aperture question

ive watched the training videos on apples site and Ive done alittle google searching but I cant find what im looking for so I thought Id ask here.

I want to use aperture to organize and edit my pictures. I dont want it to completely copy my library like it tried to do originally. I dont really understand what aperture does when you "import folders as projects" but it seems like it copies all your pictures and organizes them into its own library format. I already have 20Gb's of pictures, I would prefer aperture not take up another 20 gigs of space copying everything.

Ive been using lightroom and I like the way it uses your existing library without copying everything, can I do the same with aperture?

Yes, when you do an import you can choose where the originals are stored. Aperture will either leave them where they are on you hard drive or you can choose to have Aperture import them into its library. It also will allow any mix of the two as well, as each import you can decide.

Yes. You want to create a REFERENCED Library. I don't have Aperture in front of me but the Help files do explain how to do this. This is the type of library that I have and it works fine.