DigiKam is another great free open source photo organizer/editor. There are versions for Linux and Windows, I'm a Linux user. http://www.digikam.org It has the option to set it so the tags and description are written to the meta data and so are transfered with the image. It handles all image types well and works great for both my TIFF's and JPGS. It does find faces in photos so you can tag them, but does not yet suggest who that person might be based on other tags. This is something they are working on and hopefully will be in the next release. One feature I like is the batch queue manager. There are a large number of options from resizing to watermarking that I use often. I can quickly select what photos I want for web use, resize them all in one step. I can chose if I want them in the same folder or else where, or if I want them to keep the same names or change them. It also imports from sites like Facebook and PicasaWeb. It also exports to many online sites. I love using this to share photos with family on Facebook, or download an album of photos a cousin has posted there. There is a bit of a learning curve with the program, but it's not to hard to pick up.
As to organizing the files, what I originally used was surname folders, with sub-folders per family group. Something like this. Genealogy -> Surnames -->Smith ---> John Smith & Mary Jones Then under each family folder I have folders for their record groups, births, marriage, death, census etc. When I name a file I start it with the date it was created. So if John Smith and Mary Jone married on 25 Dec 1855 in Cambrage, MA. I would name it like this. 1855DEC25 USA MA M John Smith & Mary Jones.jpg Many would say instead of using spaces to use a dash or underscore, I haven't had an issue with it locally or online but it would look like this. 1855DEC25_USA_MA_M_John_Smith_&_Mary_Jones.jpg In either way I'm recording the file starting with the date, then place, what B for birth, BA for baptism, M for marriage, D for death, then who the record is for. I originally had a separate folder system for photos. However I've been thinking about moving these into my main genealogy folders. This will be a big job! For my Swedish lines, it has been a big challenge. Surnames change with each generation and often with in siblings will have different surnames. The sons' using *sson or *ssen and the daughters using *dotter or *datter. But I also have people people who changed their name to military surnames. For this line I organize everything under a Place folder. Under that I break it down by County and Parish folders. However I'm still not 100% happy with this system. I'll be adding tags to the images and that will help to quickly find and work with the records for each family group living in the same parish. Of course having everything linked into genealogy software helps a lot to! Kim Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
