iPhoto frustrations...

[jakfrost]

OK so I have given it at least 6 months to grow on me and the only thing growing is my frustration, grrrrrrr.

The biggest problem is trying to organize my 9,876 jpg library. Importing new pics is OK, I can give the 'event' a name and 'tag' individual photos to be able to find them later...but when the library was 'imported' from the CD's I burned before trashing the PC it of course made 255 individual 'events' which I have been trying to 'merge', 'split' and otherwise compile into the groupings similar to the ones I had before.

For example I would like to have all 'Family' photos in one 'event', but they are scattered pretty much throughout the 255 events. If I could just drag and drop them into an event called 'Family' I would work with that....but nooooo can do. I have tried to 'cut' and 'paste' but interestingly I can drag and drop SOMETIMES but not others. I can't see any rhyme or reason to it.

Anyone using another application or have the same experience with iPhoto and found a solution to ease the pain of 'switchers' like me?

 

[huntercr]

OK so I have given it at least 6 months to grow on me and the only thing growing is my frustration, grrrrrrr.

The biggest problem is trying to organize my 9,876 jpg library. Importing new pics is OK, I can give the 'event' a name and 'tag' individual photos to be able to find them later...but when the library was 'imported' from the CD's I burned before trashing the PC it of course made 255 individual 'events' which I have been trying to 'merge', 'split' and otherwise compile into the groupings similar to the ones I had before.

For example I would like to have all 'Family' photos in one 'event', but they are scattered pretty much throughout the 255 events. If I could just drag and drop them into an event called 'Family' I would work with that....but nooooo can do. I have tried to 'cut' and 'paste' but interestingly I can drag and drop SOMETIMES but not others. I can't see any rhyme or reason to it.

Anyone using another application or have the same experience with iPhoto and found a solution to ease the pain of 'switchers' like me?

Despite being the wrong group for your post, I'll try to answer...
I don't have iPhoto in front of me to please forgive me.
When you are on your event view, you can highlight all of your "255" events and select the ones you want and then select "merge events" or something lie that from the drop down menu. It's so easy I have never bothered remembering what it is.

The old school way of doing this before "events" ( events are new ) was to create a new folder ( album I think iPhoto calls it ) and dragging the photos you want into those folders. That's the functionality you're looking for here.
When you import, if you don't want to do the event merging thing I said above, simply leave your import window open with everyhting highlighted and click on "new album with selection" ( don't remember the wording exactly right, sorry ) and you'll be set.

Remember though, there's a learning curve with iPhoto, it's very powerful. You might want to read the documentation pretty thoroughly. I have almost 30,000 photos in my library spanning 5 years, and it's all very manageable in iPhoto.

 

[jakfrost]

Sorry about the 'wrong forum' for this rant...I couldn't decide between the 'Mac Applications' and 'Digital Photography' forums. Figured an admin type might 'move' it if it was totally off center .

Anyway thanks for the tips: the issue isn't my inability to use 'merge', thats pretty straightforward...it's the fact I am unable to move individual images from one 'event' to another with any consistency. Sometimes I can right click and image and 'copy', then 'paste' it in another event, sometimes not .

Otherwise I end up with an event called 'flower beds 2002' with the odd image of a grandchild stuck in the middle somewhere because I can't move it. The best I can do is 'create a seperate event' of that one photo and then 'merge' that 'untitled event' into the one I want it in.

Now that will take me longer to accomplish (given the mess everything is in...) that I probably have to live .

Jim

 

[skybolt]

I find that switching from "Event" view to "Library" view helps with this. You can collapse all the events but the one you want to move individual photos (or groups of photos) from and then drag them to the correct event. It helps if the dates of the photos are near each other, because they will be sorted by date. A work around might be to change the date of the first photo in an event to be close to the date of the event you want to move to, then they would be close to each other for easier moving. Then change that date back to the correct date.

 

[jakfrost]

I find that switching from "Event" view to "Library" view helps with this. You can collapse all the events but the one you want to move individual photos (or groups of photos) from and then drag them to the correct event. It helps if the dates of the photos are near each other, because they will be sorted by date. A work around might be to change the date of the first photo in an event to be close to the date of the event you want to move to, then they would be close to each other for easier moving. Then change that date back to the correct date.

Hmm, not sure what you mean by 'library' view Mary...under 'Library' I have 2 choices, 'events' and 'photos'. I cannot see any selection for 'Library' view specifically.
When I go to 'photos' and try to drag from one section to another they just bounce back to their original location...grrrr, again.

Jim

 

[skybolt]

O.K., events and photos (was not at the mac when I posted). In the photos view, drag the photo(s) to the event you want them to be in. You cannot just drag to the part where the photos show up (the viewing pane, as it were), you have to drag to the Title of the Event (the edges of the sample photo to the left of the title will have a yellow frame around it. Then the photos should be in the new event.

 

[jakfrost]

OK, that works! Thank you Mary. I wish there was an easier way but that works for now.
If the 'event' I need to drag to is # 17 for example and the one I need to drag from is # 212, it is a long wait for the viewing screen to scroll back up to # 17 to drop the picture in...pretty laborious for a simple 'move a picture' kinda task. But its a start!

Thank you,

Jim

 

[skybolt]

Try my suggestion to re-date the first photo in the event you want to combine to be near the date of the first photo in the event you want to move to. They will then be next to each other and you can merge, then correct the date that you changed. I do this all the time and it makes it much easier.