How do you organize your D&D computer files?

[rrealm]

I just started using MS OneNote for a campaign... it's actually helped a lot, in a way it forces you to organize.
Character sheets, reference sheets, pdfs and like all just go in a folder in my desktop called "gaming schtuff" and if I want to find something, I just use a search function.
MS OneNote is worth checking out, although it's pay... but there's a 60 day free trial.
And I know some places will actually give it away, but I passed it up when I saw it. Oh well.

Would you mind taking a screen shot or two so I (and whomever else) can see how you organized your catagories? I'm still learning how to use OneNote so I'm fumbling around in it for now.

 

[barsoomcore]

I keep my pictures and maps in iPhoto -- it's GREAT for storing/viewing/transforming image files.

I have a "References" directory that includes downloaded material, rules, adventures, monsters, all that stuff. I have an "Old Campaigns" and a "Current Campaigns" folder.

I use XCode, Apple's IDE, for my campaign writing. It lets me create folders, switch between files, search and replace across multiple files, view multiple files simultaneously -- it's got a host of features I don't need, but I just love the bare-bones nature of it, and the ability to give me a 50,000-foot view even while I'm wrestling in the depths of some obscure history file...

 

[diaglo]

3-ring binders

edit: and index cards (3x5)

 

[Vlos]

By Brandobaris, not very well, and to attempt it would be neigh impossible. I almost feel like a Tinker Gnome... or maybe one of those human wizards that keeps tomes for everything...

I have folders for Forms (Encounters/Scrolls/NPCs/etc)

I have fodlers of images (monsters/figures/items/maps)

I have folders for Spells/DMG/Erratta/Worlds/Campaigns/characters

I have folders for programs/databases

I have misc folders.

In the end way too many folders scattered across multiple HDs, and thats not counting my hard copy stuff.

Would love to find a better way to organize it, but will probably never get the time to do it....

 

[Olaf the Stout]

This post is on a slight tangent but related to the thread all the same. For those of you with all this D&D stuff on your computers, where did you get it from. Obviously if it is related to your campaign a lot of it would have been things that you made up yourself. But what about all the other things that you have?

Where have you found the treasure troves of D&D information on the internet to be? By this I mean anything from online generators to web enhancements to fan created netbooks, etc.

As I have stated in another thread on the boards, this thread made me go back and clean up my D&D computer folders. Now that I have them all in order again I am looking for more stuff to fill them with again.

Any suggestions?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Shadow64]

Thanks for the tip on MS OneNote! The place I work at has all the MS stuff (and it seems MS sends more every week) so I was able to check it out and it looks like it will be very cool to use. I see a few limitations with it, but then again, I haven't found anything that has everything I want, so i'll live.

Is it me or does OneNote seem like a work in progress still? It'd be nice to have basic things like a window to scale images (ala Word), a way to make URLs to links friendly (they say to use Word to make a "friendly" link, then copy and paste it...grrrr).

Now if there was just a way to tack files to a page so if i refer to a pdf in my notes i have a direct link to it off to the side. Dragging and dropping the files works for now, and is much better then having to have multiple windows open during a session.

If anyone knows of something like OneNote that has it's "noting" ability plus a way to link to files to relavent documents in a sidebar (or have them as a sub-item of a notepage then that would rock on toast.

 

[BOZ]

i just posted some of my old computer files a few days ago.

 

[Psion]

I really need to organize better now that I have a new laptop.

I have two major storage sheds for gaming stuff: the "downloads" folder and the good old windows "My Documents"

Downloads is actually pretty well organized. It's all the downloads I have from various websites, whether they be net projects, pay pdfs, collections of images, etc. All zipped for optimization and burning to CDs.

My Documents is a bit more cluttered. More so on my desktop than my laptop. I have categorical folders, including another "downloads" folder (stuff that hasn't been sorted into the \downlaods yet), reviews, "for review" (downloads people have requested reviews of), gaming, d20, and d20 ESDs (the last three I really should lump together.)

Under gaming is my classic "alanrpgs" folder which is a carried over fossil from years gone by... I've stuffed old stuff from games I don't run any under a single folder, and categorize everything else I am using:

• adventures (all the notes for adventures I am running)
• characters (completed NPC files that aren't in adventures, name files, etc)
• charsheets (character sheets - duh)
• Dndrules (house rules in various states of completion)
• Docs (frequently/currently used ESDs.)
• Magic
• Monsters
• SRDs
• Utils (PCgen, NPCgen, namegen, etc.)

Finally, I keep a folder on the desktop called gaming utils. It has links to the important folders above, plus the frequently used utils and the home page of the solevoir/sage SRD, so I don't have to hunt when running out of the laptop.