LSchulz

Q: How do I organize the sidebar in Photos?

In iPhoto my albums were always arranged in chronological order from oldest to newest.  I found this to be very useful.  Now in Photos the albums are just randomly arranged and therefore very hard to locate.  The only option I can find is an alphabetic arrangement which I don't find very useful.  How can I again arrange the albums in the sidebar in alphabetical order?  Note the same random arrangement seems to be taking place in the main screen albums pane, but I find it much quicker and efficient to scroll through a list than have to page down through all the pictures.


Thanks!

 

Lance

iMac 1.83, Mac OS X (10.6), ibook G4 1.43, OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 20, 2015 6:51 AM

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Q: How do I organize the sidebar in Photos?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by léonie,Apple recommended

    léonie léonie Dec 20, 2015 7:03 AM in response to LSchulz
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 20, 2015 7:03 AM in response to LSchulz

    Which version of Photos do you have?

     

    In Photos 1.3 in MacOS X 10.11.2 El Capitan you can ctrl click a folder with albums inside in the sidebar and have the sorting options:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-20 at 15.57.02GMT.png

     

    The sidebar is much more manageable if you group related albums in folders. This way you can collapse subfolders and get many albums out of the way with one click.  I use folders for groups of ten years of albums and inside a folder  for each year.

  • by LSchulz,

    LSchulz LSchulz Dec 20, 2015 9:15 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2015 9:15 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks, léonie!  I guess I'll just have to wait until I upgrade to El Capitan (I've hesitated so far due to all the problems users are reporting).  The Photos version with Yosemite only has the sort alphabetically option.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Dec 20, 2015 9:18 AM in response to LSchulz
    Level 10 (85,113 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Dec 20, 2015 9:18 AM in response to LSchulz

    Actually you are shooting yourself in the foot - El Captain adds many needed features and fixes lot of bugs - as to user complaints - they are constant and every new package for every computer brings them out and usually they are minor and most often user error - you do what you want but unless you upgrade as new software comes out you miss all of the bug fixes and new features - your choice

     

    LN

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 20, 2015 9:21 AM in response to LSchulz
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 20, 2015 9:21 AM in response to LSchulz

    El Capitan improved Photos considerably. In addition to more sorting options you can now assign locations to Photos or change the locations, so the moments will be more useful. You can also change the titles of several photos at once, it is easier to weed out faces from the suggested faces, and you can use app extensions for editing.

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Dec 20, 2015 9:46 AM in response to LSchulz
    Level 10 (141,336 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 20, 2015 9:46 AM in response to LSchulz

    Moments in Photos are the new Events, i.e. groupings of photos sorted by date taken.

     

    When the iPhoto Library was first migrated to Photos there is a folder created in the sidebar titled iPhoto Events and all migrated iPhoto Events (which are now Moments) are represented by an album in that folder. To open the sidebar if it's not already open use the Option+Command+S key combination.

     

    NOTE: It's been reported by several users that if the Event albums are moved out of the iPhoto Library folder in the sidebar they may disappear.  It's not widespread but several users have reported that issue.  Therefore, if you want to assure that you keep those Event albums don't move them outside the iPhoto Events folder.

     

    There's a way to simulate events in Photos.

    When new photos are imported into the Photos library go to the Last Import smart album, select all the photos and use the File New Album menu option or use the key combination Command+N.  Name it as desired.  It will appear just above the iPhoto Events folder where you can drag it into the iPhoto Events folder

     

    When you click on the iPhoto Events folder you'll get a simulated iPhoto Events window.

    Albums and smart albums can be sorted by Title, by Date with oldest first and by Date with newest first.

     

    Tell Apple what missing features you'd like restored or new features added in Photos via Apple-Photos Feedback.

    OTsig.png

  • by gerenahum,

    gerenahum gerenahum Sep 24, 2016 11:17 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 11:17 AM in response to léonie

    Where do I go to batch change the names of photos?  I can't find it.  I have El Capitan.

     

    Also,

    In iPhoto, I had the side bar organized.   For example.

    Album:Genealogy person's name

    Folder under that:

         Census

         Documents

         Pictures

         Tombstones

         Obituary

     

    Now this does not reappear on Photos.  I went to the iPhoto imports on the side bar and the drop downs are not there.  There are some strays to be filed so I went to the + and put them into the file on Photos.  There there were drop down menus, but they are not to be found on the side bar.  Did this escape when Photos came in?

     

    Any recommendations?

     

    I have written to Apple---who knows if they will make changes.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 24, 2016 11:38 AM in response to gerenahum
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 24, 2016 11:38 AM in response to gerenahum

    You can open a sidebar in Photos by clicking the key combination ⌥⌘S .  In the sidebar you can add folders and drag your albums into these folders. Create the albums and folders from the File menu in Photos.

     

    Where do I go to batch change the names of photos?  I can't find it.  I have El Capitan.

    Batch changing in Photos is a bit limited.  Select several photos at once and  open the info panel with ⌘I.

    Now you can type a new title for all photos into the title field, a new description for all photos, enter a new location for all photos, or add new keywords for all selected photos.

    Or change the date and time from "Images  Adjust date and Time".

     

    But you cannot add a running number to the title or similar. That requires an apple script. You will find a few Apple Scripts mor more elaborate batch changing in the User Tips section: https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/photos_osx/content?filterID=conte ntstatus%5Bpublished%5D~objecttype~objecttype%5Bdocument%5D

  • by gerenahum,

    gerenahum gerenahum Sep 24, 2016 12:10 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 12:10 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks leonie.  I will see how the batch change works. I just did 26 of them manually.  I have the side bar.  It's just that all the albums and folders that were there from iPhoto are gone and thought there might be a way to find them again.  That will be a real time challenge to do that. I did make a couple for practice and when I went to move them over--the whole Photos opened up.  Grrr.  Will keep trying.

     

    Other than the Apple Scripts that I have been reading about--but scary--is there any way to have the pix have more detailed times in seconds.  I organize, in some situations by seconds because there are so many pictures in a given group, it is the only way it works.  Now they just go in by a minute and if something is already in the Moment (Event), it goes all over the place.  That might send me back to iPhoto, in itself!!!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 25, 2016 12:21 AM in response to gerenahum
    Level 10 (107,942 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 25, 2016 12:21 AM in response to gerenahum

    Now they just go in by a minute and if something is already in the Moment (Event), it goes all over the place.  That might send me back to iPhoto, in itself!!!

    The Info panel will show the time in seconds, if you change your System Preferences > Language&Region, Advanced, Time

    In the System Preferences you describe the formats how dates and times are to be displayed. Photos seems to be using the "Medium" format for times.  So I redefined the Medium format to include the seconds and the Time Zone code an restarted Photos.

    Now the Info panel in Photos is showing the times for selected photos like this:

    Screen Shot 2016-09-25 at 09.10.43 GMT.png

     

    To change the Medium format for times:

    • Quit Photos. Open System Preferences > Language & Region,
    • then click "Advanced" I the lower right corner of the panel.
    • Now click the tab for "Times".
    • Type a ":" into the Medium field after the minutes as a separator, then drag a "seconds" format there. I dded the time zone as well for good measure.
    • Now close System Preferences. You may need to log off and on again to be able to see the changes.
  • by gerenahum,

    gerenahum gerenahum Sep 25, 2016 12:19 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 12:19 PM in response to léonie

    Wow, I thought this would be the perfect answer.  I opened System Preferences and this is what I found:Screen Shot 2016-09-25 at 3.08.04 PM.png

     

    So I made no changes.  Went back to a photo that I had recently changed the time for and it doesn't have the seconds.  What did I miss?Screen Shot 2016-09-25 at 3.11.30 PM.png

    The seconds division of time is very important as to how I organize all my genealogy files.  Eg.  Census records are at 1:00, Official docs are at 1:05, Misc docs at 1:10, Pictures at 1:20 and Obits, tombstones, etc. etc. are at 1:50.  Depending on how much each person has, it will take a lot of definitive seconds to organize. 

    On census records, for example; there may be 12 or so depending on wife/husband/parents.  Just telling it to go to 1:00 doesn't define because I want the oldest record first, etc.  For another person, the next in line, it starts at 2:00, etc. 

    Then I have thousands of travel and family pictures that were organized, too. 

    Hope this makes sense.