Import iPhoto Title as Aperture Version Name?

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Import iPhoto Title as Aperture Version Name?

QUESTION: How do you import your iPhoto library such that the Titles you've applied in iPhoto become the Version Names in Aperture?

DETAILS: Upon import, Aperture ignores my custom iPhoto Titles ("Lunch at Summit", for example) and replaces them with the original file name (DSCF2966, for example). I hate looking at a screen full of DSCxxxxx names. Worse, I've spent a lot of time titling my pictures in iPhoto. I don't want to lose that work.

BACKGROUND: In iPhoto, I typically Batch Change a just-imported set of photos, setting the Title to nothing. Then I give meaningful names to pictures that I care about titling. This way, I reduce visual clutter on the photo display; any title text I see is there because I typed it in. When I try this trick in Aperture, it displays "<untitled>" for any pictures I remove the camera's DSCxxxxx from.

QUESTION 2: Is it a bad idea to get rid of the camera DSCxxxx Version Names?

I've experimented with the Import settings, searched these forums, the web, and the Aperture help files, to no avail.

Thanks!
David Long

Macbook Pro (15" unibody), Mac OS X (10.6.2), Aperture 3.0.1

Posted on Mar 6, 2010 12:29 PM

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Answer 1

Longwalker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 16, 2010 5:28 PM in response to Longwalker

No one else having this problem?

I spent years typing in Titles for my pictures in iPhoto, but when I import my iPhoto library to Aperture 3 it leaves those Titles behind and reverts to the original Camera filenames, such as DSCF1982034.

Surely there are other people who assigned titles to their iPhoto pictures. Did they import for you when you switched to Aperture 3?

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Answer 2

Mar 16, 2010 5:54 PM in response to Longwalker

Did you try setting the iPhoto import to "Version Name = Version Name" instead of the default "Version Name = Master File Name"?

I use the naming convention
yyyy-mm-ddSessionName_Location_####of####OriginalNameFromCamera.ext
which has several advantages.

If you want custom names, I suggest using the "Title" metadata field, and editing your Browser and your Viewer metadata settings to show you the information you want to see. ("View>>Metadata Display>>Customize".) Note that there are separate metadata displays for the Viewer and the Browser, and that there are two sets for the Browser (one for Filmstrip and Grid modes, and another for List mode) and that each set contains an Expanded and a Basic view setting, for a total of six different metadata view settings. You can show Title and nothing else if you'd like.

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Answer 3

Longwalker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 17, 2010 3:10 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Kirby, thanks for your helpful response. I just experimented with the Version Name field in the iPhoto import dialog and found that setting Version Name to Version Name in the

File-->Import-->iPhoto Library...

import dialog still does not preserve the Titles from iPhoto.

However, using

File-->Import-->Show iPhoto Browser...

DOES preserve the iPhoto Titles. Unfortunately, this method loses much of the Places information in the iPhoto library. I describe which Places info gets lost in this forum post:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11229662#11229662

So, this leaves us with a conundrum:
-If we use the "Show iPhoto Browser..." method to import, we retain our Titles but lose our Faces and Places data.
-If we use the "Import-->iPhoto Library..." method, we retain [most of] our Places and Faces data, but completely lose our Titles from iPhoto.

Either way, we lose some of the metadata work we put into our iPhoto library.

Anybody know a solution to this problem?

...David

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Answer 4

Longwalker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 25, 2010 10:25 AM in response to Longwalker

Well, turns out Aperture CAN import iPhoto's photo Titles. I don't know why I failed to figure this out earlier while playing with the iPhoto Import options, but it works fine if you use

File-->Import-->iPhoto Library...

and then set

Version Name: Master File Name

in the import settings dialog prior to clicking on the "Import" button.

This method not only preserves the iPhoto Titles, it also imports iPhoto's Places and Faces metadata.

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