Managed edits moved to referenced?

Question

I have been using Aperture for a year now and have been enjoying it immensely. My intention was to use Aperture in referenced mode as I want to maintain my own folder structure and have the masters available for other applications to access directly. Everything was sailing along peachy as I configured the import process to leave the masters in the current location (which is referenced) but after a month or so of use I somehow changed the process by which I import to dragging and dropping. I did not notice until this past month (ugh!) that my dragging and dropping process was actually importing the masters into the Aperture library (managed mode). I have since found out that if I want to drag and drop using referenced mode that I must hold down "Command-Option" to do so (reference link).
Now I have about 80GB in a managed Aperture Library which is not what I intended. I, of course, still have my masters in their original directories but I have made so many edits (touchups, rotations, etc) and want to revert those changes and go to referenced mode. Is it somehow possible to link those edits to the masters and go to referenced mode and delete the images in the Aperture Library or am I just best to start from zero with a new library and using reference mode again?  I hope this makes sense and somehow can advise me in some manner. Thanks folks.

Answer 1

Aperture provides tools which you'll find useful.  Without more information, I can't recommend what to do.
Let's clarify a few things.
. "Managed" and "Referenced" refer to the Master of an Image.  Libraries can contain a mix of managed and referenced Masters (as yours seems to).
. Masters are image-format files -- the ones you imported into Aperture.  When you import, Aperture creates an Image (a record in its database) and a pointer to the imported image-format file, which is thereafter referred to as a Master.
You  use "File→Relocate Masters" to move Masters to new locations a drive.  There are eighteen variables you can use to set up a hierarchy of Finder folders.  Go to "Aperture→Presets→Folder Naming" to see them and to create your own Finder folder structure template.
You use "File→Locate Referenced Files" to attach Images to Masters.  Aperture is rightly picky about this.  It is used to re-attach Images that have missing Masters (there is no file at the location to which the pointer points).  You might be able to change Images' Masters from the Managed Masters in your Library, to the existing original files you imported.  You'd end up with files orphaned in your Library, though (I don't know what Aperture's housekeeping staff does with these), so you might want to relocate the Masters to another drive first, and then try to change the Image's pointers to point to the original files.  The "Locate Referenced Files" efforts are sophisticated, but, afaik, the files _must_ have the exact same name.
Please see the User Manual for illustrated examples of the use of the two commands mentioned.
For just a few files, you could Import them anew, and Lift & Stamp the existing adjustments & metadata from the existing Versions to the new Images (and then delete the old ones).  This is strictly one-by-one, however, and won't do you any good for months worth of photos.
I use an elaborate file naming convention when I import (and I rename my Masters).  This gives me a unique and informative name for each Image and file, as well as allowing me to use an alpha sort in Finder to put my files in date order.  You might want to do something similar.  Among other things, it obviates the need for _any_ Finder folder organization.  I use Aperture to organize my Images into groups for my uses, and I leave my Masters in one big Finder bin.