How to organise the library best for workflows?

Question

I need some help to set up my library propperly. I'm using Aperture for a year now and the organisation of my first major project was a bit of a mess and I lost control. I had a folder as top level, then a Project (box) containing folders and smart folders. I wanted to work with keywords only but that didn't work out.
Now I have an even more complex project and I want to go back to a workflow based structure. But it seems that the boxes, folders and albums aren't quite designed for this kind of organisation. This is what I actually want to do:
– Top level Project name e.g. Seasons
– Sub-projects /divisions e.g. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (note that a photo can only be in one category)
– Workflow sections where photos are moved according to their state of progress, e.g. Import, Editing, Review, Published (again a photo can only be/show in one location)
This is how I would have liked to do it:
1. A folder or box as top level called Seasons
2. Four boxes or albums as sub-divisions for the seasons
3. Give every step of the workflow an album or folder (like sections to move through)
Now this is the obstacle I'm facing:
1. I can't put boxes in boxes
2. I can't put photos in folders
3. I can't move photos from one album to another (they need to be deleted separately in the old folder)
I have read about how these elements are designed in the other threads. But I havent yet found a way how to use them the best way for my purpose. The best thing I can think of at the moment is to use folders in the top two levels and boxes for the workflow.
Is there anyone who tried to organise a project like this before?

Answer 1

Hi,
of course you have to find your own way.
I just recommend  (I first did something similar to what you plan to do, so who am I, to tell that you shouldn't),
to start not with Folders as the top level organizer.
In my opinion you have to think not of files but of pictures.
So the pictures are organized in PROJECTS and are always ORIGINALS because it is different to Bridge or LR
not files that you are working with (it takes a while to think this over, I guess).
So the pictures are now organized inside these folders into ALBUMS with different "workflow states" like
the originals ( I would name them more: base-pictures or shooting or whatever)
You pick your stars from 1 to 5 (and 9 to delete) to create kind of a choice from the shoot.
Out of your choice you create an album for your EDITS and immediatly delete those pictures from the SHOOT-ALBUM ( they are still chosen and still you can make them visible via cmd/F and choose all pictures with 1 star and more- go to PICTURES-DELETE FROM ALBUM).
So now you have every picture only one time inside your PROJECT and still only one time in only one ALBUM.
Now you feel free to create some intelligent albums if you need, for checking which ones were taken to a lab for printing or send via email or whatever. For me personally these intelligent albums don't work but this depends on the workflow and your clients.
The advantage is in my case, I export PROJECTS as so called MEDIATHEK (another AP LIBRARY) to an
Ext HD, so I have all the adjustments and the order, in case AP starts to work not as I want it ( I had these
issues a few times in the past and had, what is discussed in this forum as well, thousands of pictures two, and more times without knowing what I did wrong after repairing ).
Hope this helps
Uwe