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Hi, I just got a Mac desktop, so I am starting fresh and don't want to do this more than once. I am new to Mac, I have pictures and digi supplies in several locations( EHD, hard drive of my old PC, and 2 laptops) I am thinking of using pixa, but can use any info/helpful hints of how to gather my supplies together. I was thinking of buying a new EHD to put everything on as to not have it using the memory of my Mac. I am soooo out of my element here. Once I get everything in one place I want to take the new digital organizing class. Thanks!

Welcome to the World of Mac My recommendation is to get all of your digi supplies onto an EHD. (You may want to back them up to Time Machine too) Once they are on the EHD, you can start the Pixa class. Pixa doesn't really care where they are, but it will duplicate your library so I would put your library on the EHD as well. When you sign up for the class, watch all of the videos before you decide how you want to proceed. Come up with a plan so you don't waste time doing something and then changing your mind. There is LOTS of info in the forums too. It will seem overwhelming. Just take it 1 step at a time

Thanks, Lisa B !

Just a quick note to get you out of the confusing 'memory' and 'storage' issue.

Memory and storage are 2 totally different issues.

Memory is the brain of the computer, it has nothing to do with how much stuff, images, photos, programs, games etc you put on your harddisk.

if you go on your mac to the top menu bar and click on the little black apple in the left corner you will see a menu option that says 'About this mac'.
You get a little window that tells you what kind of processor it has(the motor and wat the power is.) and how much memory your computer has installed. In my case 12GB 1600MHZ DDR3. This tells you how many things the computer can do at once. Like have Adobe Lightroom open, iPhoto, Mail and a browser etc before it becomes really slow. It has nothing to do with the harddisk.

If you click on the little button that says 'More Info' you get another window with information.
From the left top side you see: Overview, Displays, Storage and Memory.

When you click Storage in will show you your harddisk and tell you how much room you have left on your harddisk before it is full.
This number will go up when you put your images, your software, your games etc on it. It even tells you how much you use on photos, on audio, on apps etc. Pretty neat.

If you click on display it will tell you what kind of monitor you have.

So you see, you could easily put your stash on your computer's hard disk without affecting it's memory. It is just a disk, like your EHD is. But I agree with Lisa, having your stash in one place separate from all your other items, an EHD that you can take anywhere is much more practical but not because it causes you to run out of memory.

I'm attaching a screenshot of my MacProbook to show you what the Storage window looks like.

Hope this clears up some confusion people have between 'memory' and HardDisk space.

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Christine

Hi LIsa,

About putting your library on your EHD. I spoke with Konstatin this morning, one of the developers of Pixa. My library crashed again because of the too many images. Funny, because Pixa is made to be able to use large amount of images such as from photographers and graphic design bureaus. He now suggested to break up my library even into smaller parts like 30 or 40k per library. Not really practical for me. I will try but it seems like a complicated workflow.
Something I don't quite understand, Picasa has live updating and does not balk at an amount of 150k images. But I know the guys work hard on it, I have been testing Pixa's limits now for 2 years.

Anyways, he told me he does not advice to put the library on the EHD. He says Pixa preforms best if the library is also on the same disk as the software is. I immediately thought to move the app to the EHD than but no, Pixa need to be in the applications folder.

He suggested it's best to make a live folder and have that point to the EHD. And if you work on a desktop and laptop such as I did than you should also make on your laptop a live folder pointing to the EHD. I'll give it a try and will report back.

I don't like that news. I have my software on the HD in the applications folder, but I like using my EHD for my library I'm still not convinced Pixa copies the library. I have 22 GB in my "digi" folder. I have under 5 in my Pixa library. I can't imagine TOU and the previews take up that much extra space? I'll be interested to see how it goes for you. It seems like you could put all of the kits into 1 library, but again, if you have to go back and forth it's annoying. You could almost use finder and spotlight just as easily now that they have tabs and such. This will definitely be a work-in-progress