How To Organise And Search Your PDF Pattern Collection
If you’re a big user of PDF sewing patterns, then you can end up with a lot of files downloaded on your computer. Often, to make them easy to find quickly, you might put them on your desktop. This can be fine for a while, but as the number of patterns you have increases, your desktop can become a bit of a cluttered mess, and what was once a quick and easy way of finding your patterns becomes a game of PDF Hide and Seek. “I know it’s here somewhere…”
A similar thing can happen if you just leave the files in your downloads folder - it gets clogged up with lots of other files and things get lost. Even if you’re a bit more organised and put all your patterns into a folder, this can also become bloated and hard to find things in.
But help is at hand! Whether you just want a quick fix to help you get more organised and make things easier to find, or whether you really want to tidy up and put in some extra effort, Windows has a bunch of options you can use to make life easier and less frustrating.
These tips are aimed at people who aren’t super great with computers. If you’re pretty experienced with Windows and understand how to use File Explorer search, create folders, organise your desktop and so on, then there’s probably not going to be a lot here you don’t know already, but if you just know enough to get by, then these tips will hopefully be useful.
For these hints and tips we’re going to take the example of a cluttered desktop, but a lot of the later tips apply if you have your patterns saved in any single folder.
Let’s get started. We’re going to be showing the examples using Windows 11, the most recent version of Windows at the time of writing. Windows 10 should look similar, though you may find that things are in slightly different places on menus, etc.
Quick Fix 2: Find PDF Patterns using File Explorer
Although we’ve saved all of our patterns to the desktop (or some other location), that doesn’t mean we need to rely on just our eyes to find what we want. Windows has built in search functionality that is easy to use and will allow you to quickly find the files you need on your desktop.
Quick Fix 3: De-clutter Your Desktop
Ok, let’s get all these files off of our desktop and put them somewhere where they are less of an eyesore and make it easier to see the stuff that actually should be on the desktop.
Not So Quick Fix: Create a FOLDER Structure
Folders are not really meant to store a huge number of unorganised files (with a few exceptions, like those for temporary files - yes, that downloads folder is supposed to be temporary ;) ). Instead, the idea is to have folders inside other folders to group related files together.
To get really organised, that’s what we’ll need to do.
Keeping Organised
By following the steps above you should be able to get your PDF sewing pattern collection better organised. Once that’s done, keeping organised should be much easier. Downloaded a new dress pattern? Just pop it into the “dresses” folder an you’re done. You’ll never have to go through all the steps above again, everything will just be nicely filed away and easier to find.
If you’re a PDF sewing pattern fan, then check out the PDF Patterns here at Sussex Seamstress as well.
Ultimately there is no perfect way of organising and managing your patterns, you’ll just have to find the way that works best for you, but hopefully the tips in this post will have set you on the right path.
Sussex Seamstress is an independent pattern studio, based in Sussex, UK.
Check out our range of dressmaking patterns in sizes 6-30. A Selection of our recent patterns is shown below. Thank you!