How does one index Photoshop techniques

There are lots of books, magazines, websites, articles, etc. that give a vast

array of useful techniques for doing things in Photoshop. I've bought the

books, saved the magazines, and bookmarked the websites. But when I have a

specific Photoshop problem or want to do a specific thing, I have a terrible

time finding the exact page in the book, issue of the magazine, or website that

tells me how to do it. Has anyone come up with a good way of indexing all of

this information so that one can find what one needs in a reasonably short time?

I tear out the articles from the magazines, put them into clear sleeves, then into a 3-ring binder. I make up my own "chapters" such as BORDERS, BLACK & WHITE, SHARPENING, etc. You can print the web pages you want and put them into the binder as well.

I also find myself having the same problem. You could do a search online--and bookmark the specific page when you find an answer. I often find amazing Photoshop tutorials online.

 

Another method would be to start a typed index in Word or Excel where you list the book, magazine, or online article where you found the answer and then categorize it with keywords and index information to help you locate it again.

File everything as electronic documents - either PDF or saved web pages. Scan the hardcopy into Photoshop and either save as a PDF or use the File>Automate tool to create a multi-page PDF. For web pages I use the "Save Page As" tool. You can also obtain a print-to-PDF utility, such as DeskPDF which shows up as another printer and creates a PDF document of whatever you can print. I use it for saving web pages occasionally, but the links aren't retained.

 

Then, of course, everything goes into subfolders of you choice within your "Photoshop Techniques" folder.