Corrupt book in iPhoto: Weird '!' instead of pictures

Question

I'm new to iPhoto and didn't know about starting iPhoto with the 'option' key pressed in order to get it to prompt to "create a new library". Instead, I just renamed my "iPhoto Library" folder by adding a "2" to the end. Then when I started iPhoto, I got the "create a new library" prompt (which I did). This resulted in a new folder "Party Library" (which I entered) inside my Pictures folder.
Next, I imported a bunch of photos and made a "book". This was quite a party and I was taking lots of pictures. At numerous times that evening, I would copy all the photos from the camera into iPhoto. I'd empty the camera each time and proceed to take more pictures. We were printing out the pictures to give to the guests so that is why I emptied the camera each time.
I made a nice 'book' with captions and was all set to send it to Apple for printing. I then carefully backuped the "Pictures Folder" onto a DVD just in case something went wrong.
When, I tried to transmit my book to Apple, that is when I had problems. It appears that the first step of renaming my "iPhoto Library" to create "Party Library" resulted in my identity getting messed up somehow. I'm not sure what an 'iLife' is but mine somehow got messed up. In any case, I couldn't successfully upload the book to Apple.
I went in an consulted with my Apple Genious who explained what went wrong. He helped me (I thought) by renaming my original library back to "iPhoto Library" and then showed me how to launch with the "option" key pressed. Now when I got the "choose library" prompt, I selected "Party Library". This is where things went bad...
Something happened to the book so that many of the pictures show up as a grey box with an '!' in the middle. Some of the pictures show up "just fine".
I can "get info" and get the JPG file name. From the finder when I search for that JPG name, I get lots of matches.
I don't know why but the pictures that are having problems have the same filename as other pictures in different folders in the "Party Folder". All the pictures that still display correctly DO NOT have such a name conflict.
Can someone explain why my camera named them the same? Eg: DSC_0003.JPG? Or was it something I did at this party as I loaded photos into iPhoto (and emptied the camera) many times... Or is it something that iPhoto did???
In any case, I think iPhoto got confused and doesn't know what picture to use. Could it have forgotten what folder the picture is in when there are duplicates in other folders? So, now all it can display is a '!' Weird.
In any case, does anyone have an idea on how I recover? I can find all the photos in the "Party Folder" but where does iPhoto store the book? Perhaps I can edit it (xml document per chance...) and patch-up the folder names... In any case, I can't find any files with a name like the name of my "book".
Another possible hint is I can move one of the problem photos (i.e. the '!') off the page and as I do, the '!' turns into a thumb-nail. So at least I can see what the picture was! I can park the 'thumb-nail' back into the photo bar (at the top of the work window). As I do this, that position in the page becomes 'available' for a new picture selection.
Now that I know what picture it is, I can delete it from the photo bar and go back to the Library and drag it back into the book. It then shows up again on the photo bar. Unfortunately, when I place it back onto the page, it still shows as a '!'
If anyone out there has any ideas, please respond!
Regards, Christine

Answer 1

Christine
The ! shows up because the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window has lost the connection to the file it represents. There are two main reasons why this occurs: database coruption and/or User Activity in the iPhoto Library Folder - in this case your Party Library.
1. Hold down the abbpe and option keys and launch iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild the database.
2. Have you renamed, altered or moved anything in the Party Library Folder?
As for the mulitple versions of photos: Your Party Library (or any Library) is arranged as follows:
In this folder there are various files, which are the Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you have three folders
Originals are the photos as they were downloaded from your camera or scanner.
(ii) Modified contains edited pics, shots that you have cropped, rotated or changed in any way.
This allows the Photos -> Revert to Original command - very useful if you don't like the changes you've made.
(iii) Data holds the thumbnails the the app needs to show you the photos in the iPhoto Window.
So each version of the Image has a distinct role to play. To distinguish them in a Spotlight search, use file size - the tiny ones are your thumbnails etc.
Your Camera names the files. Some Cameras have a setting which allows them to sequentially number across cards. You can also use titling in the iPhoto Window to distinguish them (Photos -> Batch Change) and some people copy the pics onto their machines first, rename them with a batch renamer and then import them into iPhoto.
The book is simply a virtual album of photos and is part of the library6.iPhoto file.
As to your plan of moving and patching things up... It is strongly advised that you do not move, change or in anyway alter things in the iPhoto Library Folder as this can cause the application to fail and even lead to data loss. SO try rebuild the database first.
Regards
TD