Did I Download This Before?

by Anne Raisis

I saw a question online asking if there was a way to avoid duplicate designs without the purchase of special software.  Well,  you can save that money to buy more designs!  I use my computer’s built-in capabilities to successfully help me avoid designs I already have. There are several steps you can take:

1. First, I set my browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc) so that links I’ve been to before are displayed in a different color than links I’ve not seen. Some browsers are set this way as a default; others may need to be changed manually. Look under “options”, “settings”, “preferences” or a similar menu choice to change this.

   When I see a link to a design in red, I know I’ve already seen that design and I can assume I’ve downloaded it if I wanted it. I chose red for visited links as a message to “stop”, that I’ve already been there. The color you use is your own choice. Some designs do not have a separate link, as when you click on the image to download, but this does work for most designs.

2. I always use the name assigned by the designer for the name or, at least, the “prefix,” of the design name. If I want to have some descriptive information about the design, I add it between the name and the extension (the three letters after the dot: .hus, .zip, etc.) For example, an FSL design of a poinsettia with a hanging loop might be named Holiday07-01.hus by its designer; if I want to know more information, I could call it Holiday07-01 fsl poinsettia.hus.

   If you keep this naming convention, when you view your files in list or description format and click on the name at the top of the list, you will see an alphabetical list of your files. Scroll down and files with similar names (Holiday07-01 fsl poinsettia.hus and Holiday07-01 fsl ornament.hus) will pop right out at you. You can then check the images to see if they are the same.

3. What images? When I download a design, I try to save an image of the design at the same time and I use the exact same name for the image as I did for the design. For example: the poinsettia design is Holiday07-01.hus and the image, Holiday07-01.jpg. The image goes in the same file as the design.

   Many people only look at their files as a list. I set my view for all embroidery files for thumbnail format. The advantage of doing this is that I see the actual image of the designs in my files rather than just a name.

   Frequently when looking for a design, I have to scroll through a file of hundreds of items and am likely to notice two copies of the same image. I note their names and check to see if the design files with those names are indeed duplicates or if there is some other reason for the duplicate images.

1. I may return to a site after the links have expired so I don’t know if I’ve downloaded or purchased a design. When saving the designs, I use the folders that are set up in broad subject categories (if you’re interested, these files can be found at SICK’s Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SiCKDesigns/files/). Some people file their designs by the designer.

   There is no right or wrong way to set up your files; what is important is to have a system that makes it easy for you to be consistent when deciding where to file a design. You must decide if will be filed under the designer, FSL, holiday, ornaments, or flowers. Then be consistent about that decision, so if you try to save the same design again, the computer stop and ask me if I want to replace the existing file.

2. And last but not least, when I’m in front of the television or otherwise vegging out, I’ll try to clean up a particularly large folder. I view it by list and by thumbnail to see if I can identify any duplicates.

Yes, this is a lot of information. Review each step and decide which might benefit you most. Adopt that step until it becomes your routine, and then consider adding another step.