Q: storing presentations in Aperture?

My query is why you would use Aperture at all, since it's designed to specifically to work in exactly the way you don't want?

Of all the applications I use, I find Aperture produces the best results using the Retouch tools, color enhancements, etc. That is all I use it for - I import a photo, "fix" it, export the fixed version to my desktop, and then delete everything in Aperture. I also delete my original at that point if I'm satisfied with the results, so I have one "version" only.

I don't use iPhoto because I haven't seen anything there that I need - it's as simple as that (aside from my dislike of the filing/library system). I'll occasionally move one photo in there temporarily if iMovie throws a fit and will only import from iPhoto, but other than that and considering what I do with photos, it simply does not have any features I need or would use. Maybe an illustration will help - this is a birthday card I created (the black rectangle hides some personal info) - it does have a photo in it (and it looks a lot better full size - I've scaled it down considerably):

can i please just ask you why i only see /one/ video listed under my aperture "Slideshow" section?

The "Slideshow" section shows the slideshow projects you have created in Aperture, not the rendered slideshow movies that you import. Any movie will appear in the projects, wheer imported media are stored.

If all your imported slideshows are videos, why not simply create a smart album (this can show up in the "Albums" section of the library) with the single rule "File Type is video".  That will collect all videos in one album.

ideally, i'd love to have a central place to organize these and if there is an option in addition to iMovie - say one that would let me gather up pdf's and keynote presentations - this would be nice for me to research a little more.

Why not keep your pdfs and Keynote files in a set of folders? These are documents that you need to access from the Finder, and Aperture cannot do anything with them.

Léonie

Jon, I am afraid you will have to find out on your own.

The other communities will not know, what Aperture can import, only what their applications can export.

Try to find applications that can import your movies (Quicktime 7 Pro can import and convert many formats) and then export to a format Aperture can import - I posted a list. Besides the camera specific formats Aperture can read some Quicktime movies, depending on the codec. Your best bet would be to convert whatever you have to mp4, to get rid of the quicktime wrapper and the separate media fork.

Léonie

I haven't hear anyone mention MPEG Streamclip which is what I use when I get videos in a format not readable by iMovie (or whatever else I'm using) - it's an excellent video converter.

Being woefully ignorant about Aperture's (non)capabilities re. videos, I'd have no idea if it would work, but you might want to check it out. My experience with videos is that choosing Export to Quicktime with the following settings makes it a) readable with all apps I use and b) produces a really good quality:

MPEG Streamclip is free; but, depending on your OS version, you may need the MPEG2 Playback Component from Apple (read the instructions on MPEG's website).

http://www.squared5.com/

Jon, I use QuickTime 7 Pro, because I bought it long time ago, when there was nothing else. It gives more edit and export options then QuickTime Player.

For your purposes the free MPEG Streamclip probably will suffice - try it first,

To get more video codecs, I have flip4mac and perian installed. Both are free and seem to work well on my system, but occasionally I have seen problems posted here.

I have flip4mac and perian installed

So do I - that's a must with a Mac......

@ hotwheels..

glad I was able to contribute; everyone has a different idea or workflow that works best for them; so one has to find whatever it is one feels most comfortable and easy to work with for them (not necessarily for everyone else).

From my Perian Preference Pane:

About

Perian aims to provide a single package for all your playback needs.  It is a collection of QuickTime components incorporating several libraries:

• libavcodec, from the ffmpeg project, along with code from the old FFusion component:

    • MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2

    • DivX

    • 3ivx

    • H.264

    • Flash Video

    • Flash Screen Video

    • On2 VP3, VP6, VP8

    • H263I

    • HuffYUV and ffvhuff

    • Indeo 2, 3 & 5

    • MPEG-1, 2 & 4 Video (in supported formats)

    • Fraps (up to v4)

    • Windows Media Audio v1 & v2

    • Flash ADPCM

    • Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska)

    • MPEG Layer I and II audio

    • DTS Coherent Acoustics audio

    • Snow wavelet video

    • DosBox video

    • Nellymoser ASAO audio

• libavformat, from the ffmpeg project. along with AVIImporter.component:

    • AVI file format

    • FLV file format

    • NUV file format

• libmatroska, along with matroska-qt.component:

    • MKV file format

• Subtitles:

    • (Advanced) SubStation Alpha

    • SRT

    • SAMI

    • VobSub

• liba52, via A52Codec:

    • AC3 audio