PSE to ACDsee

[maxzap]

I'm just getting serious about digiscrapping and have somehow ended up with 5000 pictures (personal photos and scrapbooking elements) on my laptop. This started to be a problem so in looking for help I found this site.
I now use PSE3 but have just ordered PSE6 and think (after reading about it here) that I will get ACDsee instead of the organizer in PSE6.

So my question is - where to begin? should i put ACDsee and photos on an external hard drive? the categories i am now using in PSE3 are really a jumble - how would i go about getting that all straightened out? should i wipe out the organizer catalog files and start over or would that make more of a mess?

As you can see I really have no clue as to where to start? Any help...?

thanks.

max

[Wags]

I just upgraded to the ACDSee10 and I'm loving the improvments! I just ignore the organizer portion of Elements.

[troush]

Max,

Two things. First, decide how you want to physically organize things on your hard drive. What directories will hold what, etc.

Then, think through how you want to tag things. I know people who use a Who (people), What (events), When (dates), Where (location) top level category. (A "When" category is not necessary unless the particular organizer you are using doesn't support dates prior to 1980 (there are computer/math reasons for that) and you have pictures from then. ) I have People (friends/family), Events (Christmas 2006, Awana Grand Prix 2007), and Location categories and then sub-categories or tags depending on how deep I want to go. Don't get too complicated or you won't use it. I also have a scrapbooking category and have lots of tags for that.

So, my first advice is to plan. I don't know how ACDSee works. I would suggest checking out their site and see if they have any forums. See if you can download a manual before you get it and see if it has any recommendations.

-Trish