Can I Create Subfolders In iPhoto?

[JPM42]

So I've generally avoided using iPhoto for my pictures, mostly due to the familiarity of the old school method, which is just putting different folders and the like in the "Pictures" section of finder. So, if you click on "Pictures," you'll see various categories: family, friends, celebrities, sports, wallpapers, etc. Then when you click on, say, family, you'll have other folders of the various family members of families. Then you click and you see the pictures, etc.

Is there a way to organize this in iPhoto in the same fashion? Where I can have various main categories (i.e., family pictures), but various subcategories (i.e., the Smith Family, the Doe family, etc.) within the folders? Or am I fine with how I have it now?

Thanks!

 

[Dave Braine]

If you click on the + button at the bottom left hand corner of the main iPhoto window, you can choose Folder from the dialogue box, rather than Album. Inside the Folder you can then create further folders or albums.

 

[AnnaCody]

I'd like to do this too.....create subfolders under a main folder. But when I click on the "+" I only get the option to create an album which is synomous with folder....but no option to create a sub album/folder which would show up in the left hand column.

The left hand column is getting very long and it would be nice to have, for example, all birthdays in a sub folder with the option to click an arrow only when I want to see them all.

I'm using iPhoto 09 vs 8.1.2

Thanks,
Anna

 

[Pomeroy]

I'd like to do this too.....create subfolders under a main folder. But when I click on the "+" I only get the option to create an album which is synomous with folder....but no option to create a sub album/folder which would show up in the left hand column.

The left hand column is getting very long and it would be nice to have, for example, all birthdays in a sub folder with the option to click an arrow only when I want to see them all.

I'm using iPhoto 09 vs 8.1.2

Thanks,
Anna

You create Folders under iPhotos File menu. Then you can drag other Folders, Albums or Smart Albums into it to create subfolders. But you can't drag Albums or Smart Albums into each other.

 

[AnnaCody]

Thank you....that's what I needed.

But may I ask.....why couldn't the folder option be in the iPhoto itself?

I'm new to Mac and I have to say some things are much harder to figure out. And I am still getting used to the menu bar relating to the program I am using so forget to look there for things too.

That said....I had to help a friend set up her virus program on a PC and after being on a Mac for 6 months I wanted to go SCREAMING out the door. How I put up with that MESS all these years I have no idea. It truly was like being in hell.

But there are still a few things about Mac that make me crazy. So if you could explain this one I'd be forever grateful.

Anna

 

[Pomeroy]

This is all done from inside iPhoto. There is very little reason to ever leave iPhoto to edit or organize your photos once they are imported. By assigning Keywords and using Smart Albums you will be able to find any photo with just a few key strokes in iPhotos Search box. With just a little thought about how to setup iPhoto as a data base and not rely on remembering what Folder you placed a photo in or what day you took a photo you can turn iPhoto into a fantastic way to organize your photos.
Lets say I have a photo of Uncle Bob that I took on vacation in 2003 at Blue Lake in Idaho, I would add the Key Words, Blue Lake, Family, Vacation and Idaho (we travel a lot so I have Smart folders for each State).
I can now find that picture several ways and not have to remember what year it was or what folder I placed it in. I can find him by typing into iPhotos search box, Uncle Bob or Family or Idaho or Blue Lake or Vacations. I could even sort my whole library by Date and scroll down to about the time I took the picture. That is just some of the ways to find a photo fast. Uncle Bob would show up in several Smart Albums, but you would still only have two Pictures of him, the Original and a Modified, well there is a small thumbnail of each too. iPhoto doesn't mess with your Original photo so you can always go back to it if you mess up making adjustments on it.
After you get your photos into iPhoto you will want to use them to send to friends and family, so you are just one button click away from E-mail or uploading them to the web.. select the photo you want to send and click the e-mail button and it will open your email app and insert the photos for you, and you can choose the size of the photo from there. You can do just about anything you need to from inside iPhoto, but if you need to do something outside of it just use export from the File menu or just drag it to the desktop.

 

[JamesMB]

But may I ask.....why couldn't the folder option be in the iPhoto itself

The folder option on the menu bar is in iPhoto. The menu bar changes to reflect the application or window in use/focus. Try it, open iPhoto, and any other app, and switch back and forth, while watching the menu bar. That menu bar never goes away, it just changes.

 

[Miss Terri]

I have a related question. I've been using iPhoto since 2002, but really I have only used the whole library as one thing. In other words, I just "know" when I took a certain photo and find it that way.

In the beginning I did make albums, but then I ran into the same looong sidebar problem as the person above (super long string of albums) and just stopped doing it. My early iPhoto did not have the folder option, and I guess I never noticed that it was added! That could certainly be useful, so thank you.

But then when I saw the image just above of the sidebar in iphoto, with all the folders and albums, I got to thinking: If a person just puts keywords (tags) on all their photos, like "Uncle Bob," "Vacation," "Idaho," "Family," and etc., like was mentioned above.... why would you ever make folders and albums at all? I mean, couldn't you just always do keyword searches and just work from the main library?

There must be something I'm not figuring out (this would not be surprising!). I have never really learned my way around the newer iPhoto (I have '08 now) and I'm just in the process of deciding whether to get busy on all my photos (and HOW to organize them all) in iPhoto, or whether to just jump to Aperture (stacks are seducing me!).

I love the idea of working from keywords, and am just wondering if they obviate the need for albums and folders, or ??

Thanks for your thoughts,
Miss Terri

 

[Pomeroy]

I have a related question. I've been using iPhoto since 2002, but really I have only used the whole library as one thing. In other words, I just "know" when I took a certain photo and find it that way.

In the beginning I did make albums, but then I ran into the same looong sidebar problem as the person above (super long string of albums) and just stopped doing it. My early iPhoto did not have the folder option, and I guess I never noticed that it was added! That could certainly be useful, so thank you.

But then when I saw the image just above of the sidebar in iphoto, with all the folders and albums, I got to thinking: If a person just puts keywords (tags) on all their photos, like "Uncle Bob," "Vacation," "Idaho," "Family," and etc., like was mentioned above.... why would you ever make folders and albums at all? I mean, couldn't you just always do keyword searches and just work from the main library?



There must be something I'm not figuring out (this would not be surprising!). I have never really learned my way around the newer iPhoto (I have '08 now) and I'm just in the process of deciding whether to get busy on all my photos (and HOW to organize them all) in iPhoto, or whether to just jump to Aperture (stacks are seducing me!).

I love the idea of working from keywords, and am just wondering if they obviate the need for albums and folders, or ??

Thanks for your thoughts,
Miss Terri

You are right that you could use just Keywords, but I use Smart Albums to keep photos I want handy, most with more than one Keyword. Using Keywords is only one way to quickly find photos, another I use often is "Sort". You can Sort inside an Album, Folder or all photos using Date or Name, then use the blue scroll knob and you will see the Date or Letter in the middle of the photos. You must use the blue knob in the scroll bar, using a scroll wheel on a mouse or track pad won't show you where you are. The more you use and work with iPhoto the more you will discover to make organizing fast and easy.

 

[runofthedill]

not trying to thread jack, but is there way to get iphoto to always import my iphone photos to a specific folder? Its annoying it pops up everytime i plug in and i have to pick the photos i wanna import then move them all into another folder.

 

[Miss Terri]

Thanks, Pomeroy!

Okay, I clearly have a lot to learn, and I think I could be doing a lot more with iPhoto. Right now it's just one huge chronology (which I DO like and use a lot - kind of a life diary), but I think I could be doing more.

I'm guessing by what you said that a "smart album" is an album made by including all photos from more than one keyword.

I tend to get fixated on needing to understand "the whole system" so that I can decide the best way to organize in the grand scheme of things and then since I don't understand it all, I just stick with my one giant lump of photos.

Bad me!

Thanks again,
Miss Terri

 

[JamesMB]

not trying to thread jack, but is there way to get iphoto to always import my iphone photos to a specific folder? Its annoying it pops up everytime i plug in and i have to pick the photos i wanna import then move them all into another folder.

No, iPhoto is gonna import them into a new event. If you don't want iPhoto popping up when you connect your phone, import all the photos from your camera roll, and it wont pop up.

It's not a good idea to keep many photos in the camera roll anyway, as that can cause corruption, and you could lose them all. Yes, I've seen it happen, more than a couple of times. I've also heard that it can slow the camera app down, but I haven't been able to verify that.

 

[AnnaCody]

Thank you sooo much Pomeroy for taking the time to explain how you're using it. And the pic helps too.

Like Terri, I can see there's so much more I could be doing.

And JamesMB, I do understand how the menu works....I just keep forgetting it's there having just switched to Mac 6 months ago. It just seemed the folder option should have been where the album, etc options were. But I do understand the big picture (no pun intended) now.

Thanks again,
Anna