Okay, so I decide to use Paintshop Pro to organize my images.

[flamin lib]

It has this great feature that reaches out all over the hard drive, finds all the image files that don't have 'tags' and allows you to 'tag' them so they can be found regardless of where they are. Cool.

Did I mention that I've been making pictures for 48 years? Just the digital files number well over 7,000. Then I've got a bunch of CDs with Kodachrome and TriX images converted to .tif files.

So, after two days working all day I can tell you that you can get really brutal with the DELETE option. All the time I'm looking at files I'm thinking to myself, 'And I thought shooting everything in burst mode was a good idea . . .'

Once I weed through all this stuff I get to go back to each Tag and add sub-tags to make searching more specific, like 'flower+dog wood+B&W etc.

And to think I quit drinkin' last year . . .

[Binkie The Clown]

1. That's a big project. I've been afraid to even try with my stacks of images. n/t

[Beartracks]

2. Haven't usd PSP in quite a while. Nice feature.

Are there any other software applications that do something similar?

================

[flamin lib]

3. I'm sure there are but this ole dog has a hard time learning tricks of any kind

much less new ones.

Why not do an OP and see what others are using to manage their inventory? I have a feeling that many of the people reading this group would really like to see what works.

[csziggy]

4. Over the last decade I have been using IrfanView

Freeware and handy for viewing and manipulating image files.

You can get it at http://www.irfanview.com/

I mostly use it for renaming files.

I am scanning and sorting family photos going back over nearly 150 years. Over the last couple of years I have scanned all the pictures from my grandfather and father. They were in various folders, envelopes, and other storage things, usually with some labeling. I scan the original photos and negatives as TIFFs into a folder with the original label. With Irfanview I change the IMG### file names to DateFolderNameIMG### which is easy with IrfanView's Batch Conversion/Rename menu.

Then for ease of use, I use PhotoShop's Image Processor Script to convert the TIFFs to JPEGs - PhotoShop automatically creates a subfolder for the new files. I do basic editing, clean up and adjustments on the JPEGs, then create smaller files that are 1024 pixels on the largest side, again with PhotoShop's Image Processor Script. I shuffle the files around - move the TIFFs into a subfolder and move the smaller files into the main folder - and use IrfanView to tack "_web" onto the end of the file name to distinguish them from the full sized JPEGs.

When I am done with those steps, each folder opens and Windows can quickly populate the folders with thumbnails made from the "web" images. Since the original IMG###s stay the same, if a larger image or the original image is needed, they can be quickly located. I treat the TIFFs as I would negatives - I seldom edit them unless I have to separate images when scanning odd sized negatives in a group with one scan.

So far I have not gotten as far as tagging, but I think IrfanView can do that also. It can add keywords but I am not sure those are the same as Windows' tags.

The long term goal is to get all the family photos online on my web site. I'm using jAlbum to do that and it allows adding tags and captions.

So far I have something over a half a terrabyte of images sorted and ready to upload and about half of those online. I have a LOT more to do and that doesn't count the ones from my husband's side of the family or the ones we have taken in the last 40 years.

[ManiacJoe]

5. The delete key needs to be a frequently used key.

Keeping bad shots makes no sense.
Keeping all the frames of a burst makes no sense in most cases.

I do sports and event photography as well as my personal photography. I can have 1200-1700 images at the end of any given event per day. Half will be deleted before they are imported into my digital asset management system (Adobe Lightroom). After they are imported, 25% to 45% might eventually be publicly viewable.

Depending on what I am doing for a personal shoot, the deletes can be much more than 50%.

[flamin lib]

6. Procrastination. I'll clean it up when . . .

I get finished

before I upload to hard drive

while I'm editing

someday