Creative Tip: Creating an In-House Stock Photo Library.

Say you manage an in-house creative department that has amassed a large library of company images (product photography, buildings, headshots, etc). How can you best organize those images for use across your whole creative team? Is it possible to create a stock photo library that's available to outside vendors and other people within the organization?

Over the years at CreativeTechs, we've used a combination of Adobe Bridge, Extensis Portfolio, and Extensis NetPublish to help many in-house creative teams address these needs. Here are two related tips that cover the fundamentals of that approach:

Creating an In-House Stock Photo Library. This tip outlines a strategy for wrangling an unwieldy image library. The approach is relatively simple, and uses a combination of categorized folder names with keywording in Adobe Bridge.

Share an image library using Extensis NetPublish. Once you've organized your team's photo library, Extensis NetPublish is one way to create a website to provide online access for key designers, vendors, and partners.

Source: This tip inspired by Jason Hoppe's most recent workshop on Adobe Bridge: Keywording Strategies. Concepts in this tip are drawn from image management projects we've been involved with over the years including clients such as Philips Ultrasound, Cruise West, Washington Mutual, and Ste. Michelle Winery.

Tip: Missed out on last week's workshop? All our training modules are available for personalized one-on-one training. Scroll down to the bottom of this email for details, or download a PDF of our Seattle Training Brochure.

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Tech Tip: Larger Studios, Don't install Office 2008 (Yet).

We generally reserve judgment on the inevitable anecdotal list of problems that accompanies any new software release. However there is an issue with the Mac installer for Office 2008 that can effect permissions on Macs configured with separate user and administrative accounts.

For details on how this might impact larger managed Mac networks, read the post on Make Mac Work, our sister blog written for IT professionals who support Mac users:

Make Mac Work: Don't Install Office 2008 (Yet)

For smaller studios, we've also collected a number of links listing many other known issues for each Office 2008 program:

Full Tip: Other known issues in Microsoft Office 2008.

Source: This issue was originally discovered with Shayne Sandison in the IT department of Fitch Seattle during testing for an Office 2008 roll-out.

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Seattle Training: Workshops and Personalized Training.

CreativeTechs is taking a different approach to professional training. We've organized our materials into dozens of smaller, bite-sized modules. The results are shorter, focused sessions, which let you get the training you need, without setting aside an entire day away from the office.

Download a PDF of our Training Brochure and see what upcoming workshops catch your eye:

CreativeTechs Training Jan08.pdf

Missed a good one? All our topics are available for one-on-one training. Email training@creativetechs.com or call 206-682-4315 to schedule a personalized training session.

Visit CreativeTechs' Upcoming February Class Schedule

Outside of the Seattle area? We don't have anything for you yet, but we hope to have some online training and support options available sometime in 2008. Thanks for the patience. Stay tuned!

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Your referrals wanted! Referrals from our clients and readers are what keeps CreativeTechs healthy and in business. As a small thank-you, every week we send iTunes gift cards to new Seattle-area subscribers, plus the friend or colleague who referred them:

Bear with us, it's quite a list this week!

Design director Daria Schubert at Windermere Services.
Referred by Brett Hallonquist.

Design student Geoff Landress at Seattle Central Community College.
Referred by graphic design teacher Jennifer Kennard at SCCC.

Artist Marjorie Ingalls at Tourmap.
Referred by Mac tech Rhett Johnson at CreativeTechs.

Production assistant Sarah Thatcher at Hornall Anderson.
Referred by Adobe expert Jason Hoppe at CreativeTechs.

Plus a number of referrals this week from Brandon Walker:
Graphic designer Mark Beagley.
Graphic designer Stephanie Reed.
Graphic designer Dan Lutes.
Graphic designer Bridgette Marshall.

And finally, special thanks to Scott Kelby for the kind mention on his great Photoshop Insider Blog. Plus James Dempsey for mentioning CreativeTechs in his Macworld article on Creative resources on the Web.

(Whew! The list of referrals keeps getting longer! We couldn't do this without all of your continued support. Thanks!)

CreativeTechs QuickTips is a free weekly newsletter for creative professionals who use Macs. Each week we publish a fresh mix of left-brain and right-brain tips based on our real world experience supporting hundreds of creative teams in the greater Seattle area. For a complete archive of previous tips, visit www.creativetechs.com/tips

For IT Professionals supporting Mac users, visit Make Mac Work. This weekly technical blog focuses on IT issues facing Macs in Enterprise environments. It is written by CreativeTechs' lead enterprise engineer, Jordan Bojar. For an archive of previous topics, visit www.makemacwork.com

Your referrals wanted! CreativeTechs relies on word-of-mouth introductions. If you know a Seattle-area creative team who might benefit from our unique expertise providing computer support for creative professionals, please introduce us. We are never too busy for your referrals. Email help@creativetechs.com, or call us at 206-682-4315.

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