Originals folder in iPhoto 11

Question

Hello -
I am having a problem associated with iPhoto 11. in iPhoto 09, I used to go to Originals folder and find my events as folders sorted by yearly folders.
It is till the same, except that originals folder now point to Masters folder AND
1. the years folder do not contain correct year events e.g. 2002 year folder might contain 2005 taken pictures and vice versa.
2. earlier, within each year, all events used to be neatly organized as a single folder for each given event in the iPhoto, however, when I opened the latest 2010 folder this time, I see folders with event names and also many other folders with date (e.g. August 2,2010) as the name of the folder. Bottom-line, it seems that some events are no longer contained in one folder and some pictures show up in these random date folders.
Have other folks seen this problem, is there a fix for this problem? I will like my originals folder to be neatly organized by one folder per event, especially since I don't keep other copies of the pictures (except backup copies) on my macbook pro.
Any help will be good!
Thanks
Akshay

Answer 1

You do have chronological order of photos. It's from inside iPhoto and not inside the library package. Events can be sorted by date either ascending or descending. The photos within the events also.
If you want to group all of the 2010 events together create a Folder in the left hand pane of iPhoto. Then drag each event from 2010 onto the Folder icon at the left. This will create albums of each event inside the folder.
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If you need to access a specific photo for use outside of iPhoto then follow this file access treatise.
The following is from one of Terence Devlin’s posts on file access for use outside of iPhoto. It’s the definitive treatise on the subject.
Since iPhoto 7 (iLife 08) the old iPhoto Library Folder is now a Package File. This is simply a folder that looks like a file in the Finder. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves.
Accessing the iPhoto Library Folder directly has never been supported in any version of iPhoto.
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
For Users of 10.5 and later
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
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(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
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For users of 10.4 and later ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
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. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
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.
If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
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.
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.
All of the above are a: faster and b: Safer than rooting around in the old Library Folder.
Happy New Year