Safely Saving and Storing Designs

Saving computer files safely may sound simple, but many of us have learned the hard way why it’s very important. You can benefit from our mistakes; read on.

When you purchase designs or a design set, you need to save them to your computer or a usb stick so they will be there for you to use when you need them. I suppose every seller has a way of labelling their designs. Some sellers I patronize use an alphanumeric which gets complicated if they are offering designs created by many different people.

Only selling my own designs, the naming is more simple. For designs in a set which are all different and self-explanatory, I call them by what they are. One example is my Nursery Rhymes designs: https://anemone-embroidery.com/product/nursery-rhymes-20-machine-embroidery-redwork-designs-4×4-5×7/ I also add other defining characteristics like size: sm, lar, mega, giga.

BUT for a set of quilt blocks which would defy imagination to name, I just number them. So we have Anemone 1, Designs 1-9; Anemone2, Designs 1-9; so on through Anemone 7. Similarly the Candlewick & Satin Quilt Blocks, the Sunbonnet Redwork design sets are just numbered.

Do you see the potential problem here?

If you download or transfer designs to the same folder which have the same name, Design 1 will overwrite the previous Design 1. The original design will be gone-maybe forever. Don’t roll your eyes, many of us have experienced this rude awakening.

Saving computer files safely will avoid the heartbreak of lost designs.

When you make a purchase from anywhere online, before saving or downloading the design(s), create a folder on your computer where you will insert the designs. You want to keep them separate from similarly named designs, but you also want to be able to find them quickly. Name their folder with a name that will make clear to you what’s in there.

Half of my hard drive is occupied with embroidery designs. I have my main design folder with all the sets I have digitized. These sets are in folders with subfolders labelled art (format), graphics, and design graphics (so I can display the artistic view online), worksheets, design info, etc. I also have a large collection of Anita GoodDesign, OESD, and Bernina and Viking designs which came with my software.

In addition, I have another large folder with the sets I have processed to display and sell here. Each set has its own subfolder for each of the converted formats. I have included a portion of the directory in my windows explorer for you to see.

As you can see, it takes some planning to not get lost in the system. The main thing is that you develop a system that will be meaningful and functional for you. It does not need to be cut in stone. If you have a windows operating system and you think you need to alter the file system you have created, it’s easy to rename files or folders.

Right click with your mouse and select: Rename. In Windows 11 if you right click there is a small icon which is a 3D block with an A, which is to rename a file or folder. Or the keyboard shortcut is F2. You can master this system, just be mindful of what your objective is: you want to safely store designs you purchase in a way that you can find them.

Hope this was helpful. For any questions, there is a contact link to email me.