Aperture photo re-organization final advice

i am about to put the final organizational efforts into my Aperture database. they are currently sorted into PROJECTS by "topic" or "theme". basically i had to do it this way since they all came in from my PC organized under thematic folders to a very large extent. in this sense there never was an organization that grouped them by "date' or by "shoot".
so, right now i have everything organized into a correct Project and this Project is named by "theme". these Projects are also organized under a parent folder which is titled by "topic" (for instance "Personal", "Business", "Construction" or whatever). i have also then gone ahead and created albums (or slideshows) with these photos and then these albums are currently being used to organize my images or to post them to Flickr or whatever.
what i would like to do now is to TAG each image in each project with both the name of the Folder it is in (for instance "Personal") and to also TAG the image with the name of the Project it is in. this way i am imaginging that all my images will have TAGS that will then let me sort in a similar manner to the organization i have now.
once i do this i would like to SORT the images by DATE and then move "like dates" together so that my images are then effectively organized by "Shoot" which i understand to be the conventional organization for Aperture.
i am wondering if anyone can suggest issues that may come up with this or anything that i need to be aware of before i do it or even a brief numbered step by step explanation of how they suggest i do this. one thing i can see is that i won't have my nicely organized Folders and Projects on the left hand side and instead i will have to find this organization by sorting via TAGS in Aperture. since i haven't used any kind of tagging system it is hard for me to envision how this works. i am also imagining that all my ALBUMS and SLIDESHOWS will stay intact as losing these would be a huge problem.
the database is 70,000 items plus and it represents the sum total of my work life (not to mention personal photos) so i would ideally like to get a couple of pros to OK this re-organization before i attempt it.
thanks very much in advance for any help.
JC

hi leonie. thank you for the always thoughtful and helpful advice. can you just help me finalize this?
i am actually just now finishing up this "organization by project" sort so i thought to take some time in thinking through a properly considered reply after hearing your very helpful comments. since i expect i will be using this database for many, many years to come it would be wonderful to make sure i /optimize/ the organization.
here are my thoughts (please correct me where you think i may be in error). at the end i summarize the steps i am considering taking:
1. one thing i am noticing is that this method is /requiring/ met to put images in a Project. basically they come in as an arbitrarily named project (for instance Untitled Project, Untitled Project (1) etcetera) and then i have to go in and manually sort the images in each incoming new Project. so right now i am getting to the end of this sort but i still have a lot of Projects to get through since i have had a lot of imagery coming in as i have tried to get things together.
1A. i am seeing a couple of problems here. first off i am not able to put an image into more than one Project "Theme". so if some images should be in "manuscript" but also could be in "creative images" or even in "international architecture" - right now i am choosing to put them into a single project since i don't want to copy them to a new project. basically these are in one single project and only then do they go out to Albums. however it is sort of inconvenient to have to always make a decision about puttitng them in one single Project.
so i am wondering if your mentions of setting up SMART ALBUMS would be helpful. this way i am thinking i could bring in images "By Date" and they could stay in this "By Date" Project forever. then when i had the time or i wanted to i could go in and assign TAGS that were basically based upon my existing "Project Themes". if (as you indicated) i then had a Smart Folder set up with the Theme Name this image would automatically populate the Smart Albums.
AND i would be using my "Manual Albums" as i have been using them all along. however, the Smart Album would both let me have an image show up in multiple albums but it would also let me allow the images to sit in Projects "By Date" and i would only add them to the Albums either by assigning a Tag or Tags (so they then go to a Smart Album or to Multiple Smart Albums) /or/ by MANUALLY sorting them into Albums as i have already been doing. right now if i don't sort them they sit in an arbitratily named Project and then they /have/ to get assgined into a Project.
it seems to me that this new method would give me an ability to multiply tag the images (so they show up in multiple smart albums) /and/ let images that may not need a tag stay where they are (so i don't have to sort them).
1B. i am also seeing that in my effort to organize things that i sometimes need to create a new "Theme Project" and since Aperture does not allow me to create a new Project i am finding that i have to bring in an image from my desktop to create a new Project which i then name with the new Theme. this is sort of awkward and i would like to avoid it.
2. i am also thinking that there is a utility to leaving all the images in a sort that is effectively Chronological based upon the Projects as they are imported (or as they are re-sorted into "Projects by Shoot"). i am imagining that this lets me allow the images to stay in these Projects so that i am not forced to clean them up by sorting them and that i only have to assign tags when i want but also that it allows me to see my images chronologically easier. for instance right now i might take a road trip and i have images of architecture or something during the road trip but i also have pictures of friends or family in this "Project by Date/Shoot" - whereas right now i would have to make an effort to see how things related chronologically and even when i do they are listed in a rather inconvenient "list view" that is not optimal. it seems like the database is sort of unnecessarily segregated in this way.
anyway, in all honesty i am not looking forward to spending more time organizing this database but i would very much like to do it right.
can i ask you if - after creating a smart album - i can just drag and drop my images into this album and have them tagged by this album (or albums)? i mean, one thing i would LOVE to keep is the ability to drag and drop organizationally and if i have to go through a manual tagging process i will probably do it but i would like to tag by dragging and dropping - as i am doing now when i create a new ALBUM. do you know if it is possible to set up a Smart Album and to then add a Tag by just dragging the images?
i mean, would a new sort look something like this:
Step A. i am imaginging setting up SMART ALBUMS with the name of the PROJECTS that i currently have, then (if i can in fact do this) dragging and dropping the images from this Project into the Smart Album. then these will show up in this album.
Step B. get into LIST VIEW and sort by oldest date first. set up a NEW PROJECT with the oldest date and MOVE the images in the list view from whatever Project they are in to the /new/ Project that has the oldest date. then repeat this for all DATES so that all images are in a "Project by Date".
Step C. select each of the old "Project by Themes" and make sure there are not images in there, then DELETE the old Projects.
THANKYOU THANKYOU
jon

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