Can iPhoto(1) & Aperture(2) share library so I can view w/ 1 & edit w/ 2

Question

Here's my situation.
I'd used iPhoto for years, but recently switched to using Aperture. When setting up Aperture, I "imported" the iPhoto library by electing to leave the photos in their current location (i.e. in the iPhoto library). Any photos I subsequently imported into Aperture were placed in the Aperture library.
With iLife '11 out, I'd now like to use iPhoto as my photo browsing program, since I like all the new features that Aperture is now lacking from a photo-viewing, book creation, etc standpoint. However, I prefer to use Aperture as my photo editing program.
In other words, I'd like to use Aperture to import photos from my camera and do any editing (which I tend to do on nearly every photo); when I want to view or share photos, I'd like to use iPhoto '11.
Is this possible to do?
Message was edited by: Argelius

Answer 1

when I want to view or share photos, I'd like to use iPhoto '11.
In iPhoto: File -> Show Aperture Library and drag the images from the resulting window to iPhoto.
This accesses your Aperture Previews. However, note that if you subsequently re-edit the photos in Aperture this will not be reflected in iPhoto.
My 2 cents: Stick with Aperture. If there is something specific that you want an iPhoto template for, then bring over those photos for that job. What you're proposing is unnecessarily complex. Keep it simple stu...art!
FYI:
Aperture and iPhoto are entirely different applications that work in very different ways.
The only communication between the two is as follows:
Aperture is able to parse the iPhoto Library to allow it to import the contents while stacking the Originals and Modified versions, preserving metadata and so forth.
Aperture can share its Previews with the iLife apps, including iPhoto.
That's it.
So, specifically, what interaction there is between the two is designed to facilitate migration from iPhoto to the more powerful app. After that, iPhoto has exactly the same relationship to the Aperture Library as, say, Pages or iMovie.
iPhoto has no knowledge of, and knows nothing of how the Aperture Library works. It cannot read the Aperture library.
If you want to go back to iPhoto, or want to share full sized files with iPhoto:
1. Export all your Masters
2. Export all your Versions
You can write the metadata to the files on export - check out the Export presets. Note that you cannot export Faces. There is no convention for sharing Faces. The best you can do is use Faces as a basis for keywording.
Import them into iPhoto. Note that there is no way to associate the masters with the versions in iPhoto, so you'll have apparent duplicates.
Regards
TD