Welcome to Cute! You should think in advance about what you are collecting the within a folder on you computer have other folders for the categories. I have "embroidery" with "animals", "flowers" "FSL", etc within. I rename files so the file name gives me a clue of what it is and use Wilcom Trusizer to look at them to confirm. Hope that helps.

Hi there and welcome to the Cute family. First of all no questions are stupid and no, you are not a dummy. You will learn so much here, as I have done. Suedewsbury has give you advice and that is the way I also file my designs. I am sure you will get loads of advice with this question. Good luck and happy sewing. Please fill in your profile so we can see where you are from.

Welcome to cute! As suedewsbury has listed I download into folder...that seems to make it easier...You will get heaps of help from here...Hugs Sally

Do you have software that allows you to see the design as an image..this also helps when organizing designs. SewIconz is really inexpensive and is worth its weight in gold..they also have a free trial..
Welcome to "CUTE"!

WELCOME to cute..........

We have all done this. I have saved alot of files wirhout renaming them. I now am slowly working through them and rename them.

Welcome to cuties and you have some good answers.

Welcome. I use sewiconz and just couldn't do with out it.

I also find, that you don't want to completely rename the file...maybe add your description to the front of the file name. That way, if you need it, you can have the original filename that the digitizer used. i.e.
horse body profile - 1920357.pes
In the previous example, I just added
horse body profile -
to the beginning of the digitizer's original file name. You may use the hyphen - in naming files...but don't add a period . to the file name...this could confuse your computer by dis-associating the file type and it will not know which program to use to open the file.

Lisbet,
I download my designs, then sort them into categorized folders as Suedewsbury mentioned. The best purchase I
have ever made that helps me tremendously with machine
embroidery is basic Embird (approx. $120) and its Iconizer plug-in (approx. $20). The Iconizer allows one to view actual full color picture of designs within folders, instead of just seeing format icons. That is great, as you can see immediately what a design looks like. With the basic Embird, I print paper templates of designs for aligning placement of design onto the fabric, minimally increase/decrease size of designs, merge designs to save as one, convert format to the one I need for my machine, and many other features I have not used. You may want to check out Embird. I love it and its Iconizer program! Welcome to the Cute forum!
Angel

WELCOME to CUTE !!! You will love it here. You will find it a very addicting site ! The people here are the BEST ! You will learn so much here, as I have !

Welcome to Cute Lisbet! I joined here way after starting embroidery and didnt know about all the programes you could get to view your designs! So what I did was save a picture from the internet of the design and gave the same description of the picture to the file saved. I rinted them up into a little book....so now i can browse through what i have!

Welcome to the fun, but be warned it is very addictive...great people, great designs and lots of help...good to have you here, enjoy yourself.

I have an older Designer 1 and an older version of Buzz Tools. I open my designs in BT and print them (usually 8 to a page, 16 if you print front and back) then I make my disk , then I number the disk and the pages of designs that are on that disk, then I put the pages in a binder in # order, so I know what designs are on what disk. BT prints the pic and the color order.
Hugs
Jo

You are not a dummy, you just don't have experience yet! I have a Brother SE-350, very low end and I had to buy a PED-Basic for $120 to load designs onto a card that goes into my machine. That saves pics for me so sorry I can't be of much help to you. Let everyone know what machine you have and then they can be of more assistance. Personally I am not organized at all and would love to print out pics so I can browse a book, gonna have to give that a try if I can figure out how to!
P.S. Welcome to Cute and your new addiction. We have not yet found a cure or a way to keep up with the household chores yet!

Welcome to Cute where no one is a dummy and a "stupid question" does not exists! Enjoy your stay (which will be a long one since this place is so addictive!) *4U

I use 4D software. I orgainze by folders. When I first started I was given http://www.annthegran.com/ as a good website. I saw how her designs were orgainzed so I used that at first and have since modified it to fit my needs. I have a main folder titled "Embroidery". I then go alphabetically with subfolders. I then can do more folders under each subfolder. Example: under the main folder "Embroidery" I would have a subfolder "animal" under that I would have another folder with "cats", one with "dogs", one with "horses", another with "farm animals" and so on. Just add a folder for an animal you know you'll collect alot of. Under my "kitchen" folder I have another folder named "towel toppers" or one called "fruit". You'll add more folders as you go along.
In the beginning I did not rename any designs. One good thing about that is if you download the design again to your folder it will tell you that you already have that design. Lately, though, I have been tagging some of my designs or tag the folder by the site I obtained the design from. For instance, "valentine heart Cute Emb". I have done this more with folders. Especially with sites I visit alot. Like under "flowers" I have a subfolder that's called "Embroidery Library flowers". All my Emb Lib flowers go in that folder.
Also, I have a download folder with subfolders for sites I visit less often than the Cute sites. I download to those folders and unzip or move the design from there to their respective folder. That way, if I'm having trouble with a particular site, I know which one it is and can go back & advise the site of the problem or re-download under another format.
I hope I haven't been too confusing. You'll figure out what works best for you and the type of designs you purchase or freebie you might download. Good luck and welcome to the Cute family. There are alot of knowledge, helpful and caring people here. Don't be afraid to ask anything!! You will be helping others before you know it and your question might be one someone else if afraid to ask. Oh, and I also use external drives for all my designs so not to clutter up my computer.

I started out with naming various subject--floral, animals, snowmen and then graduated to Designer when I became acquainted with those I like. I still have individual files for subject on things I really want to keep separate. These are Christmas, Valentines, etc and family members names.