Lost thumbnail view in iPhoto Library

I've been working on a very large iMovie project which is not going so well and somehow I lost my thumbnail views next to the iPhoto Library Source. I have tried everything, and like when I click on "View" I cannot highlight "show thumbnails". I have researched topics and found one that talks about the Pictures Folder & what folders contain what, and nothing on how to get my thumbnails back. It is almost impossible to organize without them. Help please, I don't know what happened.
Thank You,
Marge

Marge,
In the view menu, "show thumbnails" is only an active option when you are in one of iPhoto's edit modes: it refers to the horizontal strip of thumbnails that can be shown (or hidden) across the top of the iPhoto window. When you are viewing your library or an album, it is normal for this option to be gray.
That being said, what do you see in the iPhoto window? Are any of your photos visible? Do you have blank gray squares? Have you tried using the slider in the bottom right of the window to change the size of the thumbnails (if this is all the way to the right you will only see one photo at a time).
Have you ever used the Finder to change anything in your iPhoto Library folder in any way? (This includes renaming and moving files or folders.) This causes big problems, so if you have, post back with some details and we'll try to help you repair the damage.
If iPhoto is acting quirky you can delete its preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist. Find it inside Home/ Library/ Preferences. Then when you launch iPhoto your preferences will be reset to their defaults, so you may need to reset them back to your liking.
One more thing to try is a database rebuild. Hold the Command and Option keys while launching iPhoto. Check the first 3 options and let it work. It can take a few minutes. This process allows iPhoto to recreate its database file, which can improve performance and stability if that file was causing problems.
Post back with some of the above info, and we'll go from there.

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