iPhoto / Sharing on NAS

Hi,

I am new to Mac and have a brandnew iMac (so software versions should be up to date).

I and my family have been using Windows for a long time - and the rest of the family still is.

As regards photos we always used to share them on a NAS (both for security (it is RAID configuration) and shared access).

Now I would like to have the iMac to take the same approach (i.e. access the photos on the NAS) and also share them from there with other programs (iWeb, etc.). I cando so, by accessing the photos on the NAS, but apparently I cannot process them without importing (which I don't necessarily want)?

How can I best do so?

(Also, what is the meaning of the iPhoto > Preferences > Advanced > Importing: Copy Items to iPhoto Library (ticked or unticked))

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Jerry

Hi, does anybody has an idea how to do?

(basically I also don't want to have my iMac disk be loaded with lots of photos which are copies of photos stored on the NAS)

Thanks in advance, again.