Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

johnnnw

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2013
1,214
21
Try selecting all photos in the current directory/folder by CMD+A and then press the spacebar. Now you can cycle through your photos with your arrow keys without opening Preview.

Wow, amazing! Thank you so much.

Why it doesn't just automatically recognize the next one I'll never know, but this works great.
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Why is there no default Mac app that just browses photos from the finder? When you double click a photo thats in a folder it just opens that photo in preview and doesn't let you click left to the next picture in the folder...

Pretty dumb.

iPhoto barely handles folders unless you drag them into the left panel

It doesn't make sense that like in Windows you can just click any photo and click left to go to the next one

Good that you now know how to view all your pictures in your folders using preview.

However... viewing pictures in "finder folders" is beyond being primitive... and probably the crappiest way to look at pictures. Learn how to use a Digital Asset Manager (DAM) and you will be amazed at what they can do.

Personally... I do not think that iPhoto is that good of a DAM... but it is not horrible for a free program included with the OS. Upgrading to Aperture or Lightroom makes a world of difference.

/Jim
 

johnnnw

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2013
1,214
21
Good that you now know how to view all your pictures in your folders using preview.

However... viewing pictures in "finder folders" is beyond being primitive... and probably the crappiest way to look at pictures. Learn how to use a Digital Asset Manager (DAM) and you will be amazed at what they can do.

Personally... I do not think that iPhoto is that good of a DAM... but it is not horrible for a free program included with the OS. Upgrading to Aperture or Lightroom makes a world of difference.

/Jim

I'm just browsing screenshots and some iPhone photos in folders and such. Certainly nothing professional like storing 1000's of DSLR photos or I would consider Aperture etc, I can't justify 80 dollars just to look at photos every few weeks.

It's just something that bothered me switching from Windows to Osx that I couldn't click a photo in a folder and switch through them, I would need to manually click each one. Now I know though I can high light them.

Thank you for the suggestions however
 

sarah11918

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2010
97
5
Canada
Happy Picasa user here

I've been really happy with Picasa, but I do use Google services and have an Android phone, so it's a good fit for me. I have never even opened iPhoto on the last two mac laptops I've owned, so admittedly it may be much better now. (The 2010 MBA had limited SSD space, and I'd already transitioned to Picasa on the older machine, so I figured not using iPhoto at all would save me some room. Similarly, I've never touched iPhoto on the 2012 MBA.) But I just really like that Picasa is more of a viewer for the file structure I create manually and doesn't create its own library.

Additionally, I have yet to find a better sync to web option for my albums. I can keep my photos in the folders I create, but set only the starred ones for synching online. I don't have to figure out which ones are or aren't online, or set up different folders for what I've shared. And if I change my mind about a photo, I just toggle the star button on each image and the online version of the folder is updated. With unlimited (web-sized) uploads to Picasaweb, this is a perfect sharing option for family & friends.

This set up even works well for my auto-upload/backup to Photobucket (which is for my full-sized image backups) where you choose which system folders you want the Photobucket desktop app to watch. I'm not sure how/whether this works with an iPhoto library, but since I'm using my own folder structure of images, the Photobucket app can see the images inside and backup in the background. Admittedly, I don't really *like* Photobucket's website, but I have a grandfathered plan for the next 18 months with more than enough space to use it as backup web storage, so it's just another safe keeping holding spot. I have another backup sync storage service that works the same way (but not nearly enough space for my photos, so I only use it for document files), but I like that my set up *could* work for that system too, if I ever decided to upgrade that account.

I don't use any Apple iCloud services, only Google ones, so Picasa is a natural fit for me as a photo viewer plus web sync/share. But it can be used stand-alone as a desktop app only, even without a Google account. I might still use it even if that's all I wanted out of it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.