My first Mac and first experience with iPhoto. Need help

Question

Hello everyone. I just purchased my first Mac, a Mini, last week and I'm trying to learn how iPhoto works. I've been able to import picturs from my NAS (network attached storage) drive which holds all our photos, music and videos.
However, when I took pictures over the weekend, I wanted to put them on the NAS as well and have them automatically import into iPhoto. I like that iPhoto lets you put a description about the pictures, but I can't find a way to type a description and then set iPhoto to save the pictures to my NAS drive.
I ended up just saving them to the NAS drive and then importing again and telling iPhoto to not import duplicates. The problem with that is I get folders called thumbnails and then I get messages telling me the Thumbs.db files are not readable and those are coming from my camera card or the NAS drive, maybe because it was formatted on a PC. I know Thumbs is a PC item.
With my old PC, it allowed me to pick where I wanted my photos stored and what name I would like to call the pictures and then it named them all in succession automatically. Will iPhoto do this and if so, how do I do that? And how do I enter descriptions about my old photos to make them easier to find during a search?
Thanks for the help. While the Mac is very similar to my old PC, there sure are a lot of things I'm unfamiliar with. But with time and some help from experts like you, I'm sure I'll get comfortable with it.
John

Answer 1

John
iPhoto is a photo organiser - that is a database. Like any database the data has to be imported into the application.
What format is that NAS? iPhoto does not sit happily on disks that are not formatted for Mac OS X (journalled). You will find issues with saving changes to the db and with sharing pics among other apps.
You can put a library on an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
With my old PC, it allowed me to pick where I wanted my photos stored and what name I would like to call the pictures and then it named them all in succession automatically. Will iPhoto do t
No. For a start, filenames have no relevance in iPhoto - it's all about visual organisation. You can attach titles, keywords and comments to pics, of course, and can add them to the File on export.
If you want to set the pics in a spot, then do that with the Finder and thereafter import them. You can use a batch file renamer such as FileList to rename the files prior to import.
and telling iPhoto to not import duplicates.
Using a Referenced rather than a Managed library means that iPhoto will not copy the files, but rather simply reference them on your HD. It will create an alias to the Original file, a thumbnail and, if you modify the pics, a Modified version.
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
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
Always allowing for personal preference, I've yet to see a good reason to run iPhoto in referenced mode unless you're using two photo organisers.
As a general comment: iPhoto is a bit different from most photo apps. It's happiest when it manages the files and lets you go on to manage your Photos. That's a key distinction though, between Files and Pictures. iPhoto is about Pictures, not Files.
You do all your work in the iPhoto Window - there is never a need to go into the Photo Library on the Hard Disk. To find and access photos:
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
For 10.5 users: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Apple-Click for selecting multiple pics.
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. If you're using Gmail you can use THIS
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
Or, if you want to access the files with iPhoto not running, then create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
To use an external editor
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
By all means post again if you need more info.
Regards
TD