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And that sums up the Apple, a machine for fooling with pictures and music. I am not into porn so I don't care about the pictures that keep the web afloat.

Since you aren't willing to learn about how to use a Mac productively but instead just bad-mouth it, why did you buy one in the first place?
 
Nope. Folders are Events. I never tried subfolder (sub-event) though since all my photo folders are just one level.

There are many incredibly good posts on MR forums explaining how iPhoto works, and I wouldn't be able to do them justice here with my reply, but briefly: iPhoto is a digital assets manager, a database.

Basically, your photos are really in only one place but can be accessed many different ways including "Events" which is date/event based, Faces, Places, the main pile o' photos, Tags, Albums, Sub-Albums, Smart Albums. Which is great because not everyone's brain works the same in attempting to find things.

You can create albums and sub-albums with any name you wish in any way you wish to organize them. --But you cannot make sub-Events. You can split events, but none of them become a sub to the other.

If you create a specific Tag, you can tag certain photos when you import them into iPhoto and set up a Smart Album which automatically sorts those specific tagged photos. There are tons of helpful things like this. It's all in the playing & learning of the program. I like it, it's fun & useful.
 
And that sums up the Apple, a machine for fooling with pictures and music.

I'd love to hear your take on Windows 8.1! ;)

You can be as productive as you want to be on a Mac or even on Linux. It's up to you what you do with the machine.

EDIT: To reiterate what talmy said. You're making it hard on yourself by trying to impose your patterns on it rather than understanding what it can do. I've seen exactly the same behavior from people migrating from XP/W7 to W8/8.1.

I came back to the Mac as my primary computer system after 15 years in Windows land, precisely because I learned to relax and try to deal with each OSes foibles. I even gave in to some of Vista's silliness. At this point I'm far more productive on Mac OS, but switch between W7 W8.1 and Mavericks several times a day. each has its plusses and minuses, but the only way I stay sane is dealing with them as they are rather than trying to force them into something they're not.

B
 
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There are many incredibly good posts on MR forums explaining how iPhoto works, and I wouldn't be able to do them justice here with my reply, but briefly: iPhoto is a digital assets manager, a database.

Basically, your photos are really in only one place but can be accessed many different ways including "Events" which is date/event based, Faces, Places, the main pile o' photos, Tags, Albums, Sub-Albums, Smart Albums. Which is great because not everyone's brain works the same in attempting to find things.

You can create albums and sub-albums with any name you wish in any way you wish to organize them. --But you cannot make sub-Events. You can split events, but none of them become a sub to the other.

If you create a specific Tag, you can tag certain photos when you import them into iPhoto and set up a Smart Album which automatically sorts those specific tagged photos. There are tons of helpful things like this. It's all in the playing & learning of the program. I like it, it's fun & useful.

Tag is interesting. I never try it yet, will try it soon. And sub-albums are interesting too. Thank you for the information.
 
Coming from another mac newbie - windows perspective.

Over the years, literally since the advent of digital photo, I have pretty much kept the same "folder" structure.

Mine start out in the "_Digital" folder, and then migrate down from there into Months pics taken. From there I will edit filenames and start moving into all the sub folders. Example, animals - Birds, Cats, Dogs etc, Dogs then breaks down into individual dogs we have and have taken in as part of a Golden Retriever Rescue group. And so on.

I have used many photo editing programs over the years and my current file structure has worked fine with all of them. I always know where to find an image.

To my point-question now. I have iPhoto as it comes with my rMBP. I added on Aperture. Really haven't used either yet as I don't want to start with bad habits.

But, suppose I change my mind and go the Adobe route, or any other image program.

Is there a best way to start bringing over thousands of images that should be available under any Mac program I may use?
 
And that sums up the Apple, a machine for fooling with pictures and music. I am not into porn so I don't care about the pictures that keep the web afloat.

And what fantastically high-end work are you doing? I make a lot of money "fooling" with pictures and media on my Macs.

Why did you buy a Mac in the first place if you are so happy with Windows?
 
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I have used many photo editing programs over the years and my current file structure has worked fine with all of them. I always know where to find an image.

Is there a best way to start bringing over thousands of images that should be available under any Mac program I may use?

If you want to keep everything in it's original organization, you can do so with iPhoto or Aperture by unchecking Import Images into iPhoto in iPhoto's preferences or by selecting Store Files in their current location when you import into Aperture. Adobe only works this way. If you do want iPhoto/Aperture to manage photos in its databases you can do so, and then use the Export command to retrieve them later (or you can look into the database -- it's just a folder hierarchy!).
 
So, in anticipation of moving some images I did the following:
Took a Seagate 1.5 TB drive and using disk utility I erased - formated it as FAT, NTFS was not an option (greyed out)

Moving to the PC the drive was unrecognized. Formatted under the PC as NTFS, as FAT was greyed out.
Loaded a few pictures on the drive.

Installed the Seagate NTFS driver for Mac on the MBP.
On the Mac the drive info showed the drive was "read-write".

But the few pictures I loaded were gone. Loaded some from the Mac, moved the drive to the Win PC and all the Mac loaded pics were there.

Loaded a few more pics and well as copied and pasted into the same folder 4 pictures.

Back to the Mac all the copied and newest loaded pics were again gone.

Any ideas as to what would cause this?
 
So, in anticipation of moving some images I did the following:
Took a Seagate 1.5 TB drive and using disk utility I erased - formated it as FAT, NTFS was not an option (greyed out)

Moving to the PC the drive was unrecognized. Formatted under the PC as NTFS, as FAT was greyed out.
Loaded a few pictures on the drive.

Installed the Seagate NTFS driver for Mac on the MBP.
On the Mac the drive info showed the drive was "read-write".

But the few pictures I loaded were gone. Loaded some from the Mac, moved the drive to the Win PC and all the Mac loaded pics were there.

Loaded a few more pics and well as copied and pasted into the same folder 4 pictures.

Back to the Mac all the copied and newest loaded pics were again gone.

Any ideas as to what would cause this?

Did you do FAT32 or exFAT to be able to have file sizes larger than 4 gigs? exFAT only works on newer OSs. PCs can be troublesome when trying to connect a drive that was formatted FAT32 or exFAT on a Mac. Sometimes work, sometimes not, not sure why. You should format it FAT32 or preferably exFAT for larger single file sizes, on the PC and then do the picture transfers. I have no idea why FAT would be greyed out on the PC for you.
 
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Well I think my drive issue is that the old PC is XP and it doesn't recognize anything Apple.

On a newer laptop with Win 7 it seems to work OK.

Copying a variety of file types to it now to se if it stays in sync.

I'm hoping to have at least one drive that OSX and Windows can read - write too.
 
Oh well I downloaded Airmail and set it up, fooled around with it for quite a while. I then set up the Mac mail program and tried it out. Disaster, my emails disappeared, I didn't tell it to delete them or store them anywhere. Both programs are counterintuitive. I would like to say that I am getting to know and like my iMac but as time progresses I like it less and less.

With all due respect, you did tell these email clients to delete the emails, by way of how you set the settings. Software does what the user tells it.

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But can Windows Explorer Preview do this? THAT'S what I use Finder for repeatedly.

Image

And please don't tell me it does thumbnails view. That would make me laugh. I can click on any one of these images and see it full window, which is really helpful when looking through a folder of stock videos. I really don't understand the difficulty with columns view. If I need to switch folder hierarchy during a drag and drop, I just hold the item over the different main folder and it unfolds automatically until I find the destination. Couldn't be easier. No need for a second window. And much easier that trying to drag through a mile long vertical list of folders and files with tiny targets to land on. But, I guess it's whatever you are used to.



Why are you misquoting me? My post was to put forward that Windows Explorer does in fact have a Preview function, which was, whoever said it, did not exist. I did not compare preview with Windows or OSX. I know OSX does more, as I use both. "Whatever your used to" LOL, ok. I will just assume there is a need to defend the Mac.
 
Well I think my drive issue is that the old PC is XP and it doesn't recognize anything Apple.

On a newer laptop with Win 7 it seems to work OK.

Copying a variety of file types to it now to se if it stays in sync.

I'm hoping to have at least one drive that OSX and Windows can read - write too.

I will be going down this track soon. eXFAT I am not too keen on, it doesn't use journalling, so you need to be careful of disconnecting the drive if it hasn't finished writing. I am a switcher, my wife uses my Win 7 laptop now, so there will be some copying to that or the NTFS USB external drive.

But, I will format the two new 1TB USB3 externals to OSX format, rather than a mix, or eXFAT, keep it all Apple. I could install a Parallels NTFS driver for the rMBP.
 
porthole2 wrote above:
[[ I have iPhoto as it comes with my rMBP. I added on Aperture. Really haven't used either yet as I don't want to start with bad habits. ]]

If you already have Aperture, that's the app to "start out" with...

In post 84 above, you mentioned reformatting a Seagate drive (which I assume is going to be used for Mac file storage).

A bit of advice (take it for what you paid for it):
If you're going to keep files that are important to you archived on an external drive, DO NOT use a "cross-platform" formatting scheme (i.e., FAT32, etc.) on it.

Instead, use "Mac-format" ONLY (HFS+, journaled, GUID partition map).

I've seen too many hard-luck and horror stories here from Mac users who kept stuff on a cross-formatted drive, only to have some or all of the files just go "POOF!" on them at some point.

For Mac work, use a Mac-formatted drive.

If you need something to move files "cross-platform", use a SEPARATE DRIVE created for this purpose. It could be a hard drive, USB flash drive, SDHC card, etc.

The above is my opinion only and others' opinions will differ.
 
With all due respect, you did tell these email clients to delete the emails, by way of how you set the settings. Software does what the user tells it.

----------



Why are you misquoting me? My post was to put forward that Windows Explorer does in fact have a Preview function, which was, whoever said it, did not exist. I did not compare preview with Windows or OSX. I know OSX does more, as I use both. "Whatever your used to" LOL, ok. I will just assume there is a need to defend the Mac.

Seems like you and the OP are the ones getting sensitive and defensive. I'm just telling you the advantages the Mac Finder has that you may not know about and why Mac users think it's better, in response to you telling us why you think Windows Explorer is better. I guess only you get to talk features on this Mac website?

I routinely exchange files with my pc-based clients and use FAT formatted thumb drives for this purpose. Never had a problem, except when they hand one back to me and they've put some kind of corruption on it that my Mac immediately alerts me about. My big external drives are MacOS formatted since my files sizes are generally so large and occasionally exceed the 4 gig limit of FAT.

I don't understand the file organization arguments. I put my files wherever want, nested as deeply as I feel like nesting. The only difference is, I don't worry about whether it's the C: drive or the M: drive. It's my Projects/ClientName/ShowName/etc. file Couldn't be easier.

If the OP had bought his iMac from the Apple store, he could have had someone at the Genius Bar walk him through all of this, transfer his files from the old PC, set up his Mail, teach him how the Finder works. Apple Stores also have free live classes to teach you the basics of using a Mac, Mavericks, etc. Contrary to popular PC-people myth, Macs are not just toys for computer-illiterate people to use because they are made so simple. They are real computers you also have to learn how to use correctly. I think that's why new people get so frustrated. They thought it was going to be a no-brainer because they are just "toys". I would have trouble at first if I had to use a computer with a Linux OS and would recognize that I have to learn a different way of operating. Wouldn't blame the computer for that.
 
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I don't understand the file organization arguments. I put my files wherever want, nested as deeply as I feel like nesting. The only difference is, I don't worry about whether it's the C: drive or the M: drive. It's my Projects/ClientName/ShowName/etc. file Couldn't be easier.

In fact OS X has a potential advantage here in that Windows is effectively limited to a 260 character path length while OS X is effectively limited to about 1024 characters. "Effectively" because the file systems themselves don't place the limitation but the programs using them do (Windows Explorer, C libraries,...). I do know that I have hit the pathname limit in Windows before but never in OS X.
 
Seems like you and the OP are the ones getting sensitive and defensive. I'm just telling you the advantages the Mac Finder has that you may not know about and why Mac users think it's better, in response to you telling us why you think Windows Explorer is better. I guess only you get to talk features on this Mac website?

I routinely exchange files with my pc-based clients and use FAT formatted thumb drives for this purpose. Never had a problem, except when they hand one back to me and they've put some kind of corruption on it that my Mac immediately alerts me about. My big external drives are MacOS formatted since my files sizes are generally so large and occasionally exceed the 4 gig limit of FAT.

I don't understand the file organization arguments. I put my files wherever want, nested as deeply as I feel like nesting. The only difference is, I don't worry about whether it's the C: drive or the M: drive. It's my Projects/ClientName/ShowName/etc. file Couldn't be easier.

If the OP had bought his iMac from the Apple store, he could have had someone at the Genius Bar walk him through all of this, transfer his files from the old PC, set up his Mail, teach him how the Finder works. Apple Stores also have free live classes to teach you the basics of using a Mac, Mavericks, etc. Contrary to popular PC-people myth, Macs are not just toys for computer-illiterate people to use because they are made so simple. They are real computers you also have to learn how to use correctly. I think that's why new people get so frustrated. They thought it was going to be a no-brainer because they are just "toys". I would have trouble at first if I had to use a computer with a Linux OS and would recognize that I have to learn a different way of operating. Wouldn't blame the computer for that.

Pardon me? Sensitive and defensive??? I think that is you , not me.

If you care to read my post I merely stated that Win Explorer has a preview, as someone said it didn't. that's it. I did not state WE was better than Finder. You seem to be obsessed with Finder and thats fine, I like it too, as you would know if you read my other posts, but don't put words into my mouth out of context.
 
Pardon me? Sensitive and defensive??? I think that is you , not me.

If you care to read my post I merely stated that Win Explorer has a preview, as someone said it didn't. that's it. I did not state WE was better than Finder. You seem to be obsessed with Finder and thats fine, I like it too, as you would know if you read my other posts, but don't put words into my mouth out of context.

OK, I'm sorry I quoted your post to further my GENERAL discussion of the Finder vs Explorer, that someone who didn't like how the Finder works started. Windows Preview Pane and Mac QuickLook via the spacebar are two different things. That's why my comment built off of yours.
 
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OK, I'm sorry I quoted your post to further my GENERAL discussion of the Finder vs Explorer, that someone who didn't like how the Finder works started. Windows Preview Pane and Mac QuickLook via the spacebar are two different things. That's why my comment built off of yours.

No worries

As I said in a post, Mastic, the OP, is based too much on replicating his Windows ways on his Mac. Some things are similar, some things are just as easy to do, some things are quite different. Finder, he wants the full gamut of the C drive, D drive etc. There is no need, you can add/delete, rename folders within the Finder libraries, he will realise that soon enough. I am a recent switcher, I did
 
No worries

As I said in a post, Mastic, the OP, is based too much on replicating his Windows ways on his Mac. Some things are similar, some things are just as easy to do, some things are quite different. Finder, he wants the full gamut of the C drive, D drive etc. There is no need, you can add/delete, rename folders within the Finder libraries, he will realise that soon enough. I am a recent switcher, I did

I think it's problematic to use the term "library" too generally. There is the user or system Library that's a folder that contains preferences, application plug-ins, mail files, etc. that only people who understand what they are doing should mess with. It's kind of like (I know it's different but I'm just illustrating) the place in Windows where all the .dll files are located and where Windows people usually screw up their system by deleting files by mistake. Then there are application-generated libraries, like the iPhoto library, that isn't actually a folder but a "package". You can right-click it and look at/manipulate the contents like a normal folder but it's designed to be managed by the application, not the user. You wouldn't be putting random files in there by hand or changing the names of folders because that might break the system's ability to use that package unless you know what you are doing. Every other file location, like Documents or Downloads or one we make ourselves, is just a plain old folder, not a library. What used to be called a "directory" in Windows parlance.
 
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I think it's problematic to use the term "library" too generally. There is the user or system Library that's a folder that contains preferences, application plug-ins, mail files, etc. that only people who understand what they are doing should mess with. It's kind of like (I know it's different but I'm just illustrating) the place in Windows where all the .dll files are located and where Windows people usually screw up their system by deleting files by mistake. Then there are application-generated libraries, like the iPhoto library, that isn't actually a folder but a "package". You can right-click it and look at/manipulate the contents like a normal folder but it's designed to be managed by the application, not the user. You wouldn't be putting random files in there by hand or changing the names of folders because that might break the system's ability to use that package unless you know what you are doing. Every other file location, like Documents or Downloads or one we make ourselves, is just a plain old folder, not a library. What used to be called a "directory" in Windows parlance.

Ah ok, good to know. Take my library use as ex Windows. There, they are more like alias folders, they appear in a Library heading in Win Explorer, but they exist on the file structure in the Users/Tony(me)/etc folder. I took it as the same in Finder, that the acftual folder will be in MacHD in nthe OSX file structure, but the Downloads, Documents etc show conveniently on the sidebar, and importantly, away from the system file. Can I add a new folder alongside the existing Documents, Downloads, etc?
 
Ah ok, good to know. Take my library use as ex Windows. There, they are more like alias folders, they appear in a Library heading in Win Explorer, but they exist on the file structure in the Users/Tony(me)/etc folder. I took it as the same in Finder, that the acftual folder will be in MacHD in nthe OSX file structure, but the Downloads, Documents etc show conveniently on the sidebar, and importantly, away from the system file. Can I add a new folder alongside the existing Documents, Downloads, etc?

Yes you can, I have a few there myself like Projects 2014, etc. They are actually aliases because the folders are really in the Documents or Pictures folders, but I find it more convenient to drop things into these often-used & more specific folders in the Finder Sidebar.

To place a folder in the Sidebar, just drag the icon into it from the Finder window. To remove a folder, right click & select "Remove folder from Sidebar". It only removes the alias. The folder will still be located in its real folder location.
 
Ah ok, good to know. Take my library use as ex Windows. There, they are more like alias folders, they appear in a Library heading in Win Explorer, but they exist on the file structure in the Users/Tony(me)/etc folder. I took it as the same in Finder, that the acftual folder will be in MacHD in nthe OSX file structure, but the Downloads, Documents etc show conveniently on the sidebar, and importantly, away from the system file. Can I add a new folder alongside the existing Documents, Downloads, etc?

Yes, you can drag any folder you use often into the sidebar for easy access. I have my "Big 5-0 Trip", "Projects", "Invoices", "Bathroom remodel" and "Kitchen remodel", lol. They are all actually in the Documents folder for me as well. Documents is pretty much the catch-all location if you want to keep your desktop clean and don't have any alternate storage drives attached.
 
Yes, you can drag any folder you use often into the sidebar for easy access. I have my "Big 5-0 Trip", "Projects", "Invoices", "Bathroom remodel" and "Kitchen remodel", lol. They are all actually in the Documents folder for me as well. Documents is pretty much the catch-all location if you want to keep your desktop clean and don't have any alternate storage drives attached.

Tks for that
 
In post 84 above, you mentioned reformatting a Seagate drive (which I assume is going to be used for Mac file storage).

A bit of advice (take it for what you paid for it):
If you're going to keep files that are important to you archived on an external drive, DO NOT use a "cross-platform" formatting scheme (i.e., FAT32, etc.) on it.

Instead, use "Mac-format" ONLY (HFS+, journaled, GUID partition map).

Seagate 4TB formatted as Mac and is my Time Machine drive
Lacie 4TB thunderbolt formatted as Mac and will be my picture and video drive.
 
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