iPhoto Organizational Problems

[The_Man]

Hey, I have quite a few pictures on my iBook and I really wanted to use iPhoto in order to organize all of them. What I found out is that I would add them to iPhoto (through the iPhoto finder bar) and it will load them on, make duplicated of them and put the duplicates in random folders like 2006<03<06 and I would have like a hundred different folders with 1 or 2 pictures in each randomly named folder.
The next thing that I found problematic is that when I finally got past the part about all my folders, once I got into iPhoto and tried to make different folders to separate pictures from say "Graduation" and the "Concert" it would simply put them in the folder while leaving them all in the big main Library section at the same time. This was also troubling because after I did that, I had no idea which Pictures were already organized and in folder and which weren't and I really didn't have time to get through each one.

So does anyone understand my problem or know how to fix it/find a way around it?

Thanks

 

[skunk]

iPhoto always leaves a copy in your main Library. Why don't you rename each photo as you sort it by putting an asterisk after the name or something?

 

[yippy]

The folder structure is that way because you, as the user, are never supposed to go there (it is actually by the date/time of the photos I believe). Everything you need to do with the pictures you can from iPhoto. You can even drag and drop it onto the desktop if you need to put it on a pen drive or something.

If the folder structure bothers you. iPhoto 06 allows you to keep your own folder structure. To do this you have to go into the preferences and then advanced and uncheck the box to copy photos to the iPhoto Library when importing. From then on, when you import a photo, iPhoto will simply read it from wherever you left it and won't put it in those confusing folders.

If iPhoto took pictures out of the library as you added them to folders it would be much less flexible than it is. The library is just that, all of the photos you have. Many photos can fit into different categories depending on how you like to sort them and so this allows you to have photos in multiple albums. However, if you want to know what photos have yet to be sorted, get the program called iPhoto Diet. It will make an album of all photos that had previously not been in an album.

 

[someguy]

iPhoto always leaves a copy in your main Library. Why don't you rename each photo as you sort it by putting an asterisk after the name or something?

I can help with this as I've made an Automator workflow that helps you rename a large amount of files in just a couple simple steps.

I'm sure this has been done a million times, I'm just proud of myself and felt the need to share.