After searching on this topic a few days ago I came across a gem of an app that solves the problem of organizing these collected Photoshop goodies. Enter Preset Viewer 2.1 by Tumasoft.

With a super easy installation, Preset Viewer automatically scans selected drives and finds typical photoshop files such as .abr, .acb, .aco, .act, .ase, .asl, .csh, .pat, .psd, as well as image files including .bmp, .dib, .jp1, .jp2, .jpg, .png formats and sorts them by type all within the viewer to allow easy browsing and tagging of your Photoshop goodies no matter where they are located on your hard drive. Preset Viewer then allows you to view each collection as thumbnails or in a filmstrip so you never have to lose track of a certain brush or shape again!

To me the absolute best feature of this app (well besides the fact it only costs $37 ) is once you are able to browse and tag your entire brush collection all in one place, you can then sort them into your own chosen sets and export them as new brush files either .abr or .png formats eliminating the need for loading several different collections just to use a one or two brushes from each one. You can even create and export new .aco color swatch files for sharing on kuler.com or between your other adobe applications.

As with anything there are of course a few things that I believe could be improved… such as adding the ability to delete files from within the viewer (though you can jump straight to the folder the file is located in so that does help) and I definitely would like to see the ability to export new shape collections as well, but overall this app is an excellent way to finally be able to view and sort through these file types without having to use Photoshop.

You can purchase Preset Viewer 2.1 at tumasoft.com for $37.00 USD

Screenshots of Preset Viewer 2.1