I have read The DAM Book twice and am in the process of setting up my file naming system and controlled vocabulary.  My question is regarding the use of keywords and categories.  I use ACDSee Pro which allows me to define a number of categories for "tagging" my images.  Up to now, I have been using categories exclusively.  For example, pictures of Christmas 2006 may be in the following categories:  Christmas2006, Family, Individual Names of family members, etc. 

When should I use ACDSee Categories and when should I use keywords?  To my knowledge, there is no function within ACDSee to allow the writing of categories to keywords.

Your assistance is appreciated. 

~Kelly

Thank you everyone for the information. 

Re: the use of the word "photo's"... I am an English grammar nut, and am always disturbed when I see the misuse of the apostrophe.  In this case, both responses are correct:  the full word is photograph, the plural is photographs, so the contraction of the plural is photo's.  If you really want to read more about this, an excellent site exists at Purdue University called OWL; go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/ for the page on apostrophes.  Of course, if you are using the word photo as a standalone word (instead of an abbreviation) then indeed it is correct to pluralize it by simply appending an s. 

So, back to computers!  My issue with Dell is their service.  I always end up speaking with someone in India even though we have a Dell service centre in my home city (luck of the draw, I guess).  This makes it difficult for me to understand what the service rep is saying.  As well, the only way that Dell will send out someone to my house to actually look at my computer is if I satisfy them that I have basically taken apart my computer and put it back together again and the problem still exists.  I understand their troubleshooting logic, having formerly managed an IT customer service department myself, but spending 3 hours with someone on the phone while I'm on the floor unscrewing screws and pulling components out of my computer is not my idea of "customer service."  The hardware itself has been fairly good, but I did have to have the motherboard replaced twice and the DVD drive replaced once.  I know of many other people who have had great success with Dell computers, but for me personally I will not buy another Dell product.

Thanks again for the information!

~Kelly

I am an amateur photographer, and I currently use a 4-year old Dell desktop as well as a 1-year old Toshiba Satellite notebook computer.  The hard drive on my desktop is likely going to crash, and I've decided to replace the computer instead of upgrading a 4-year old computer.  Since I will be purchasing a new computer, I thought I would solicit some advice on the most useful configuration to ensure being able to use my photo software (now and in the future) well.  

My usual workflow is as follows, and I am certainly open to suggestions for improvement.  I have read the DAM book twice, but a lot of it is not relevant since I do not currently use Photoshop CS2 (I use Photoshop Elements 3.0 and ACDSee Pro).  However, when the new version of Photoshop comes out, I will have an opportunity to purchase it via educational pricing for approximately $300 CA and may consider doing so.

1.  Take pictures with my Pentax *istDS camera, usually in JPEG because it seems to take a long time to write RAW to the 512 MB SD card.

2.  Load photo's from SD card to laptop, using ACDSee.

3.  Rename photo's.  I am in the process of converting to the recommended naming system in the DAM book.

4.  Backup photo's to DVD or CD, as well as to external hard drive (which is also used for general backups of both computers).

5.  Photo's are stored on my laptop so they are accessible to me but from what I've read it sounds like I should be using my desktop for photo management and editing, so I may consider doing so in the future.

My current Dell configuration is 2.66 GHz Pentium 4, 120 GB hard drive (partioned into two drives), 1 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 400 with AGP8X video card, 64 MB Video RAM, no DVD writer, running Windows XP Home SP2.   For information, I will not purchase a Dell computer again.  My assumption is that, if I might move to Photoshop, I should increase the RAM to 2GB.  Is there anything else I should be aware of?  Any preferred configurations from experienced amateur photographers?

I did consider purchasing an iMac, but it appears I can get more bang for my buck with a PC, plus then there would be the issue of having a PC laptop and a Mac desktop.

Any suggestions on suitable configurations will be appreciated.  Thank you kindly.

~Kelly

Hello... Are there any plans to offer workshops in Canada, particularly in Alberta or British Columbia?
 
Thank you!
 
~Kelly