Colleagues, My collection of picture CD's seems to be growing exponentially so I contrived a simple organizing system that didn't involve a lot of work to implement. It may seem kind of "well, duh" but I am pleased with its simplicity and speed, so I'm passing it on to PF'ers. It is a Windows system but the underlying scheme can work on a Mac. All that is required is a way to save directories as text files. I couldn't figure out how to do that in MSW so I found a $15 program called Advanced Directory Printer. A demo is on TwoCows.com . The ADP program does a lot of neat things besides help sort files too. Storing Directories: 1. Number your CD's - it doesn't matter what is on them or the sequence. 2. Open each CD directory in ADP and save it using any name with the same number: photo-1.txt, etc. (save all the files in the same folder) Finding a picture with a key word search: 4. Open the ADP picture files folder in Windows Explorer 5. Open Windows Explorer/Quick Finder/advanced 6. In that menu check "match partial word" then double click on "insert new property" 7. The menu that opens has a place to enter any part of the file name. 8. Type in what you remember might be part of the file name. Enter "find now" The number of any disk that has a file that matches the partial name will appear. One advantage to this system is that it's quick to organize a bunch of CD's - I did sixty in less than an hour - and no matter how whacked your file naming system is you can track a file down in a hurry if you remember any part of the name (.tif and .jpg don't count!). You can do more complex searches and get all the pictures of the same subject, etc.. AZ Maker of Lookaround panoramic camera. http://www.panoramacamera.us or keyword.com lookaround
