: What is the most effective way to organize .psds for a large scale application project I'm working on a project at work where we are building out a full scale application. Its going to span

@Jennifer810

What Yisela said, with this addition:

Use Adobe Bridge, since you have it anyway and it makes PSDs easily viewable in thumbnail and preview form.

Use Bridge Favorites to keep things within easy reach.

For your "Active Projects" and "Active Research" use Bridge Collections. You can drag and drop items into a Collection regardless of where they are on your network, and they will appear in a single virtual folder in Bridge. If you use Smart Collections, you can add and subtract items automatically based on keywords, ratings or labels.

Bridge is easily the most underrated and under-utilized application in the entire Adobe lineup, which is a shame, because as a simple DAM and workflow hub it is superb.

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@Murray976

I have worked for a similarly long period of time on a desktop application, and I had to be extra careful with how I managed my resources and files.

This is what made it a little easier for me to manage them:


First, keep your features folders in an easily accessed location, so you make sure any new files end up in the same place. On Windows, it would be as simple as adding a shortcut to the folder in your favourites.
Don't create too many levels for your folders. It's better to have them sharing the same space but correctly named so they are easy to locate. The going back and forth can drive you crazy, economize clicks like you would online ;)
Have at least one folder for projects/features, and one for assets/resources.
Name your folders according to date. I personally like to use YEAR-MONTH-DAY_DESCRIPTION, so they will always be correctly ordered. My folders usually look like this: 2014-08-13_feature-X. The name is long enough to understand what the feature is about.
If you are going to be working on more than one feature at once, you can use an "Active projects" folder. I would normally start a new feature by creating my folder there, and once completed just move it with the rest of the past tasks. I also kept an "Active Research" folder on the same level.


As well as keeping your folders organized, make sure you have a good preview tool so you can see your PSDs without having to open them, and make sure your layers are also organized. Good luck!

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