If you feel uncomfortable doing this, I would recommend making a copy of the Default folder before proceeding.

1. Close Photo Manager.
2. If you have moved your database to a somewhere other than the default location, please go to that location. If you haven't moved it (and you would know if you have) then select the default location for the correct version and operating system.
3. In Version 9 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90\Default"
4. In Version 10 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100\Default"
5. In Version 9 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90\Default
6. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100\Default
7. Once you are in the correct folder:
8. Go to View | Details
9. Click on the Type column header to sort the files by type of file.
10. Select all files that are listed as cdx files and hit the delete key.

• Tip: Make sure you go to YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data. There is a YOUR_USER_NAME\Application Data and that is the wrong one...

• Tip for On XP If you cannot view the Local Settings folder:

1. click Tools (or View) | Folder Options.
2. Click the View Tab.
3. Select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
4. Click Like Current Folder or Apply to All Folders.
5. Click Yes.
6. Click OK.

• Tip for On Vista If you cannot view the AppData folder:

1. If you cannot see the menu bar, you have to press the Alt-key on the keyboard and the menu bar should be visible.
2. click Tools (or View) | Folder Options.
3. Click the View Tab.
4. Select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
5. Click Like Current Folder or Apply to All Folders.
6. Click Yes.
7. Click OK.

If you can't find the cdx files and you are sure you are in the right folder, please look at this screenshot. You want to select all HIGHLIGHTED files and delete them. DELETE only the highlighted ones in the screenshot and leave the others.

1. Click it to show the images assigned to it.
2. Select all the entries (Ctrl-a) for the misspelled Author and use the Properties pane to change the author name to the correct spelling.
   
3. After that, click Author again in Auto Categories, then click F5 to refresh. 
   

You can try this but I am not sure how well it will work.  Not very many people have had success with rebind.

Using ACDSee Photo Manager on 2 Computers (desktop & laptop) with 2 EHDs, where one EHD is large drive and the second is portable EHD containing a subset of kits on large drive. User wants Photo Manager to be used on either desktop or laptop with large EHD plugged in or while traveling laptop with portable EHD.

This will also work if you only work on one computer with 2 EHD's (portable not large non-portable.) Just skip the last step at the very bottom.

3. At this point, inside Photo Manager, move your kits that you would like to use while traveling and place in this new folder "KitsWhileTraveling"

4. Let's copy the images over to the P-EHD. To do this, connect both NP-EHD & P-EHD to the desktop and create a synch. The tutorial for that is here: Synchronization with ACDSee Photo Manager 9

• source folder: The folder on NP-EHD called "KitsWhileTraveling"
• backup destination folder: Identical folder name on P-EHD.
• There is no need to set up a scheduled synch. Once created, run the synch. This will copy over all your digital kits to your P-EHD which may take a while.

When you get ready to travel:

1. Run synch created in step 4
2. Connect your P-EHD to your laptop. Okay, now your laptop things your data is on NP-EHD. We need to rebind the info and tell it it's not on the NP-EHD but on the P-EHD. To do that on your laptop Photo Manager, go do this: Rebind
   

• In Step 6 of that help: The folder you need to choose is NP-EHD "KitsWhileTraveling" and click on the ? (orphan) for the NP-EHD to rebind
• In Step 9 of that help: The folder you need to choose is P-EHD "KitsWhileTraveling"

Now you should have all your organizing and kits working with your portable drive.

When you are done traveling:

6. , Rebind the "KitsIWantToUse" folder from your P-EHD back to your NP-EHD. That way when you organize, you are organizing on the right one. You are telling the database they are back on your NP-EHD.

• In Step 6 of that help: The folder you need to choose is P-EHD "KitsWhileTraveling" click on the ? (orphan) for the P-EHD to rebind
• In Step 9 of that help: The folder you need to choose is NP-EHD "KitsWhileTraveling"

To continue to use this system. Organize, download, on your laptop. If you know you want to use the kit while traveling put it in "KitsWhileTraveling" . Then before you travel do these steps.

To transfer ACDSee organizing to desktop:

To get the organizing onto your desktop. Do the following steps:

Working on 2 computers with EHD

I would recommend doing these steps when you are in a not-traveling phase.. That is when your database thinks all your files are on the NP-EHD.

Using the Image Basket

The drawback of this method is that the contents of the basket is not saved between sessions.

There is a way to track your files being used. It isn't quite automatic but requires one extra stop of dragging and dropping.

• As you work, open up the Image Basket. View | Image Basket.
• Note: Previously we suggested using the Burn Basket (to save between sessions) and have found out that you can't generate file lists from it. So it is not recommended.
• As you grab an element or paper to work with, drag & drop it first in the image basket (it won't do any actual move), then grab it again and drop into your editor. Here is an example:

See the image basket pane in the bottom of the window:

• When you are done, you can remove any you didn't use.
• At completions of layout, select all the images in the basket.
• Go Database -> Export -> Generate File List (Ctrl - G) and this file should appear.
• You can now save this with your layout. This is the text file it creates:

Method 2

Once you create a Favorite shortcut as described in this help, if you move your digital kits (from within or outside of ACDSee) your favorites shortcuts will not follow and you will lose the link. So try not move your digital kits around too much and you can avoid this.

Using Favorites

1. Right click on a image that you used in a layout, choose Add to Favorites.
2. To see your Favorites (use View | Favorites).
3. Select the images and do Ctrl-G to generate a file list. (I know this works because I tried it and I know it saves between sessions.)

After you created a file list you can delete the files in favorites. These are really just shortcuts to your images and you are not deleting your images. The way you can tell they are shortcuts is they have a little arrow in the bottom left corner. I don't like the feel of deleting favorites because it feels like you are deleting the images. But assuming you are in Favorites, look for the little arrows to identify shortcuts, then it is safe to delete favorites.

Another possibility that I see with Favorites to keep track of many layouts credits.

1. Bring up the favorites windows
2. Right click on Favorites and choose New | Folder
3. Create a folder named "Your Layout" and then store all the shortcuts to the images you use there. (Drag and Drop them after then have been added to Favorites.)
4. For your next layout, do the same thing.

• You could generate the file listing at any time for any of layouts done this way.
• This would be useful for working on multiple layouts at one time.

How to customize your file listing to get credits easily?

First though you have had to put the kit name in the Caption Box & designer name into the Author Box as described in this tutorial: Easily add kit name & Designer

• Under Tools | Options,
• click on the File List,
• click on Detail View
• click on Choose Details. That will bring you to this screen:

• Click on ACD Database
• Click on the Caption & Author Box
• Click on Add.
• Click OK, and OK

Now, any properties listed on the right side will be exported when you do a generate file listing:

Directions on working on 2 computers with a external hard drive between them:

Important: If you want to share your database between a Vista & XP computers, their is some extra steps that NEED to be done.

1. Place all your digital kits and images on the External Hard Drive (EHD). To do this: How to Move Organized Digital Kits
2. The next step is getting the ACDSee database moved on to your EHD:
3. Exit ACDSee Photo Manager
4. Connect your EHD
   
5. Open Windows Explorer
6. Browse to this location:
   
1. In Version 9 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90"
2. In Version 10 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100"
3. In Version 9 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90
4. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
5. XP Tips: View your Local Settings Folder (for XP)
6. Vista Tips: How to view your AppData folder on Vista
7. Select the Default folder and choose Edit | Copy (or Ctrl-c)
8. Still in Windows Explorer, browse to the EHD.
   
9. Make a new folder called ACDSee Database
10. Click on the new folder you just created, and choose Edit | Paste (or Ctrl-v) to copy the Default folder (Database) to the EHD.
11. Start ACDSee Photo Manager (This step is what I call "Pointing to the database")
1. Click on Tools | Options
2. Click on the Database
3. At the end of the path of the database, click on the icon and browse to your EHD. On the EHD select this path: ACDSee Database\Default
12. Restart Photo Manager and make sure your categories are there and you can search for your images and go to file takes you to your files.
13. Close down ACDSee Photo Manager and unplug your EHD. Connect the EHD to the second computer.
    
14. If BOTH computers are XP, or BOTH are Vista, or the original computer was Vista: then repeat step 11 & 12 on the second computer.
15. If the first computer is XP and the second computer is Vista, then do the following:
    
1. Close Photo Manager
   
2. Using Windows Explorer, browse to the EHD:\ACDSee Database folder.
3. Select the Default folder and choose Edit | Copy (or Ctrl-c)
4. Browse to:
   
1. In Version 9 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90
2. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
5. Right click on the Default folder and rename the Default folder to Default-old
6. Choose Edit | Paste (or Ctrl-v) to copy in Default folder (Database) from the EHD.
7. Start Photo Manager, make sure your categories are there and you can search.
8. Close Photo Manager
9. Browse to same location on Vista as step #4 above.
10. Select the Default folder and choose Edit | Copy (or Ctrl-c)
11. Browse to the EHD:\ACDSee Database folder.
12. Delete the Default folder here.
13. Choose Edit | Paste (or Ctrl-v) to copy in Default folder (Database) from the Vista computer.
14. Then do steps 11 & 12 above.
15. Lastly, always optimize from the Vista computer!!

Word of Caution: Your database for ACDSee is now stored on EHD. If you start ACDSee and the EHD is disconnected you will receive an error message "Can not connect to database" So always connect the EHD before starting ACDSee Photo Manager.

Or go  to Tools | Exposure warning and uncheck the boxes.

• If you want to install ACDSee Photo Manager in a location other than the default location such as a second internal hard drive. I don't recommend installing onto an external hard drive since this makes ACDSee inoperable if the external hard drive is not connected.
• If you want to customize which files you want ACDSee to be in charge of viewing. This is called file associations. The default installation of the ACDSee Photo Manager seems to take over your computer and file types. 

To start download the trial.

1. Run the trial exe file.
2. 
3. Click Next
4. 
5. Click on the "I accept the terms" and click Next
6. 
7. Enter in your name & organization. If it is a trial, select trial. If you have a license number, click on Full and enter the license number. Then click Next
8. 
9. Choose Custom if you wish to change the default location of where ACDSee is installed to. If you want the default location on your main c: drive, then choose Complete. Click Next
1. 
   
2. 
3. If you chose Custom, you will be shown this screen. Click on the Change button and choose the desired location.
10. 
11. If you want to customize which file types that you want ACDSee to open, then choose Custom and click Next
12. 
13. XP ONLY: Choose whether you want the Yahoo toolbar or not, the click Next.
14. 
15. If Vista, go to step 17. On XP: ACDSee will start installing. Eventually you will get this screen:
16. 
1. On the Image Tab: Click on Select All. Then go through the list and remove any image types that you want your other software to handle.
   
2. On the Video & Audio tab: I would choose Remove All
3. On the Archive tab: It is your choice.
4. Then click OK.
5. Then skip to step 19
   
17. On Vista, you will get this window:
18. 
1. None of the boxes will be checked. I suggest checking:
1. BMP
2. GIF
3. JPG & JPEG
4. PNG
5. TIF & TIFF
   
6. Any that say ACDSee 10 Photo Manager
19. At this point, ACDSee will start with either a welcome screen, catalog screen or convert screen depending on your system.
1. If it is asking you to catalog your images. We recommend not cataloging your digital kits but you can catalog your photos if you want to use ACDsee to view your photos.
2. If you are converting your database see this help: Upgrade from ACDSee 9 and ACDSee 10

Solution: The problem is how the .psd's are saved. If you are creating them yourself make sure file compatibility is turned on. To do this:

In Adobe Photoshop, turn on this setting (which I think it is on by default) and save the file as a new name. Here is the option that needs to be changed in Adobe Photoshop and to access it: Edit -> Preferences -> File Handling

Note: I would think saving it with the same name, selecting the newly saved psd thumbnail, doing Database | Rebuild Thumbnails and Metadata would do the same thing. But the user that discovered this said it didn't work for her that way.

• I bought & installed ACDSee Photo Manager 9/10. I installed everything as indicated with no apparent problems. However, now when I try to start the program, it crashes & refuses to open.

• Another situation that we've experienced is that after awhile - the software crashes & locks up... these instr's will also work in that case too.

First Possible Solution:

You are going to delete the .cdx files in the database, the .cdx files are the thumbnails files the database generates and they can become corrupt therefore we can delete them with out effecting any database information, The steps for that are as follows.
(only do one of these depending on which software you have)

Recovering from crashes. Deleting the cdx files.

Second Possible Solution:

If the software crashes after install - this has also worked to resolve problems - but the above usually resolves the problem -

(Before doing this - did you save your database in a custom location? If so, then the settings are removed so ACDSee will point toward the default location therefore you will have to load ACDSee click on the Tools menu then select Options and click on Database and point the database back to the custom location.)

ACDSee gives me an Error message after install --

Choose one of the following to do:

Manual Registry Editing steps:

There may be an issue with the registry key that holds the settings for ACDSee, we can try deleting this registry which will delete the settings for ACDSee. This step will NOT effect your image files or data.

Go to the Start Menu | Run. Type in REGEDIT and hit Enter.
Click on the + sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Click on the + sign next to Software. Right Click on the ACD Systems entry (Folder) and select Delete.

or the ACDSee provided registry tool:

Registry Tool to Delete User Settings

If it still continues to be troublesome (won't open), please visit this thread:

ACDSee Reinstall Thread

http://files.acdsystems.com/english/techsupport/reg/prod/r_acdsee.exe

Manually editing the registry settings 

on XP:

1. Go to the Start Menu | Run. Type in REGEDIT and hit Enter.
   
2. Click on the + sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
3. Click on the + sign next to Software.
4. Right Click on the ACD Systems entry (Folder) and select Delete.
   

on Vista:

1. Close Photo Manager
2. Go to the Start Menu
3. Then click on Search and Type in REGEDIT and hit Enter.
4. Click on the + sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
5. Click on the + sign next to Software.
6. Right Click on the ACD Systems entry (Folder) and
7. Select Delete.
8. Close this program
9. Reopen Photo Manager 

 The following method works best when going from one XP computer to another XP computer or one Vista computer to another Vista computer. 

If you want to go from XP -> Vista, then this is the recommended way:  Using Export/Import Feature to transfer Databases to other computers

On your old computer:

1. Connect the EHD (External Hard Drive) to the computer that has ACDSee installed on it with all your images and data.
2. Use ACDSee to move all the images to the EHD. How to Move Organized Images (photos or digital kits) with ACDSee
3. Once you have done so you will need to copy the database folder to the new hard drive as well there for please browse to:
1. In Version 9 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90"
2. In Version 10 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100"
3. In Version 9 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90
4. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
4. Copy the Default folder found in the above folders and paste it on the EHD.

On your new computer:

1. Download a new trial of ACDSee from ACDSee.com
2. Install the software and insert in your license key. Buy my trial: I used the trial, and I ...
3. Connect the EHD to the new pc
4. Start ACDSee
5. Click on Tools | Options | Database.
   
6. At the end of the path of the database location, click on the icon and browse to and select the Default folder on the EHD.
7. Verify the database information is appearing for the images on the EHD
   
8. Then use ACDSee to move all the files from the EHD to the new PC's hard drive.
   
9. After you have moved all the images to the PC's hard drive once again verify the database information is there for the images.
   
10. Close ACDSee
11. In Windows Explorer, browse to the EHD find the Default folder you copied to it from your old computer and make a copy of that folder.
    
12. Browse to:
1. In Version 9 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90"
2. In Version 10 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100"
3. In Version 9 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90
4. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
13. Paste it Default folder into correct folder listed above on the new PC.
    
14. Start ACDSee
    
15. Click on Tools | Options | Database
    
16. Browse to and select the default folder that we just pasted into.
    
17. Restart ACDSee and verify the database information is there on the new PC.
    

1. If you cannot see the menu bar, you have to press the Alt-key on the keyboard and the menu bar should be visible.
2. click Tools (or View) | Folder Options.
3. Click the View Tab.
4. Select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
5. Click Like Current Folder or Apply to All Folders.
6. Click Yes.
7. Click OK.

For the standard user that isn’t sharing databases between multiple computers via EHD

1. Start ACDSee 9 and optimize.
   1. Optimize your ACDSee Database
2. Uninstall ACDSee 9. This step can be actually done at anytime. If you feel more comfortable waiting until you have ACDSee 10 running then I would recommend doing this step at the end.
   1. Go to Start | Control Panel
   2. Choose Add or Remove Programs
   3. Click ACDSee 9 and choose Remove
3. Install ACDSee 10
   1. It will tell you that it needs to convert your database:
   2. 
   3. Click Next
   4. There is no need to Rebuild thumbnails, EXIF and IPTC data for local images so leave that box unchecked.
   5. Do check the Optimize database files after convert
   6. 
   7. Click Next
   8. Click Next to start the conversion.
   9. Once the conversion is done, you should be able to start using ACDSee 10 with all your information/organizing that you had in ACDSee 9.

For the users, that have their database stored on their EHD and upgrading from ACDSee 9 to ACDSee 10, on multiple computers, please follow these specific directions:

1. On the first computer: Follow the steps above, after you install ACDSee 10 and the first conversion screen comes up. To the right of filename click on the … button to browse for you database. Browse to your EHD folder and find the folder where you database is stored.
2. 
3. Continue with the rest of the steps.
4. The Converted database will be stored back in the default location:
   • on XP: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100\Default
   • on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
5. Copy the Default folder back to your EHD and place it a folder called something like: “ACDSee Database 10″
   1. Click on Tools | Options
   2. Click on the Database
   3. At the end of the path of the database, click on the icon and browse to your EHD. On the EHD select this path: ACDSee Database 10\default
6. On your second computer, uninstall ACDSee 9.
7. Install ACDSee 10
8. Cancel the conversion and just point the database to ACDSee Database 10 folder on your EHD.
   1. Click on Tools | Options
   2. Click on the Database
   3. At the end of the path of the database, click on the icon and browse to your EHD. On the EHD select this path: ACDSee Database 10\default

In case of errors:

1. Make sure you have recently optimized in ACDSee Photo Manager 9 . Close ACDSee Photo Manager 9
2. Close ACDSee Photo Manager 10
3. In Version 10 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100"
4. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
5. Right click on "Default" folder and rename it to "oldDefault."
6. Restart ACDSee Photo Manager 10.
7. go to Database | Convert Database...
8. click Next
9. choose ACDSee 9.0
10. For the database location, choose this location if you have never moved her database otherwise choose location where your database is located:
1. on XP: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90"
2. on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90
11. Click Next & Next
12. Hopefully the errors are gone and you running successfully with ACDSee 10.
13. If not, please post at our forum
    

Image write support formats

Archive read support formats

Archive write support formats

Video and audio read support formats

ABR & JBR brush files

First, I would suggest figuring out how much you would like to spend and give yourself a range. i.e. I would like to spend at least this much and not more than this much.

Platform

First decide if you want to use Windows or Apple Mac. I am not very familiar with Macs, but I can help give you information about Windows based notebooks and some information will apply to Macs.

Here is the kind of the range of prices that laptops fall into....

Lower end notebooks are less than $800.
Middle end notebooks are between $800 - $1400.
High end notebooks are more than $1400.

Now that you have decided on a budget, lets talk about the details of the requirements you need to digital scrapbook on a notebook.

RAM:

For digital scrapbooking I think a must is 2GB RAM but it costs. Spend as much as you can afford. With the latest and greatest Vista, everyone is saying to RUN Vista you need 2GB of RAM. That doesn't even include running your editing programs. So 2GB is the minimum and if you can afford more, go for it.

Processor:

There are 2 main processor types. Intel and AMD. It's nearly impossible to compare Intel and AMD. A while back a few of chatting about AMD & Intel and I gave my opinion on both: [url=http://www.digiscrapinfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=602]AMD vs. Intel[/url]

The latest thing is the dual processors. There are really 2 processors sitting in the computer running and this obviously has to be faster than 1 processor.

Processor Names to look for:

Intel Core 2 Duo: Intel's latest laptop dual processor chips

Intel has a chart of their processors. I would use the chart in this way cause there is a lot of technical numbers. The higher on the chart the more expensive and better the processor. So look at the laptop and see where it falls in the list

• Intel's core 2 chart

AMD Turion 64: AMD's latest laptop dual processor chips

Other names that are lower end or old

• Intel Celeron: I think of this as Intel's generic version
• AMD Sempron: I think of this as AMD's generic version
• and other names are probably older processors

Hard drive:

The size is only important depending on how you use it. I don't think the size is as important if you plan on keeping your stuff externally. If you plan on keeping your stuff on the laptop hard drive then size is important. I configured my laptop and actually selected a 100 Gig hd because my work will be on a external hard drive. Watch for the RPM's though. That is how fast the hard drive spins. The slower it spins the slower your machine. The faster it spins the hotter your laptop will run. Currently, look for 5200rpm which is good tradeoff between speed & heat.

Graphics:

This is another place to spend a lot of money. You get basically two choices. Integrated, which basically means it will share your processor and RAM. Or a video card which will take the work off your processor and may or may not share your RAM. Obviously the second option is better.  If you start asking for which video cards, I don't know. My assumption was that if it has a video card its better than integrated. So if you get integrated video card, it is even more important to put on 2GB of RAM ore more because the video card will subtract 1/4 GB of usable RAM.

Screen size:

The larger the better, usually. The 17" is nice. Although I chose to downgrade to a 15". I will be using my laptop as my desktop replacement and won't use it very much away from desk. I have a 20" inch widescreen lcd display that I will hook it up to and do dual monitors. And when I go on scrapbooking retreats I might just pack the monitor up and bring it with so I still have dual screens. If you only plan on using your laptop display as your only monitor, definitely stick with the 17" display if you can afford it.

Other hardware:

Lastly, the rest of the other stuff is pretty much standard. Most have a DVD write drive of some kind. The one thing you might consider is if you have Bluetooth stuff: palm, etc.

Brands:

As for brands, I personally feel like you should stick with name brands. I personally wouldn't recommend a Dell although I have not had one. I have heard many people with Dell issues but then again Dell also offers some of the best deals out there. Sony Viao laptops are good but expensive. I was also looking at HP laptops with very decent prices for what you get. Toshiba's are excellent too. I think Toshiba offers the best value for the high-end requirements you need.

Adobe stores their brushes in a folder in C:\Program Files\Adobe\etc...    By default ACDSee excludes the user from organizing anything in the C:\Program Files.  So you need to exclude the folder from the exclude list.  To do this:

In ACDSee Photo Manager:

1. Go to Database |Excluded Folders Settings,

2. Find C:\Program Files and select it.

3. Choose Remove

4. Click Close

This will remove program files from the exclude list so its included and then you can categorize it.

Open up any text editor, copy your license number into the file and save that document.

Start your Burning CD Software

On the CD to burn, copy the trial exe that you downloaded and your license number document.

Burn the CD.

You now have your own backup. Remind though, periodically ACDSee gives free updates for the current version (That doesn't mean free upgrades to the next version.) and it is a good idea to check on ACDSee's website if they have an updated version of what you are going to install.  

on XP: 

This can easily be changed with the following steps:

1. Open up Windows Explorer
2. Go to Tools | Folder Options
3. Click on File Types tab
4. Scroll till you find the file type you want (JPG, PSD, PNG, etc...) and click on it.
   
5. Down below in Details: Click on Change...
6. From the program list, select the program that you wish to have open this type of file.
7. At the bottom, select "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file"
8. 
9. Click OK
10. Repeat Steps 4 - 8 for any other file types you wish to change.

On Vista

• How do I change File Extensions on Vista  

ACDSee 9 install

If you really want to start fresh with a new database,

1. Close Photo Manager.
2. In Version 9 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90"
3. In Version 10 on XP: In Windows Explorer go to this location: "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100"
4. In Version 9 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\90
5. In Version 10 on Vista: Go to this location: My Computer, C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Local\ACD Systems\Catalogs\100
6. Right click on "Default" folder and rename it to "oldDefault."
7. Restart Photo Manager.

• Tip 1: Make sure you go to YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data. There is a YOUR_USER_NAME\Application Data and that is the wrong one...

• Tip 2: On XP If you cannot view the Local Settings folder:

1. click Tools (or View) | Folder Options.
2. Click the View Tab.
3. Select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
4. Click Like Current Folder or Apply to All Folders.
5. Click Yes.
6. Click OK.

• Tip 3: On Vista If you cannot view the AppData folder:

1. If you cannot see the menu bar, you have to press the Alt-key on the keyboard and the menu bar should be visible.
2. click Tools (or View) | Folder Options.
3. Click the View Tab.
4. Select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
5. Click Like Current Folder or Apply to All Folders.
6. Click Yes.
7. Click OK.

Categories: Where can I find these premade categories?

The following files & instructions will create categories to organize your digital scrapbooking kits. You can use as is, edit them, delete them or rearrange them.

The best time to use the styles is right from the very beginning before you organize.

I would highly recommend picking one style and customizing that one rather than using multiple styles. Using multiple styles might give you a lot of extra categories or duplicate categories.

If you already have started organizing with ACDSee Photo Manager, it will not overwrite anything that you have organized, just add the categories. Here are some pointers.

• Backup: I would suggest doing a backup before you add do the following in case you don't like you can just restore your backup.
• Delete similar ones: Once the categories are installed you can delete similar ones that you used. (i.e. you used the category "preview" and the style uses "previews", just delete the previews category.) Don't ever delete a category that has anything assigned to it and ACDSee Photo Manager warn you about not doing this. If you were to delete the category with images assigned to it, you would lose your organizing for that category.
• Transfer organized data to new style category & delete your old category: If you would like to transfer your cataloged images from one category to another.

1. Search on your old category,
2. Select all (ctrl-a)
3. Bring up the Properties Pane, View | Properties
4. Select the new category you want them assigned to (VERY IMPORTANT: Do this step first otherwise you will lose your organization.)
5. Click on the old category that they were assigned to unselect it (VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you have done the previous step before doing this step)
6. Delete old category

1. Download & save the organizing style categories zip file.
2. Unzip the file you just downloaded.
3. Start Photo Manager
4. Select Database | Import | Database
5. Select Next
6. In #1, Select Information from a text file, including any combination of keyword and category definitions and image information
7. In #2, Select where your category text file is saved.
8. It is fine to let it optimize database files after import
9. Select Next
10. Select Next
11. Select Finish
12. Select OK to allow Photo Manager to restart.
13. You should now have the categories that are listed.

This is the method to transfer the ACDSee Database (which contains all the organizing from one computer to another)

This is also the recommended way to transfer a database from XP computer to a Vista computer. 

I will give 2 names for the computers: original -- which is where the current ACDSee Photo Manager and Database resides that contains all current organization. destination -- which is where you want the ACDSee Database to reside.

On the Original Computer:

1. Start ACDSee Photo Manager
2. Before starting, I recommend that you optimize your database
3. Go to Database | Export | Database... This will start a wizard.
4. Click Next on the first screen.
5. Choose Export entire ACDSee Database to a read-only, compressed version
6. Click Next
7. In top box, Choose a Destination. This can be on EHD, a network drive or some location that is convenient for the destination computer to access it. In my case, I chose a network drive that is mapped to my shared folder on my desktop and created a folder call "ACDSeeDatabase" to store the files in.
8. 
9. Click Next and Next to start the export.
10. Click Finish when done.
    

On the Destination Computer:

1. Close ACDSee Photo Manager
   
2. First delete your database. This will assure a fresh import of the new database. To Do that, follow this help: Deleting ACDSee Database and starting over. Note, you may want to rename the old databases with dates and they can be used as backups. ex. Default_08_06_2007
3. Open ACDSee Photo Manager. (Expect that all organizing and categories to be gone since you just deleted it.)
4. Go To Database | Import | Database...
5. Click Next
6. Select Import information from a compressed, read-only database
7. In 2, select the location of where you exported it.
   
8. Click the Optimize box
9. 
10. Click Next and Next again to start the import.
    
11. In the next step, Database Drive Mapping, this is the point where it is hard to tell you what to choose because each case is different.
    
1. For external hard drives that you want to share between 2 computers. You should not have to make any changes, just click Done
2. If you original computer has the organized files on it's c: drive and you have copied the files to destination computer, then you want to map Incoming Drive: c: -> Local Drive: c: (or wherever you located them) Note: In copying the files, the easiest is to make sure that you copy the files to the exact same folder path.
3. and I am sure there are many other possible scenarios. Basically this step is Incoming drive (this is where ACDSee thinks the files are) and Local drive (this is where the files are.)
4. 
5. In my example, all my information resides on the EHD's (mainly the S: drive) and I just click Done.
12. The database will import, optimize and then click Finish.
13. ACDSee will say it has to restart to finish the import, so click OK
14. Upon Restarting Verify:
    
1. Your categories are back (verifying your organization is there)
2. In the Organize Pane, search for something and you see expected results (verifying your organization is there)
3. Click on a thumbnail returned from search and choose Go To File... to see if ACDSee can locate the file (verifying mapping worked)

Examples:

• You copied all files from your hard drive to an EHD.  Now it is returning duplicates from the hard drive and EHD. 
• You copied files from one EHD to another EHD.  You only plan on using one EHD and the other one is a backup.
  

This will REMOVE all organizing for the images on whatever folder you select! It will not remove/delete the images (or really files on your hard drive.)  It only deletes ACDSee's information about those files in its database.

• If you want to remove the duplicates, go to Database | Database Maintenance and let it gather it's information. This may take a while.
  
• Click on the top level folder where you DON'T want the searched images to be returned from.  In other words, the top level digital scrapbooking folder of your hard drive on the first example or the top  level folder on your backup EHD on the second example.
• Then click on Remove All DB Info

Have you checked the status of excluded folders? Database>Excluded folder settings.

1. Go to Database -> Exclude Folders
2. Verify that EHD is not listed in this list. If it is in the list that is your problem. Click on it and select Remove. (So now you really are removing it from the exclude list which means it is being included.) Things should work now.

Solution 2: Give your drive a serial number

If the External hard drive mounts as removable rather than a system drive (some externals do this for some reason... it's pretty hit and miss) or there is no serial available for that drive (or the serial is 0000-0000) then ACDSee won't be able to manage images for that drive.

Directions for Windows XP & Vista.

To determine if this is the problem,

1. Go to Start -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information. This is a neat tool to show info on your whole system.
2. Click on Components, Storage and Drives. The right window now should show all your drives listed.
3. Scroll down to find your external hard drive.
4. You want to find Volume Serial Number for it. If it does have a serial number then this isn't the problem and the rest of the solution will not help. If the serial is zero or Not Available, then carry on with these directions...

I would expect you are seeing this:

System Info for a Seagate EHD:

Drive E:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System FAT32
Volume Name SEA_DISC
Volume Serial Number Not Available

Power up my EHD & keep it on and connected throughout this process.

1. First you need to go to Microsoft's website and download this small tool: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/VolumeId.mspx
   
2. Save it to your desktop.
3. After downloading it, unzip the file and save the unzipped volumeid.exe to your desktop.
   
4. Next bring up Windows Explorer and with your EHD attached see what drive letter it is assigned to. Mine is "S".   Yours will most likely be different. Remember the letter.
• Previous User Questions:
• This won't change what it was before VolumeID, right?  Currently my EHD is drive E: and I'm concerned (anxious really) that by doing this, it will reassign that drive to a different letter - and if that happens, won't it affect every file I have on my EHD - in essence they no longer will be there?
• ANSWER:  This program should not change the drive letter or reassign it. What you are doing is putting a serial number on that drive letter. You should not lose anything.
5. Shut down any applications you have running.
6. On XP:  Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt.
   
7. On Vista:  From Start -> All Programs -> Accessories  Right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut, and select the Run As Administrator command.  This should bring up that lovely black screen where you can type.
8. On XP: type "cd Desktop" with no quotes and press Enter  (the promt should now say:  "C:\Documents and Settings\your_user_name_on_computer\Desktop>")
9. On Vista:type "cd c:\users\your_user_name_on_computer\Desktop" with no quotes and press Enter
10. Let's verify that you can find the volumeid.exe file.  At the prompt, type: "dir volume*" with no quotes and see if volumeid.exe is listed in the results.  If it is continue on...   If you do not see it, you need to make sure you are in the right folder.  Either move the volumeid.exe to the folder you are in using Windows Explorer or type "cd foldername_where_volumeid is in"  Repeat "dir volume*" and keep repeating this step until you can see volumeid.exe in the list.  For example if you unzipped it and it created a folder, you may need to type "cd volumeid".
11. Using the VolumeId Tool:
• You now want to type something with this formating:
• "volumeid driveletter: xxxx-xxxx"
• where driveletter is the letter you remember from that previous step.
• The xxxx-xxxx are some number that is all not zeros. My understanding is you don't have to a specific number. My ehd has a 9425-0e02. I think you can be creative. So in my case I would type:
• "volumeid s: 1234-1234" (do not type quotes)
• After a successful attempt you should get something like this:

• 			C:\>volumeid s: 1234-1234
  			
  
  			 
  			
  			
  
  			VolumeID V2.01 - Set disk volume id
  			Copyright (C) 1997-1999 Mark Russinovich
  			Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
  			
  			
  
  			Volume ID for drive s: updated to 1234-1234
  			
  			

12. At this point, your computer may be respond with errors if you try to access the ehd.
13. Exit the C prompt by typing "exit" (do not type quotes) and pressing enter.
14. Reboot as normal. Start -> turn off computer -> reboot.
15. Hopefully after reboot, ACDSee should recognize your EHD and you should be able to catalog.

1. In Adobe photo organizer, select all your images (or something like that.) I don't have this program so I don't know. Chose File -> Write Tag Info to File In other organizers you might be lucky to have this information automatically written to your files. In Picassa and DIS you do not need to anything in this step.
   
2. In ACDSee Photo Manager, let ACDSee catalog the images. This will not change anything, it will not do anything to the files, will not move anything, etc. It will only go grab the thumbnails for quicker viewing and the information about the files. This is information written to the file by your camera or by other programs. If you haven't done this, choose Database | Catalog Files
1. If your pictures are in My Pictures Folder, select the first top choice Catalog the My Pictures Folder.
2. If not, select the second choice, Catalog a specific set of folders. Choose Remove Folder and remove any previous folders in there, then click on Add Folder and specify the directory you wish to catalog. In Advanced Options, verify Import Exif & IPTC metadata is checked. The bottom two should be checked also. Click Next and it should start cataloging the images. If you have large amount of images, go grab a nap....
3. Once ACDSee Photo Manager is done cataloging......
4. Now create the same Categories as you used previously (or you can make modifications if you wish) in ACDSee. See Getting Started Tutorial for how to create categories.
5. Now get the Organize Pane (View | Organize) and the Properties Pane (View | Properties) Notice that at the bottom of those panes, you should see the Organize Tab and Properties - Database Tab. To switch between the 2, just click on the tab that you want.
6. In the Organize Pane:
1. In Auto Categories section
1. Expand Photo Properties
2. Expand Keywords (IPTC) (for Organizer & Picassa)
3. Expand Keywords (EXIF) (for DIS)
4. 
5. Click on the first keyword. This will find all your images with that keyword.
2. Select all of the results: Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-a
7. In the Properties Pane
1. Click on the box next to the category that matches your keyword and assign that category to your images.
8. You would then repeat these steps for how many keywords or categories you created.

If you have questins, please post your questions here: Transfering Organizing from Adobe Photo Organizer to ACDSee

And here are some Digital Scrapbooking Categories to get you started:

• Categories: Where can I find these premade categories?
  
  
• Categories: How do I install premade category files?

How to Search:

Select View | Search and follow the screenshot:

To Rename images, select all pspimage files

Choose  Tools | Batch Rename and follow the screenshot:

1. To Move all the digital kits over to the EHD by clicking on main folder containing all your digital kits and choose Move To Folder.
2. 
3. Then browse in the Folders window to select the destination where you would like the images to be moved to.
4. 
5. Choose OK.   The files should be moved along with their organization.
   

ACDSee Photo Manager can change the sample text of your font. 

See our blog post on using uninstalled fonts; How to use Uninstalled Fonts in your scrapbooking program

1. To be able to view this font folder, go to Database>Excluded Folder Settings
2. When you click on that, it will bring up a box with the locations of all excluded folders.
3. Find the "c:\windows" Folder, click on that line, then click on Remove.
   That will remove that folder from the excluded list.
4. Wait to do this until you have started ACDSee and cataloged your digital kits. (Or just skip this step.) There is no need to catalog c:\windows.
5. Lastly, to easily get to your fonts folder, In the folders pane (View | Folders) browse to c:\windows\font.
6. Select the folder and right click on it and select Add to Favorites.
7. Now you can easily go see your Fonts directory by using your favorites panes (View | Favorites)

If you have questions please post your questions here: Viewing Fonts with ACDSee Photo Manager

Seeing Uncategorized files by folder:

1. To find all images you haven't categorized, Choose Filter By | Uncategorized.
2. Then in the folders pane, click on a folder where you want to see anything you haven't categorized. If you want to see multiple folders, click on the boxes next to each folder.

Seeing ALL uncategories files:

1. Go to View | Organize Pane
   
2. Scroll down till you find Special Items
3. Expand Special Items
4. Click on Uncategorized
   

The folder where Scrapbook Max stores its images is here:

C:\Program Files\Scrapbook MAX!\Gallery\Images

Rather than browse to this folder everytime you want to access it, here is a way to access it quickly:

1. Inside ACDSee Photo Manager, browse to this folder " C:\Program Files\Scrapbook MAX!\Gallery\Images"
2. In the Folders pane (usually top right in ACDSee), right click on the Images folder and choose Add to Favorites
3. Type in the name for the shortcut like "Scrapbook Max Images"
4. Click OK
   
5. This will create a shortcut to the folder

To access it quickly:

1. Go to View | Favorites
2. Click on the "Scrapbook Max Images" folder and you should be able to see the images.
   

If you wish to assign categories to anything in this folder, you must remove Program Files from the exclude list.

1. Go to Database | Excluded Folders Settings
2. Find C:\Program Files
3. Click Remove
4. Click Close

• For getting started try this tutorial first: Your First Layout with ACDSee Photo Editor Part 1 & Your First Layout with ACDSee Photo Editor Part 2

Installing Digital Scrapbooking How-tos:

• Install some Digital Scrapbooking specific How-tos: ACDSee Photo Editor Built-in How-tos

More Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking tasks:

• Ready to move on, here are common scrapbook functions and how to do them in ACDSee Photo Editor: Basic Scrapbooking Functions in ACDSee Photo Editor

More Written Tutorials

• More tutorials can be found here: Creative Tutorials

Some Video Tutorials

• Want to see Photo Editor in action? Here are some video tutorials:
• Using Masks with PSD Templates Files
• ACDSee Video Tutorial

Photo Editor Creative Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials

Please see this page:

ACDSee Photo Editor Built-in How-tos

Solution

Go to View | Refresh

or

Keyboard shortcut F5

Solution 1:

• Close Photo Editor
• Restart Photo Editor
• Use File | Open to open the file (Do not use recent files at the bottom of the File menu, dragging & dropping them into Photo Editor, or opening from another program.)

Solution 2:

• Close Photo Editor
  
• Close all other programs
• Restart Photo Editor
• Use File | Open to open the file (Do not use recent files at the bottom of the File menu, dragging & dropping them into Photo Editor, or opening from another program.)

Solution 3:

• Close Photo Editor
  
• Close all other programs
• Reboot
  
• Start Photo Editor
• Use File | Open to open the file (Do not use recent files at the bottom of the File menu, dragging & dropping them into Photo Editor, or opening from another program.)