How do I find right project without open every library?

You can't, there is no way in Aperture to see what's in a Library without opening it.

It is always best to maintain one library unless there is an overwhelming reason not to.

Yes, Aperture is designed to be the image Browser for all images - so use one large Library, as Frank Caggiano recommends.

If you need to have separate libraries for separate tasks (e.g. private or business) use descriptive library names, so that you can tell by the name of the library what to expect inside.

@Frank Caggiano:

Frank, I am puzzled by the difference between iPhoto 9.3 and Aperture 3.3: when I search for an image with Spotlight or the Finder, then I can find the iPhoto Library where it is stored, but not the Aperture Library. Do you have any idea, why searching is behaving differently for Aperture libraries and iPhoto liibraries, given that they are supposed to be compatible now?

Regards

Léonie

Leonie

I think this is an error in iPhoto. Spotlight is not supposed to search within packages but does sometimes return an image within the iPhoto Library package. Of course, it then points you to the file in the Finder and not in iPhoto, and as you should never manipulate images managed by iPhoto with the Finder, this is a possible source of corruption to the iPhoto Library. That's why I think it's an error.

If Spotlight was properly integrated with iPhoto/Aperture then it would return the image in the application window.

That's why I say these apps replace the Finder for working with images.

Regards

TD

Thank you TD. I totally agree. This looks buggy.

Of course, it then points you to the file in the Finder and not in iPhoto, and as you should never manipulate images managed by iPhoto with the Finder, this is a possible source of corruption to the iPhoto Library.

If not an error, it certainly is the window to **** and very dangerous. I recently saw that an OP had deleted each and every iPhoto image this way by simply trashing everything that was in the Finder's All-Photos album, and- if I remember correctly- even many images from Resources folders inside application packages. The OP did not expect the Finder to show images used and maintained by other applications. Luckily he/she posted here for help before actually emptying the Trash.

Regards

Léonie

Oh yes, the legendary All Images Search...

Must be more than me trying to find that picture of that particular occasion without remember what specific year that was???

My Aperture Library starts with the year 1972 ....

I tried both:

- While I still was using iPhoto I had a huge collection of iPhoto Libraries, one for each vacation or major event. These libraries had very descriptive names and were located in folders with names that helped to find them easily. Also I used the "Spotlight Comment" field to include a short summary and to index the Library.

- With Aperture it is much easier to organize everything inside the database. You have more refined tools to structure the database with nested folders and tags to retrieve the content, and also very versatile tools for searching. So now I essentially have one huge Aperture library for my private pictures and one for images that I use in publications and lecture notes at work.

A library with Spotlight comment:

Regards

Léonie

Put them all in one Library (or, perhaps, one Personal and one Professional).

There is nothing surprising here. The Library _is_ your index. It is an index of its content. If you want to index a group of photos, put them in one Library.

Don't worry about size. Apple specifies that Aperture can handle 1,000,000 Originals.

The Aperture library is a database and while database's are great for finding things in them if you use the program designed for the database they are terrible for trying to get information out of them if you don't use that program.

Having said that there are disk cataloging programs out there that may, and I repeat may, give you a list of what's in the library package in a useable form. The only way to know if they would work for you would be to try the program out.

Google disk cataloging or similar search terms.

good luck

and while database's are great for finding things in them if you use the program designed for the database they are terrible for trying to get information out of them if you don't use that program.

😎 😀

Can you have 1 library and the photos in different places?

Yes, easy with Aperture. In this case the masters are referred to as referenced meaning they don;t have to be physically located in the library but can be located on other disks.

You should spend some time with the User manual it give good description of how the library is setup this way.

As I wrote the disk catalog solution is a big maybe, I'm not really sure you'll be able to find something but I guess its worth a shot. But the best solution is to try and use the tools built into Aperture.

Post back if you have any other questions.

regards.

Jesper in Stockholm wrote:

However, as a precaution, i prefer to devide it in to smaller ones.

PS. What are the sizes of your libraries?

A precaution against what?

Many Libraries I see index tens of thousands of Originals. The size in bytes of each depends very much on how they are organized, the size of the Originals, the Preview settings, and more. Afaik, several hundred GB LIbraries are still not "too big" for Aperture to run efficiently on today's standard hardware.

You have to use referenced libraries. I started out having Aperture manage my library, but found out that when you run out of disc space you have to create a new library. I am in the process of converting 12 TB of images from managed to referenced. If you are pro photographer, it is the only way to have access to your images all in one place, and the ability to grow your library beyond one drive.