How is the best way to transfer photos to external HD

How do I go about moving the photos from iphoto onto an external hard drive? I would like for them to be on the external drive so that they wouldn't be taking up space on my computer, but to still be able to see them and work with them in iphoto as if they were on the computer itself.
Also, I would like for them to be in a Windows compatible format, where I could plug the external HD into a Windows computer and work with them on it if I needed to. Is this possible?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

MacBookGal:
Are you running a "referenced" library? That is one where you don't copy the photos into the library during import. If that is the type of library you have you can move the "source" files to the external HD but you will lose the links to them in iPhoto. When clicking on a thumbnail with the photos moved to another HD you'll get a message that iPhoto can't find the original and do you want to find it. I've learned that finding one photo in an event and relinking it will relink the other photos in that event. You will have to do that with every event you have.
Also you do know that with a "referenced" library you cannot move, rename or edit the source file from the Finder. Also if you delete a photo from the library it will not be deleted from the source files. The biggest downside is that if while your in iPhoto and working the external HD loses connection for any reason you can corrupt the database file for the library. That can make the library non useable and make it necessary to start over with a new library and reimport. However, following the tip at the end of my signature you can recover from that situation fairly easily. If you do a search in this forum for "referenced" you'll find some very well worded arguments against using a referenced library by Terence Devlin and other.
You can run a "managed" library from the external HD. Just follow Niels' post for that. You can have your full library on the external with a smaller on your laptop for traveling. You can use iPhoto Library Manager to copy Events or Album between the libraries as needed and keep the keywords, comments and titles intact.
But the original files would not be available to PC users. To make the source files available for PC users the format of the external HD would have to be FAT 32 which iPhoto doesn't not like very well and can cause problems.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

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