Secondary sub directories

You need to "Aperturize" your thinking 🙂 . This involves at least two things: learning the parts of Aperture, and making the conceptual leap from "files & directories" to Images, Projects, and Albums.

The conceptual leap carries you over the turbulent water that you think is calmed by having your Images pernamently filed by date. That need was paramount when negatives did not carry metadata. That need is now superannunated (digital negatives carry metadata, a time-stamp foremost therein). Sorting Images by date is never more than two clicks away in Aperture (click "Photos", select "Date" from the Browser's sort drop-down).

If you still desire the scheme you've presented, just make your asterisked "shoots" Projects. (Aperture was designed around the practice of "one shoot = one Project".) Use Folders for months and years.

Note that "event" has no meaning in Aperture.

2012 ← Folder

--January ← Folder

----Concert* ← Project

----Business Trip* ← Project

--February ← Folder

----Vacation* ← Project

That's a _storage_ structure. You should also design a _retrieval_ structure.

Re: Organizing in Aperture, concise long version.

Note that the storage structure you are choosing to create is (mostly) easily created at any time by going to Projects View and sorting by date and grouping by year.

Note too that Albums show as children of Projects in the Library Inspector, but they do not inherit the Project's contents, and the Project does not display the Albums contents. This is, frankly, weird. That's why the containers I've assigned above to your (so far) desired storage structure are only Folders and Projects.

You might add Albums as children of your Projects. For instance

2012 ← Folder

--January ← Folder

----Concert* ← Project

------Pre-concert/outdoors ← Album

------Concert ← Album

------Post-concert candids ← Album

----Business Trip* ← Project

------Travel pictures ←Album

------Meeting & corporate HQ ←Album

------Lunch candids ← Album

--February

----Vacation*

Strongly recommend reading the linking "Naming of the parts", and creating and practicing with a test Library, until your are comfortable with the parts of Aperture: Images, their containers (Projects, Albums), and the containers of containers (Folders).

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

Zathrak wrote:

So I've been looking at this post and the link in it for hours now trying to funnel all that information into my scenario.

[ ... ]

I'm just some guy that wants to take every day photos/videos which might include special events from time to time and be able to sort them by date, delete duplicates, and call them good in a logical date oriented fashion.

I appreciate the assistance.

Clearly I've made this too complicated -- I'm sorry. Perhaps someone else will jump in with more clearly presented information.

What you want is easily achieved, however. To go back to your original post: just make Folders for years and under those, Folders for months. For each of your asterisked containers, make a Project. Put your Images in the Project you want them to be in.

Then add Keywords.

Zathrak,

Aperture is a very powerful digital asset management tool - don't let its power overwhelm you. Just because Aperture can deal with complicated image retrieval problems, you are not forced to built a complicated structure. Once you have decided what the main criteria should be that you need to store and to retrieve your images from Aperture's database, set up the folders and projects to support this.

Folders and projects should build the basic long-term storage structure, and albums are best used to support short term projects to group subsets of images for specific tasks, like books, slideshows, for export, etc.

Kirby's advice is very good - let's try it at your example:

Use folders to group your projects hierarchically:

Your example:

2012

--January

----Concert*

----Business Trip*

--February

----Vacation*

2013

--January

----Work Seminar*

----Museum*

You are welcome, Zathrak!

I wish you success with Aperture. 🙂

Léonie

What she roared 😁 .

--Kirby.