How do you keep from downloading patterns more than once?I get to looking sometimes and I have patterns downloaded two and three times.My pc gets loaded down with all the files I download.

I just go thru and clean house a couple times a year.:)

I don't know about all computers. On mine, a Mac, if I download something more than once, it will number it (2) or (3) or whatever on the name of it.

I leave the files with the name it comes with and that way if I try to download it again , it gets flagged and I get asked IF I want to download again. A few still slip by , but that sure limites my doubles....

I bought a portable hard drive and I download all my patterns to it instead of my computer. That way it doesn't bog down my computer with a bunch of files. Usually your computer will tell you if the file already exists, unless you are saving it to a different location or naming it something different.

You can get a tiny little utility that finds all the duplicates on your computer - embroidery files, mp3's, quilt patterns, pdfs - even if you have renamed the files as you saved them.

This one is free, but it has a good reputation:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/dupfilefinder.html

I have noticed that when I download free patterns from different websites they will have the same pattern but they give it a different name. So I end up with 2 or 3 copies of the same pattern all with different names. Frustrating.

I actually just went thru and cleaned house on my computer. I discovered the MY PAGES on here and since then I've been sticking all future project ideas on here so I'm not loading up my computer.

I use the actual name of the quilt and save to a file called patterns. This way if I try to downloan again it will say I have it previously and do I want to overwrite. That way I know just hit back and don't download it.

This is what I do too with a bit of editing.

I copy & paste into a word file. Then I change the margins to narrow, reduce the size of the instructional pictures to less than half the width of the page. I get rid of the extra chatty instructions. I select all and change the format to two columns.

Above the columns, at the beginning of the paper, I make sure to have a large picture of the finished quilt. Below the picture I have the name and link to the original source. When everything is the way I want it I resave it as a PDF file. If I set the folders viewing as thumbnail I see the picture of the quilt. If I have duplicate pictures I can check to see if the patterns are also duplicated.