How do I maintain the file structure in iphoto 6 the way i want them?

Question

For the past few years I have been scanning forty years worth of slides on my windows based PC. I have approximately 9500 scan as this point. Each scan is given a number such as "009500" followed by the names of persons or places shown on the picture. They are generally in chronological order. Obviously the creation of the scan has nothing to do with the date of the actual shooting of the picture. They are in the order that I want them in.
I can import them either from an external hard drive or from cds containing a few hundred scans each.
Is there anyway that I can maintain that kind of file structure in iphoto 6?
Frankly, I am somewhat disappointed by all of this. My kids told me how easy the mac was for photos and I now find that it may well complicate my computer life even more.
Mad Judge

Answer 1

MJ,
Once your files are imported into the library you can view them in many ways. When you import a file, iPhoto uses the filename as the photo title. I think you can achieve what you want by using View > Sort Photos > by Title. This will display all of your scans in the alpha-numeric order of their titles. You could then move the size slider toward the left (to reduce the thumbnail size) and quickly group your photos into Film Rolls. Click on the first photo, shift-click on the last photo, and all photos in between will become selected. Then use File > Create Film Roll to group these photos together into manageable chunks. Each time you create (or select) a film roll you can give it a descriptive title and edit the roll date. When you set the View to Film Rolls, each roll is listed in chronological order by the date of the roll - not the date of the photos within the roll. This is handy, since you can easily set the date for each roll, and it's a much less daunting task than redating your entire library. Photos within one roll will display in chronological order based on the date of the photos. I realize that with your scans these will not be accurate. So you could either change the date in iPhoto (but you said this would be a huge task) or don't worry about it. [You could use Photos > Batch Change to quickly redate the photos in a roll. Even if you don't take the time to set the exact dates, you can assign the group to a date or series of dates. By doing this you can use the calendar tool to filter your library by date. It is just one more way to make iPhoto a powerful organizer. Click on a year, month, or date in the calendar tool, and iPhoto filters your library to show the photos with those dates.] This is where your grouping into film rolls helps make your library organized - if the photos in a roll are from relatively the same time frame, then perhaps the internal order of the roll will be less important. And you can always switch your View back to Sort by Title when you need the photos to display in the exact order you have designated with your filenames. Just don't re-title the photos once they are in your library.
If you divided your library into Film Rolls, then you could create an Album for each roll (by simply dragging the roll to the Source Pane). The advantage there is that with regular Albums, you have the option to sort the photos manually by dragging them around. (View > Sort Photos > Manually) You can switch to another sort order, and iPhoto remembers your manual order when you return to it. You do have the option to reset your manual order if you wish.
iPhoto is very flexible, and with so many views, sorts, and filters you may well find a method that works for you. There is a shift in thinking from the way Windows software works, and if you are used to file browsers then you have to learn to play by the rules of using a database. If you can be patient and work through the learning curve, you may be rewarded. If I can clarify anything for you, please let me know.