06-17-2008, 03:18 AM

So this is my first post. I've been a mac user for 3 months and I'm so happy I switched. I use iPhoto a lot to sort events with my pictures and its pretty useful, but the pictures in finder are a mess. I have half sorted in folders all with crazy filenames containing random numbers and letters. The other half are just strewn in my pictures folder.

I'm a freak about clealiness so this stresses me out. I don't want to import all the pictures into iphoto and sort them out that way cuz that would take too long and I wouldn't have any idea to sort the pictures that I have just accumulated over the years.

If I had a misc folder it would be huge. I don't know what to do. A part of me just wants to delete all of them and start fresh. But the other part of me is yelling NOOOO!!!! because I like that I have them on my hard drive if I ever want to look at them.

I need some help. I was thinking about sorting the pictures into folders by date but I think that would take forever.

I'm lost.

How do you guys stay organized???

06-17-2008, 03:22 AM

although it is totally irrelevant from cleanliness, it actually organizes everything by file type.

Spotlight. It's at the top right corner as the magnifying glass.

or, hit COMMAND+SPACEBAR

when Spotlight comes up, just type "photo" in the bar or whatever the picture name is. it will sort your search words in categories, like Images, Movies, etc. when you find the picture you want, you can click on it and it will take you directly there.

06-17-2008, 03:25 AM

Ahh, the sweet scent of a fresh convert

My first bit of advice, resist the urge to do things the Windows way. In Windows, you have to sort folders manually. In OS X, this doesn't have to be the case, and is often warned against when dealing with programs that organize folders for you, which iPhoto certainly does.

If you want to organize the folders manually, then don't use iPhoto, use the built in Image Capture to import photos manually and then organize the folders as you like. Or change the iPhoto setting of importing files into its library and just use it as an image browser in conjunction with manual sorting.

What I would actually recommend is stop trying to manually organize the folders and just let iPhoto do its thing. I know, letting go can be hard, but you'll save yourself a lot of frustration if you do it the Mac way. Just import the photos into iPhoto and organize the photos within the program itself. Leave the directory structure alone.

06-17-2008, 03:25 AM

something a little more permanent?

what about automator? can it help me?
I'm totally confused about automator? like how to use scripts and stuff?

06-17-2008, 03:26 AM

So when I import all the photos into iphoto, what about theones that are already in there? is there a way to get rid of duplicates?

06-17-2008, 03:27 AM

OOo OOO wait also when I put a photo in iphoto and then delete it in finder, will it still show up in Iphoto? how does that work?

06-17-2008, 03:28 AM

I don't think you'll be using Automator regularly. Kash said it all. Just let iPhoto do it's thing. It actually works amazingly for me. All my events are in one place. its especially helpful, since my West Virginia event contains 70 photos.

06-17-2008, 03:29 AM

iPhoto stores all of its photos in a packaged directory structure. The default setting is that when you drag a photo into iPhoto, it will copy that picture to its library, which is located in the packaged directory. You can then safely delete the original picture as iPhoto already has a copy of it within its own library.

I would suggest probably starting over and using the Events feature in iPhoto. Be sure that iPhoto is set to import pictures into its library (you'll find this in iPhoto's preferences)

06-17-2008, 03:32 AM

Okay. I'm going to try doing that. What do you guys reccomend for misc pictures that I pick up from the web? Make an event called "misc" ???

06-17-2008, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by Kash

Be sure that iPhoto is set to import pictures into its library (you'll find this in iPhoto's preferences)

I think that's the default setting. I have never gone into to iPhoto preferences, and it did that out of the box.

06-17-2008, 03:33 AM

Originally Posted by mrbubonic

Okay. I'm going to try doing that. What do you guys reccomend for misc pictures that I pick up from the web? Make an event called "misc" ???

go for it


OOPS double posted sorry =P

06-17-2008, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by mrbubonic

Okay. I'm going to try doing that. What do you guys reccomend for misc pictures that I pick up from the web? Make an event called "misc" ???

I actually have a folder of Internet picture downloads as I have no need to view them in iPhoto, but yes, you could simply create one event and just drag all those pictures into there.

07-16-2009, 08:42 PM

All my established events are gone...they all went into one event. I lost all my names. How do I get them back?

07-17-2009, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by Rile

All my established events are gone...they all went into one event. I lost all my names. How do I get them back?

Are you sure you didn't accidentally click on Photos under Library and not Events?