I have been trying to sort and tidy up my embroidery designs folder and have come up with an idea that I have not heard anyone mention before and thought some of you might like to use it too.

Yes this type of thing really helped me back 4 years ago Shirlene told me this and i still do it but****i do lose them yet lol Thanks Hugs

oh yes I do the same , all my recent downloads go to 00 NEW then I move them to the correct designer when completed, if a font has finished and I miss some I normally mark the folder as such : cute easter font need OP, so I don't need to go into the folder to see what is missing.
I then have :- 01 My favourite Designers, 02 Cute family, 03 Malls. 04 other designers 05 My Designs ( which I have digitized) 06 General ( these are designs I can't file by designer so I file them by topic eg applique, fs lace, etc I have over 300gb of designs so I need to be organized lol , big hugs from London xx

I have something similar. I call it my dailies folder. It does help with cutting down navigating, and I just cleaned mine out! Yeah! The other side is I still find files in the wrong place. Lol!

I use both the AAA as well as the numbers. Last year I started using the year as a precursor to folder names, but I only did it for part of the year.
This year I have been doing it since the beginning of the year and it is so much easier finding the folders to put my newbies in.
2016 Emb Mach Downloads - as the main folder; then the names of each company as the sub folders.
When I use them I put them in the Category folders - Animals, Gardens, etc.
I am sure there is another way as there are as many ways to do something as there are people.

Great idea thank you for sharing.. Always looking for something to make life easier. Marian

I do much the same. File called - work in progress.

Haaaaa two minds think a like that is what I do and it safes a lot of head aches and time

Thank you for bringing this up. It is interesting to read all the tips that have been submitted.
I call the folder where I put all my downloads, including fonts I am collecting, "newest", and it has a shortcut on my desktop. In this folder I keep individual folders for each design set that I am currently collecting, but have not yet completed. If I somehow miss a letter, I add the name of the letter(s) to the folder name, (such as "- no L-N"). Once it becomes clear to me that for whatever reason I will not be able to complete that font set, I move the folder to another folder which I have named "unfinished fonts". The shortcut to that folder also sits on my desktop. It is then easy to find the correct folder, if the missing letter should become available at some point , or should I decide to purchase it.

I go through my "newest" folder every day, organizing and moving the files to where they will ultimately reside. So far this system has worked well for me, giving me an easy way to organize and add to the fonts I am collecting, as well as to those I am trying to complete.

Another thing I started to do just recently is to put a copy of the first letter of each completed alphabet set in a separate folder, which I have called "Alphabet Samples". Within this folder I have a holiday fonts folder, keeping them apart, so I can find those sets quickly. I have very many fonts, and at first setting this up seemed like an overwhelming job! It did take me awhile to do this, but it was well worth doing, because with my program that allows me to see the designs as icons, I can now view what the font set looks like without having to hunt through a huge number of folders before deciding which one I want to use. Plus, seeing all the icons side by side, I can now compare the fonts that I have. This has allowed me to utilize my fonts more easily and quickly. If you have many font sets, I cannot recommend doing this enough. Judy

2 comments

by Sewmum1 12 Mar 2016

You have some great ideas. I might just need to borrow a couple while I am continuing to sort. Thank you

by joansatx 17 Mar 2016

Excellent!

Great minds think alike. I keep an AAA Fonts folder for just this purpose. When font is completed, or ended, incomplete, I move into the various font subdirectories - Font Christmas, Font Floral, Font Artsy, etc.

I'm glad that you are starting early to classifiy your designs! Some of us have thousands of designs that we've accumulated over the years and it helps a lot.

I also keep a folder called "Designs By Topic" and I don't keep subfolders. I don't like having to go through different folders to get to where I want to go. I keep them in a row on my desktop. I also keep an archive folder of all the designs that I have stitched out. This is especially helpful to me as I often edit a design so that it is no longer in its orginal form. Once you start editing designs you don't want to lose the original one.

1 comment

by Sewmum1 12 Mar 2016

I have started a folder with designs I have used too. Just in case I or someone else wanted me to use the same design again.

I do the same. Call the main folder "00 to be sorted"

I use 'folder marker' . It will allow colors AND symbols for my folders. There is a free version at http://foldermarker.com/en/
It has helped me tremendously.

1 comment

by Patricia109 17 Mar 2016

That is so cute.

I do the same thing except put a number 1 as the first character so it comes up as the first file..works splendidly!

I do the same, have named the folder "!new" - the "!" brings it to the top of the list as well, as does the number "1" before a file name.

1 comment

by Sewmum1 08 Mar 2016

Good idea. I hadn't thought of using !

Thanks for sharing a good tip. It's wonderful when we find what works for us and even better when we share.

That sounds good. I'll give it a try .
Angelika