Digital Philatelic Workshop

Fran Adams

Our Digital Philatelic Study (DPS) files typically will be stored on our computer’s hard drive. Ensuring we can find them easily among our other files can be problematic unless we use a filing system. Finding them is the first step. Knowing what each file contains is the second step and using appropriate file names helps us to recognize a file’s content quickly.

That practice also makes it convenient if we need to move, modify, or send files as attachments via an e-mail message. Let’s discuss a few factors that contribute to keeping these files straight with minimal effort. After all, our time for hobbies is usually limited.

Before we do — always back-up your work for safekeeping to a different drive or media type such as a CD-ROM, DVD, or a flash drive, just in case the inevitable hardware failure occurs. We’ll cover media types in another article. The dog eating your homework excuse doesn’t work.

Naming Conventions
The main file or folder of your study should have a name reflecting the study’s subject. Use a name with a direct relationship to the study and don’t be cute. Trying to associate content with nebulous or cute names only makes it more difficult to remember which file contains what information or what an image depicts.

If you’re dealing with older computer operating systems, try to use a name that is eight characters long as this will assist with compatibility: it’s a useful practice. In more modern systems, this is no longer a requirement and the file name may be of any reasonable length.

Fig. 1 - File naming convention

Use an underscore ( _ ) between multiple words in a file name instead of a space. A space can cause problems depending on the operating system and computer program language. This also reduces the ambiguity of whether it’s our eyes playing tricks or if there really are two words in the file name. The computer recognizes the underscore and it’s plain to our eye as well.

Always include the file extension suffix (i.e.. doc, pdf, pps, ppt) after the file name as that allows the computer to open files without asking which application to use. Macintosh users are doing this more often now, although the Mac operating system (OS) automatically knows which application to use through information embedded in the file. Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat both produce files with file extension suffixes after the file name. PowerPoint’s extension is ppt (pptx for PowerPoint 2007), pps for a PowerPoint Slide Show, and Acrobat’s extension is pdf.

At a higher level, the media the study is stored on should also have a name. When a CD is inserted into a computer’s drive, the CD’s name appears under the icon and again, that name should also be directly associated with your study’s subject.

Bottom line – name everything and insist the names are descriptive enough that your non-collecting spouse can identify the file or folder content from the name.

Does it take a little thought to do this? Yes, but you’ll be happy you did when you come back to do an update a year from now.

Al Gore, Compulatelist

With the widespread use of digital cameras, scanners, and graphics for the Web, there has been a need to not only create or edit digital images but also to organize them as well due to the sheer number of images one can acquire.

The more popular traditional graphics editing programs such as Adobe’s PhotoShop, Corel’s Paint Shop (formerly Jasc) or even Apple’s iPhoto now have added organizer components to their application. Photoshop’s is integrated and Corel bundles a separate organizer. These programs still retail for over $100 although there are promotional discounts and upgrades at reduced prices.

But for many, these programs have far more power than someone who is just really interested in digital images like those from a camera. For those users, Picasa may be ideal.

Picasa was originally marketed like the above programs but the product was acquired by Google and now is available as a free service to all. Although not intended as a high end graphics editing program replacement, it is has a lot of power features found in the higher priced programs.

Picassa Organizer Screen.

Like many image organizers, it will automatically monitor folders as these are added to your library. The library is organized by folder location but you can add comments to images to aid in documenting them. It can also do the primary photo editing type functions such as crop, rotate, and image adjustments such as brightness, contrast, and color correction.

Another nice feature is that it does not alter the original images permanently. You can undo changes like cropping at a later date to create a different version of the image. To permanently save a set of changes, you create an additional image.

Picasa is an ideal tool for someone who has to manage many images such as for eBay lots. It is very fast, easy to use, and well polished for something that is free. You can register for an account with Google to use it.

Fran Adams

Having all the necessary files present is important when your digital philatelic study must be portable. Nothing is worse than getting to a show in a strange city — with dealers that have your gems — and having forgotten a file that makes the study work. Submitting your study to be evaluated in a competition and having files missing is a close second.

Keeping all your files together in an organized fashion will allay most of your fears that something is not available when needed.

Ensuring everything is in the same place can be relatively easy by using one main folder for all files used in the study. This main folder may also contain subfolders. As illustrated in Figure 1, the Piltdown_Study folder contains subfolders for documents (docs), images (pics), references, and varieties. Organizing your files by either file type or subject is perfectly acceptable.

When using a series of folders and/or files, you may wish to associate the file and folder names to each other to appropriately identify their content. Graphics or image scans might be in a folder named pics for instance. Within the pics folder, a file might be named pic_stamp_variety_1.jpg. Use file names that make sense to you, but also are not something other viewers will not understand easily.

Fig. 1 - Folder and File Organization

We all modify our files occasionally and/or update them with the latest information.

In doing so, we often retain older versions or even versions with or without certain content. To help keep these versions straight, it’s useful to modify the file name slightly to indicate it is a version. This is usually done with a sequence number or letter. Using the example above, the modified version might be pic_stamp_variety_1a.jpg and a subsequent version would be pic_stamp_variety_1b.jpg. 

At a higher level, the hardware media the study is stored on should also have a name. When a Compact Disc (CD) is inserted into a computer’s drive, the CD’s name appears under the icon and again, that name should also be directly associated with your study’s subject.

Bottom line — name everything and insist the names are descriptive enough that your non-collecting spouse can identify the file or folder content from the name.

Does it take a little thought and time to do this? Yes, but you’ll be happy you did when you come back to do an update a year from now.