Help! Photo organization and archiving.

Question

I just switched from a pc to a mac and am having nothing but problems. I personally regret ever buying it. I even bought one to one care, but live 6 hours from a mac store and so feel like I'm struggling in the dark. I hope so much I can find help here.
I have thousands of photos that Mac transferred over in a data transfer. All my photos are in albums and sub albums that I title by month, year and event. All of my albums were transferred, but do not show up as albums in iphoto. When I try to find my photos from the finder, or while uploading to facebook or flickr, iphoto either doesn't show up or it lists albums by years I didn't create (such as 2034, 2020, 1993 which doesn't even have my 1993 photos in it).
I thought I would have to recreate all my albums, but the few I have tried to recreate also don't show up when trying to access the photos from other sites (like mentioned above).
I also don't know why I can't access the photo albums from finder (similar to accessing photos from the c: drive on a pc, so I have control of how I want to back them up, or if I want to access them from another source)
I also have not found a way to save changes to photos or save to a different location.
I also have not found a way to scan photos from my scanner into iphoto.
Is there another photo program beside iphoto one can use on a mac that would allow these functions?
These are just a few of my frustrations. Please, please help.

Answer 1

Some basics for you:
You can still work your photos on the Mac in the same way that you did on Windows. Just set up your system of folders in the Finder (the Mac equivalent of Windows Explorer) and off you go. The advantages of that system are that it is simple. The disadvantage is that it's very limited.
iPhoto is different from that. It's a database for organising your photos, not your photo files. The Idea is to let iPhoto manage the files and let you get on the photos. The big advantages to this is that there are pretty much unlimited ways to organise your files - date, keyword, titles, ratings, camera, arbitrary selections that you make your self, whatever - plus the photos are accessibel throughout the entire OS. They are also easy to back up.
First off: to deal accessing the Files for uploading or whatever:
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
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(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
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*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
I also haven't been able to find out how to scan a photo into iphoto. I've searched all the menu's, the help menu's and apple forum.
That's because you can't use iPhoto to scan. What you do is scan with other Software (Image Capture (in your Applications Folder, for instance, or whatever came with your scanner) and then import the scans to iPhoto (File -> Import, Drag and Drop to the iPhoto Window etc)
Regards
TD