IPhoto 09 Help please

Question

Hi
1) Starting out on iPhoto 09.
At the moment all my photos are organised in folders, eg Holiday July 08, New year 07, Childs 4th B_day, Funfair March 05 etc etc
I would like to keep them in this order if possible, and start using iPhoto to tag, and organise them all.
Reason I want them still in folders is that I also have a Windows PC, Xbox 360, and want to be able to sort them on here to, which wont have iPhoto's organisation and so need the folder structure
2) I want to start organizing, tagging etc my photos I have 1000's so its gonna be a big job.
Looking at tutorials on the web etc, it looks like in your Home folder it has edited versions and original versions of all pics that you have, so basically whatever size your library is, its twice the size (on the ones you've edited)
Is this correct? and is it worth keeping the originals? Photos (along with vids and music) is the one thing I want to backup separate to another HDD, along with the backup already using Time Machine, or is this overkill (ie just one copy on iMac and one in Time machine is enough)
So should I backup the iPhoto library with the originals and the edited in or just the final edited versions? what do others do please.
3) Also if I have tagged everything in iPhoto, if I copy the actual pics to a Windows PC, does all the tagging go with the pics? eg as per iTunes I done a lot of tagging in there, but the tags are in the actual music file so when I play it on a Windows PC, Xbox 360 etc the tags are ok read by it, Also if I manually tag it in places, will it tag the Exif data, so for other apps to read this data? I cant seem to find it in the Exif data?
Hope can help before I start
cheers

Answer 1

the loc-man
iPhoto is not for you.
Simply go to iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library on Import'.
Now iPhoto will not copy the files, but rather simply reference them on your HD. To do this it will create an alias in the Originals Folder that points to your file. It will still create a thumbnail and, if you modify the pics, a Modified version within the iPhoto Library Folder.
However, you need to be aware of a number of potential pitfalls using this system.
1. Import and deleting pics are more complex procedures
2. You cannot move or rename the files on your system or iPhoto will lose track of them on systems prior to 10.5 and iPhoto 08. Even with the later versions issues can still arise if you move the referenced files to new volumes or between volumes.
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
iPhoto has no cross platform ability whatever.
You have no choice. Iphoto will always preserve your Original file. That’s how it works. It’s a Digital Asset Manager, and it will treat the Original file like an old photographer’s negative.
Also if I have tagged everything in iPhoto, if I copy the actual pics to a Windows PC, does all the tagging go with the pics?
No. You’ll need to export the pics from iPhoto to write the tags to the file metadata. This is not necessary to share on a Mac, part of “Having no cross platform ability whatever“.
Also, if you sort the files using your PC - or move, rename, or change the structure of the folders after the pics have been imported to iPhoto then iPhoto will not be able to find them.
Regards
TD