Issues Missing files & duplicate files and not enough screen space

Question

Hello everyone,
I'm using a 1.67 Ghz 15 in tibook with 1 gig of ram
I had issue yesterday, missing files, I was in the rating/keywords panel scrolling through my images, one was a bit soft so I deleted it using the command delete combo. Somehow all of the images in the project disappeared. They hadn't been moved to the trash, I looked, and looked and looked, I couldn't find them using a search, and it should have been easy, they were the first images that had been imported into Aperture.
So since I had copied the 70 files to my hardrive first I re-imported them. Couldn't see those either.
Deleted the project and re-imported again, worked fine, and I couldn't reproduce the problem.
When I went to export five images, (all the images had been re-named with a sequential suffix, Smith_01, Smith_02, Smith_03...), to my desktop so I could copy to our server, I remembered that I needed to update a caption on one image. (Could that caption box be any smaller?), anyway I exported again, I meant to only export the individual image but exported all five again. Instead of telling me there were duplicate files on the desktop it increased the sequential number of each duplicate file by 1. So now instead of one file of Smith_01, Smith _08, Smith 33, etc, I have the original and the Smith_01 file now has a matching image slugged Smith_02 on the desktop as well, along with all the others that had a match with a suffix one digit higher. And of course back in the project there is a Smith_02 that is different..
If I were to copy different files with the same name to other folders or our archive server one of those images could be easily discarded or copied over by the file with the duplicate name.
And lastly, when importing I tried to rename my files and add a generic caption, I imported the same images a few times, the first time I couldn't scroll down to see the caption box and metadata, the second time I could see the scroll and add the metadata below. The third time I couldn't scroll down. Very Wierd!
And lastly, is there any way to show just the adjustments or just the metadata boxes on the Adjustments & Filters layout? The boxes are so small already I'd like to be able to at least use the whole side of the screen for one box. I'd really like to be able to put them where I want them. The adjustment HUD works this way on a full screen but I want to get rid of the strip of thumbnails in the full screen and just have the HUD and the image, nothing else.
Any insights would be great.
Thanks,
Craig

Answer 1

Hello everyone,
<...>
I had issue yesterday, missing files, I was in the
rating/keywords panel scrolling through my images,
one was a bit soft so I deleted it using the command
delete combo. Somehow all of the images in the
project disappeared. They hadn't been moved to the
trash, I looked, and looked and looked, I couldn't
find them using a search, and it should have been
easy, they were the first images that had been
imported into Aperture.
I think they were in the trash - as far as I know search does not work within the trash itself.
Nope not in the trash, that's the first place I looked, I also found that deleting a project is the fastest way to export the masters. Just pull them out of the trash can
They should have been moved to the trash folder, inside an Aperture directory, and then from there inside of a folder with the name of the project the image was in.
Alternatley (and I'm not sure how this migh thave happened) they may have been marked as "rejected". All views have a default search >>criteria that starts with "unrated or higher" but rejected photos are lower than this and are not seen. By default there is a smart folder at the >>top of your library that shows Unrated pictures, you might check to see if they are there.
I'll double check the shortcut for rejects, this is the only plausible explanation, but it doesn't explain why the second import of images couldn't be found either.
So since I had copied the 70 files to my hardrive
first I re-imported them. Couldn't see those
either.
Deleted the project and re-imported again, worked
fine, and I couldn't reproduce the problem.
Well, I'm sorry to say I have no theories to offer there. Just glad it worked eventually!
When I went to export five images, (all the images
had been re-named with a sequential suffix, Smith_01,
Smith_02, Smith_03...), to my desktop so I could copy
to our server, I remembered that I needed to update a
caption on one image. (Could that caption box be any
smaller?), anyway I exported again, I meant to only
export the individual image but exported all five
again. Instead of telling me there were duplicate
files on the desktop it increased the sequential
number of each duplicate file by 1. So now instead
of one file of Smith_01, Smith _08, Smith 33, etc,
<...>
Yes, Aperure will refuse to overwrite any file ever - and will always add those other numbers if it encounters a file with the same name as the one it is trying to generate!
I agree that this is a good thing, but there should be an alert of some kind if you have a duplicate. The finder certainly tells you if you are trying to copy a duplicate file to the same location. Adding an increment of one to the sequential suffix without an alert is very poor planning. On deadline trying to get files into our system I could have easily overlooked the duplicates and overwritten other files with the same name.
The only way to work around that is either to delete all files from the directory before you export from Aperture, or to export to an empty directory and copy them over yourself.
The work around is easily figured out, but like some other things I shouldn't have to work around it.
<...>
And lastly, is there any way to show just the
adjustments or just the metadata boxes on the
Adjustments & Filters layout? The boxes are so small
already I'd like to be able to at least use the whole
side of the screen for one box. I'd really like to
be able to put them where I want them. The
adjustment HUD works this way on a full screen but I
want to get rid of the strip of thumbnails in the
full screen and just have the HUD and the image,
nothing else.
Well, another option there would be to drag the divider between the metadata and the adjustments all the way up (as much as you can >>anyway, the histogram will still be visible).
That would be wonderful, but I'm on a 15 in ti book and there isn't enough space to do that. The divider show up but you can't move it. Ideally you should be able to just view the metadata or just the adjustments if you so choose. Binding them together is stupid, if I'm making adjustments, I don't care what is happening in the metadata screen and when I'm adding captions and changing metadata I don't need to see the adjustments screen. Give me a metadata template like the IPTC screen in Photomechanic that I can save and apply and put it on the screen where I want it.
Then to see adjustments just use the adjustment HUD - key "H" to bring up or dismiss. It will stay where you put it when you make it go >>away and come back and you can have it whereever you like on the screen unlike the inspector.
I'd love to do that but it can't be done on a 15 in laptop screen.
For maximum space value, you could arrange the Adjustments HUD to exactly overlay the space where the Inspector is - then you can press >>"I" to make the inspector come and go, and "H" for the Adjustments Hud all in the same space.
For maximum space on adjustments I'm using the full screen with the HUD. At least I can then move the HUD where I want it to be, not anchored on the right side.
In general look over the keyboard shortcuts as there are a lot of keys to make panels come up and go away quickly (one key, no modifiers) >>which really helps to maximize use of screen space.
I'm still learning them and I'm sure that will help, but the adjustments panel and the metadata panel have to be changed to make it more usable on a laptop in my opinion. Maybe it's fine on a large monitor, I wouldn't know as I can't load it on my G5 desktop without a hack. And so far I'd rather use Photomechanic for sorting and captioning it's much much faster for newspaper work.