Organizing with Microsoft Expression Media
| There are several ways to organize your scrap supplies on a Mac. Microsofts Expression Media has become my favorite since I "converted" to Mac in 2007. I used ACDsee on my pc like many other scrappers and loved it, and I got really disappointed when I discovered that they didn't have a mac version. So I have been testing Bridge, Shoebox and MediaDex(not available anymore) and several others, but now I am finally "home". Microsoft Expressin Media is quite expensive if you buy it as a "stand alone" application(299$), but these days a lot of Mac users buy Microsoft Office 2008 and get Expression Media in the box without even knowing it. I got my version from an ebay seller, that didn't need the "extra disc" for only 19$. Let me show you some screen shots! |  |
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I
have chosen to use Filetype, Style, Author(Designer) and Keywords in
the Catalog Field because thats what suits me best. You can add a lot
of of other categories here if you want too. I have set my preferences
to open the files in PSE when I doubleclick a thumbnail in a catalog.
You can also select a lot of files and open by right clicking them, of
course. |
| PNG
Files This is how Expression Media shows my png files, on a nice white background(you can choose another color if you want to. |
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One
thing I really liked about ACDsee was the photo bin, and how you could
create a text file from the files you had in there to make credits to
your designers. I found a similar way to do it with EM. All my
screenshots are in Norwegian, but if you download the English
version(free 60days trial!!) of EM I guess you'll see rather easily
what the same features are in English.Ok, here is what I do. I open the
Expression Media NoteBook and drag and drop the files I want to use in
my layout in to it. If you don't finish your layout, you can save this
notebook(with comments) for later use. When my layout is finished I
select all the files in the notebook(cmd+a) and doubleclick them. Then
they open in a new window. Then I go to create text file, and EM opens a new window that gives you several options. |
I simply choose filename like the screenshot below.
And then, you have a text file that makes it really easy to give credit when you publish your layout. I usually just edit the text in this file, and then I save these text files with the same filename as my layouts. That way I can just open this text file and copy and paste the text into the gallery website I am posting my layouts too. Quick and easy!
