"I have a couple of questions about tagging digisupplies. In ACDSee, if you see an item (say a kit preview) you can click "go to file" to go to that particular file. Does Lightroom have a similar feature? I find this handy for tagging elements so that I can just tag the preview of a set of staples, or ribbons, etc., instead of tagging each staple or ribbon. I'm curious if LR has something similar. Also, how to you handle your tagged digi supplies if working on two computers? Right now I'm using an EHD, with the files on my desktop being the "master" and the EHD being the copy. How would I updated the LR catalog for the digi supplies if I add/delete items? THANKS!!"
Thanks for a great question. As you may or may not know, I too used to organize my supplies in ACDSee before switching to the Mac platform.
To answer your first question, Lightroom doesn't have a feature to link a preview of a kit file to several other files. However, let me show you what Lightroom can do. Spoiler Alert: if you continue reading this post you will begin to see a few things you will want to know for class - so enjoy or wait - it's your choice! I share this with one request - don't move anything around yet - you will see in this example that the file structure for your supplies in Lightroom is different after import, but you will need the existing file structure of organizing by kit and designer to make your first tagging session much easier! So peek but don't do anything yet! :)
If I understand you correctly, you want the ability to have the Preview of a kit lead you to all the files in that kit? So looking at the cute preview to the left - if one wanted to find the cute bird element in that kit preview it is just a matter of a couple of clicks to get to the entire folder of the kit?
There are several different ways to do this, but I want to start with the WHY. One of the reasons I finally chose Lightroom is that I wanted this to be the LAST time I organized my supplies. I wanted to organize my supplies in a way that if the files were separated from my catalog or the catalog were corrupted I would never lose the tagging work I had done.
One of the biggest drawbacks of ACDSee is that you are working with a catalog that makes it very difficult to write your tags to IPTC data (where other programs look for them) - so all the tagging, etc. you do inside ACDSee is proprietary and completely dependent on your catalog. Your files don't stand alone with information embedded, the information is in the catalog.
In Lightroom not only can you tag several photos at the same time, you can also separate your files from your catalog, import them back in at a different location and the FILES tell your catalog what they are - which keywords they have, etc. I know this because I personally have completely re-done my catalog - taking files and converting their file format and reimporting them in and guess what? I didn't lost my tags. Try that with ACDSee.
It's all about Metadata. So back to the kit preview. When we import our supplies into Lightroom for class we will be importing them in a folder structure by kit and then kit folders in folders by Designer.
So in the above example I have my Lightroom class supply folders setup by designers (top folder window) and then with individual kits by those designers in each folder (lower folder window).
When we import them into Lightroom, the first thing we will do is keyword every single one of the items in each kit with the designer's name and then each folder of items will be keyworded with the name of the kit. All those items will be keyworded in a matter of just three steps for ALL the images in the folder. Quick and Easy.
Eventually we will move all our items into folder by designer - meaning we will lose our file folder structure of kits and just have designer folders with EVERYTHING they created in one folder - however - you will still be able to group everything by kits with your keywords.
So back to your kit previews. In my final folder structure I actually have a folder of kit previews separate from their designer folders. This allows me to quickly search through them:
When I see a kit preview I want to look at closer, I can double click on it and get its enlarged thumbnail.
The best part about this system is the keywords that really allow you to have your cake and eat it too because even though my preview is in a completely different file folder than the kit it belongs to, I can find everything in that kit in a few clicks. Here's how:
When I select the kit preview I want, the checkboxes to the left of Catherine Designs and CD-CreateWings_RC23 let me know exactly which kit it belongs to. All I have to do to get to all the items in that kit is click the arrow to the right of the kit and # of items in the kit (843) and voila I get all the files in the kit!
So although Lightroom doesn't enable you to directly associate a bunch of files with one preview file, it does allow you to virtually group them into keywords no matter where they are located on your hard drive.
The best part? Say tomorrow your catalog was completely corrupted and for some crazy reason you lost your file structure but not your files. All you would have to do is create a new catalog and then import everything in. Because the keywords are stored INSIDE your files, you would be able to quickly find all the items keyworded by one designer and move them to file folders.
As for your second question about using Lightroom with two computers - I don't have personal experience with this, however, there are others that do. It is my understanding if you use a portable external hard drive it can be done. Read more here.
Have a question about Lightroom you'd like to see answered on this blog? Jot it down and email it to me at lightroomlady @ gmail.com. With class prep I can't promise a lightning fast response, but I will definitely be highlighting questions in future posts.
Happy Monday!
Oh my! So much to chew on. I've got to "get into" this for real!
Posted by: Lynda Farabee | 07 February 2011 at 10:15 AM