remove copies of previews (you know how sometimes the put them in EACH folder!) and i rename the preview I keep “folder” if it’s not already named that way.
if the kits in multiple folders, I put them all into one (usually the paper folder). I like them nice and tidy!

Jenn’s process:

I download everything to my desktop so I can see it and it makes me organize and unzip it faster because it drives me crazy to have a bunch of files on my desktop.
I use Zip Genius, and I try to unzip as I’m downloading to make sure none of the files are corrupt, and as soon as I check to make sure the file contents are all there I’ll dump the zips into the recycle bin.
Any scrapbook products that I download get renamed by Designer_KitName. If the kit is broken up into individual folders I’ll put them all into one folder, with only a subfolder for an alpha if there was one included. I don’t like to have to click through a bunch of folders to find things, and tend to scrap easier if I can just open 1 folder and find all of the paper/elements mixed together as it helps me to visualize the items together better.

Trina’s process:

I use UnzipThemAll as well, although it took me awhile to figure it out. It is such a time saver! I download to 2 spots – New Downloads (for stuff I’ve purchased) and CT Downloads.
I unzip right away and delete the zips. I’ve found that when downloading some stores limit you to downloading 2 things at a time, but even if they don’t limit it, I tend to stick with downloading 2 zips at once, otherwise it downloads too slow and actually takes more time. A lot of times I don’t have time to download something right away, so I keep the e-mail from the store with the download links in my inbox until I download. I hate having a cluttered inbox, so this always reminds me to go download what I’ve purchased.
I use Mozilla Firefox, and I love the Download box that pops up, it comes in handy for remembering which was the last download link you’ve clicked on (I could never remember that using IE).

Tara’s process:

Currently when I download a file from a shop etc. I save it to my favourite place!!! My Desktop.
Then I right click and select Extract All. I move my Zip file into the Zip Folder I keep on a separate drive.
Then I file the folder in my scrap folders, I move it to my main folders and then to the back up I keep on an external drive.

Anne’s process:

I’ve recently started working on a Mac laptop, so I’m still trying to figure out the inns and outs on this one. But when I used PC I loved my 7-ZIP download manager. I could download up to seven files at once and I could adjust where I wanted the zips to be stored right away.

Who knew there were so many ways to download & manage files? Even though we all had differences in our downloading process, we all had a common goal – unzip & organize those digi goodies as quickly as possible so we can get scrappin!

Here are a few related links worth checking out:

Happy Downloading!

katie big

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on January 29, 2011 by Katie |

Organizing in Lightroom with Kayla Lamoreaux

Post by Katie

We are so happy to have Kayla Lamoreaux here with a guest post today! If you’ve listened to Kayla on the Digi Show podcast, you will know that she is extremely knowledgeable about both organizing digital supplies, and Lightroom! Here’s a little bit about Kayla:

clip_image001 I love scrapbooking digitally and using technology to make life easier. For the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to work with some amazing people in this industry, teaching everything from digital scrapbooking to photo and supply organization. I love technology and how much easier it has made memory keeping in my life – to that end I love sharing whatever I can with others to help them in their journey to preserve their stories and memories.

Kayla teaches Digital Scrapbooking and Photo Organization at Digital Scrapper (www.digitalscrapper.com). You can also find her at Digiscrap101, where she blogs about digital scrapbooking, photography, and anything else that inspires her.

clip_image002

After teaching photo organization in five different software programs, I am often asked where I choose to store not only my personal photos, but also my digital supplies. The answer is Lightroom.

The path that led me to Lightroom was pretty long and involved stops in places like ACDSee,Photoshop Elements, Aperture, and iPhoto. I even learned about Picasa, which is another organizing program that is free. In the end I chose Lightroom.

The reasons are many – the most important one being that Lightroom is the software that allows me to accomplish the most in my workflow in the least amount of time and stress. It also works seamlessly with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Last but definitely not least, Lightroom allows for non-destructive image editing and allows me to add metadata and keep track of thousands of items on multiple hard drives without the hard drives being attached to my computer.

There are a lot of scrapbookers out there who get that Lightroom is great for photos. When I tell them I am also organizing my supplies in Lightroom, I get some puzzled looks followed by the question, “How do you do that when Lightroom doesn’t recognize PNG files?”

First things first – organizing your supplies in any software can be a daunting task. Currently I have 40,000+ images in my digital supply collection. That is a lot to think about organizing – especially when about 60% are in PNG format…

Long story short, after a lot of research on digital asset management and the PNG file format I learned a few things: 1) PNG files are great for maintaining transparency and sharing online because of their size, and 2) PNG files are not great at holding metadata or keywords because there is no uniform format to hold that metadata.

So, if I wanted my supplies organized with the keywords and info written directly into the files, I needed to convert my PNG files to another format. Keywords and metadata make it so no matter what software you organize in, you will be able to organize your files instead of starting over. I only wanted to organize my files once.

What followed after all these discoveries was a process that I am still refining. It involves a workflow that incorporates Adobe Bridge along with Lightroom. I have been working on the process since this summer.

What I can tell you is that it works. I am still in the process of keywording my supplies so that eventually I will be able to locate them by not just kit and designer, but also color, type, and season/theme. So if I want a green staple, I will just search for it and find every green staple in my catalog within seconds.

As I have continued to bring new supplies into the system, the workflow works. I also love that I can search my photos for a layout in Lightroom and then in the same software search for digital papers and elements to scrapbook them with, opening them all in Photoshop. My workflow has never flowed that easily from photos and supplies to Photoshop. And just in case you are wondering, if you are working in Photoshop Elements, Lightroom works with that as well.

The best part is even though I don’t have everything organized yet, my 15 minute organizing sessions are getting me somewhere as I am already reaping the benefits of being able to search what has been keyworded.

So when it comes to organizing, no matter what software you use I would recommend three things:

1) Find a software that feels intuitive and easy to use.

2) Make sure that the work you put into it – i.e. keywording, categories, etc. is something you can get out – even if you change programs.

3) Take it one small step at a time – organize your previews to start and then begin organizing things by designer and kit and so on.

Are you organized with your supplies? What software do you use and what do you like best about your system? Share in the comments, I am sure there is a lot we can all learn from one another.

P.S. For more Lightroom resources check out this page in our tutorials section.

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Posted in Computer Tips and Tricks Posted on December 11, 2010 by Katie | Tagged digital scrapbook organization, lightroom, organizing digital scrapbook supplies, organizing in lightroom |

Category Archives: Computer Tips and Tricks

on the fly border by Kristin Rice – Kstudio

Scrapbooking Pinboards

Scrap Pin Boards

USE YOUR TOOLBAR WISELY

SYNC OR BACKUP YOUR BOOKMARK BAR

USE ONLINE BOOKMARKING SITES

FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

Icons vs. folders

What program should I use if I’m on a PC?

Do I really need icons?

sleep tight by Kaye Winiecki

Using sleep

Note

When to shut down

heart trails by Anne Dejong

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