Totally in a mess

Just what has iPhoto done to all my photos??? They are in a complete mess. Inside my photos folder there are several folder dated by year - this is fine. Yet inside these folders are folders upon folders upon folder all numbered, some with nothing in, some with photos in some noted as thumbs, they are all over the place. Imports are seemingly separated randomly! There are hundreds of sub folders causing a nightmare. I can't even select a folder for background images - because I have no idea which folder to choose. I even tried to copy the whole lot from iPhoto into a folder with the idea I would just import them all back in one chunk, having deleted the library. I can't do this because a lot of the photos are called by the same name!!!!!!! ie. picture0001.jpg PLEASE someone tell me how to re-organise this veritible nightmare iPhoto has caused me.

In a nutshell, the best way to organise these pictures is to let iPhoto do it.
The folders are by year, month, day, there is a folder for generated thumbnails, sometimes a folder for the originals of pics that you have edited or enhanced.
It works this way because the only unique indentifier that every pic has is the date it was created. That is the date it was snapped in your camera, or scanned on your scanner. This information is stored in the EXIF data that is attached to every image file. That way the computer can tell the difference between any of 100 shots of your brand new puppy all taken on the first day.
The date you imported the pic is not considered, so trying to re-import will simply recreate the same folder hierarchy.
If you don't want to work this way, then don't use iPhoto.
You don't need to use a folder to use iPhoto images for desktop pictures. In the desktop and screen saver panel you can point to an album you create in iPhoto or indeed the entire library.
In essence, iPhoto is a database with extras. Like any database you're best interacting through the front end rather than the rear.
There are other programes, some more expensive, some less so. If you're not happy with iPhoto look around on MacUpdate or VersionTracker. If you want to take your pics out of the folder hierarchy there are several programmes that will batch rename them for you, again, search on MacUpdate orr Version Tracker.
hth

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