How to Use Shutterfly to Organize Your Photos

4 Tips for Creating a Manageable Photo System

So, you've managed to find some spare time to sit down and start organizing your digital pictures. Sign in to your account and follow these tips to ensure that you end up with tons of organization to your photo system. (If you don't yet have an account, you can see how to set up a Shutterfly account here.)

Tip 1. Take some time to decide how you want your photo groups named - and stick with it!

When adding new photos to Shutterfly, you have the option of naming the album for easy reference later. Do you want the photos named by event or by date? Keeping these consistent throughout your photo albums will save you time later. (When you're searching for Molly's dance recital, you'll know exactly where to look for it.)

Tip 2. Set your album view for whatever works best for you.

From the "My Shutterfly" page, you can select "View All Albums" to see all of your current pictures. The "Sort By" drop down box at the bottom of this page allows you to select your preference on displaying your photo albums. You can choose from the date the album was created, the date the album was modified, the number of pictures in the album, or by the title of the albums (alphabetically).

Tip 3. Add descriptions to your photos.

While viewing an album, click on "Edit Titles & Descriptions" on the right hand menu. This will take to a new screen that shows all of your pictures along with a text box for each of them.

Here, you can change the titles of your pictures (from numbers to a more detailed description - Grandpa's birthday party 2008 for example) and add descriptions to the moments caught on film. Not only will this give you a reminder later when you go back to view those precious pictures, but this information can also be printed on the back of prints and will be attached to the pictures when you share them with friends online.

Tip 4. When it comes to creating albums, shoot for simple.

After looking through your photos (and realizing that you took way too many pictures of Aunt Millie holding up her new sweater), only upload those that are of quality. If you know that you're not going to ever need the eight duplicates of the same picture, leave the extras out. Viewing albums is easier when you can go straight to the meat of the pictures instead of looking at triples of the same pose.

By putting in some time now to get your photos organized on Shutterfly, you save yourself hours in long run!