Importing folder trees

Question

Importing folder trees

After importing a "folder tree," I was advised that might not be the best way to do it. After reading through the tutorial, I tried to do something similar, and now I CAN'T import a folder tree.

Here's what I want to do. I have several websites, each with an images folder subdivided into other folders, like this:

geozoo

> images

>> mammals

>> birds

I want to create a library associated with each website. But rather than import my existing images folders into Aperture, I want to create the new libraries right where they are. In other words, one library might be located at Sites > geozoo.

So I created a new library and set it to store images "in their current location." I selected the images folder, but only images not in subfolders were imported. Is there a way to import every folder and subfolder and every image inside folders - in other words, EVERYTHING insisde the folder images?

I'd like to essentially create an exact copy of my images folder, so it will be easy to work with.

Thanks.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 18, 2012 1:49 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,314 points

Feb 18, 2012 3:43 PM in response to David Blomstrom

Why have different libraries? It's quite inconvenient. Why have one in the Sites folder? What does that achieve?

Aperture has many ways of categorising: Projects, Keywords, Folders etc. It' quite possible to manage the photos used in multiple websites in a single libraryy.

Having a Library in the Sites folder achieves nothing that I can see.

There are quite a few options for importing folders of images. Check out the manual for the Import -> Files and Folders command.

I've been reading a few of your posts now, and IMHO, you're making this a lot more complex than you need to.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Feb 18, 2012 3:56 PM in response to Yer_Man

I'm still learning the ropes, and one thing I don't yet grasp is the degree to which an Aperture library interacts with the "real world."

For example, if I create a Library named Politix to manage images relating to a political website, then I can do all sorts of neat tricks - arrange the images in folders and projects and assign keywords, etc.

But if all these images are merely COPIES of the original images on my website, then I'll have to do many things twice. For example, suppose I'm playing around with an Aperture library, and I suddenly discover that an image in a folder named Insects should be in a folder named Crustaceans instead. So I move the image into the new folder...

But I then have to go into my website's images folder and do the same operation again.

But if I simply build my library around an existing images folder - e.g. mysite/images - then my Aperture library is no longer a copy of the original; it IS the original...at least, that's what I was hoping.

To put it another way: Is there a way to set it up so that if I add, delete or rearrange images in Aperture, those changes will automatically be reflected in my "real life" website images folder? And, vice versa, if I change something in my website's images folder, it will automatically be reflected in my Aperture library (because the library IS the images folder).

Does that make sense?

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Feb 19, 2012 7:20 AM in response to David Blomstrom

David Blomstrom wrote:

To put it another way: Is there a way to set it up so that if I add, delete or rearrange images in Aperture, those changes will automatically be reflected in my "real life" website images folder? And, vice versa, if I change something in my website's images folder, it will automatically be reflected in my Aperture library (because the library IS the images folder).

No. Aperture is an image-manager, not a file manager (though it does manage the files under management). The structures you create inside Aperture (or, with your Referenced Masters, in the folders of your drive), are for you to use with Aperture. Managing a website, and managing the image _files_ used by a website, is different and separate from managing an image collection with Aperture.

One of the peculiarities of Aperture (this is a high conceptual hurdle) is that the Images in Aperture do not exist as shareable image-format files until you create sharable image-format files by exporting an Image. NB: Images in Aperture are not files outside of Aperture. Folders in Aperture are not Finder folders. Aperture is not a file browser.

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

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