I HATE iPHOTO!

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Level 1

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I HATE iPHOTO!

Sorry, but I do. I realize it's my fault, and that I haven't probably given it a chance, but I'm fairly new to the automated world of Macintosh, and I'm used to filing photos fairly easily on my PC. e.g. create a folder, throw the photos in, done. When you want to locate your photos, they're always right where you left them.

iPhoto, on the other hand, likes to file things all by itself, and it's making me nuts. For example, I have about 4,000 'rolls' which contain 1 photo each, I have an 'Originals' folder, a 'Modified' folder, folders by different years, a 'Data' folder, a 'Library' folder, a plain old 'iphoto' folder, and all sorts of other nonsense in between. When I want to find a particular photo, I find that they are scattered all over these different folders, and there are even these odd 'ghosts' of random photos,in some folders, which are dotted outlines with the photo's name, but no image.

Now, to add to my frustration, there are some photos that I cannot drag and drop from iPhoto, to my desktop or anywhere else.

This is not very automated at all!

Is there anyone out there that will take pity on a girl who simply wants to organize her photos? What am I doing wrong? Is there a simple solution to any of this??

THANK YOU!

macbook, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Aug 11, 2007 7:38 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Aug 12, 2007 12:59 AM in response to aweebitdaft

Slow down, take a deep breath, and perhaps read the Help, or look at some of the Switching material on the Apple website.

'm used to filing photos fairly easily on my PC. e.g. create a folder, throw the photos in, done. When you want to locate your photos, they're always right where you left them.

The most basic form of filing: a the File System and an Image Viewer. Works perfectly well. And you can do it this way on the Mac too. You have a perfectly good file system called the Finder, and there are many, many Image Viewers for the Mac. Search on MacUpdate.

iPhoto, on the other hand is a Photo Organiser. That is a database, with an image viewer built-in, lightweight editing and some other features. Like any database, it needs to to do ALL your work in the iPhoto Window. There is simply never a need for you to go rooting around in the iPhoto Library Folder.

Want to get to a file? There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.

1. Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.

2. File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.

3. Show File: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

And FYI, A Note about the iPhoto Library Folder:

In this folder there are various files, which are the Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you have three folders

ℹ Originals are the photos as they were downloaded from your camera or scanner.

(ii) Modified contains edited pics, shots that you have cropped, rotated or changed in any way.

This allows the Photos -> Revert to Original command - very useful if you don't like the changes you've made.

(iii) Data holds the thumbnails the the app needs to show you the photos in the iPhoto Window.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Aug 27, 2007 7:24 AM in response to aweebitdaft

Terence,

I also am having trouble with iPhoto and you seem to be one of th emost knowledgeable contributors to this website. My problem is quite simple and I have not been able to get an answer for years now: iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail and the original photo. When I double-click on the thumbnail I get an exclamation mark. Yes, I know I can rummage around and find it, but this has happened so many times, it makes me nervous. Why does this keep happening and how can we stop it? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Cosmas

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,396 points

Aug 27, 2007 8:26 AM in response to cosmas Demetriou

cosmas

The most common cause of the ! is user activity in the iPhoto Library Folder.

iPhoto is designed so that the User does all his/her work in the iPhoto Window. Making changes in the iPhoto Library Folder - moving folders or pics, renaming folders or pics, deleting objects - causes the app to lose track of the pics.

So, have you made changes in the iPhoto Library Folder?

Regards

TD

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