Leaving Photos in Place

Perhaps the most significantly hidden new feature in iPhoto 6 is the capability to import photos into iPhoto without bringing the original files into the iPhoto Library folder. The lack of this feature in early versions of iPhoto drove users nuts, since people weren't sure they trusted iPhoto to manage all their laboriously arranged photos.

iPhoto 6 introduces a simple checkbox in the Advanced pane of its Preferences window: Copy Files to iPhoto Library Folder When Adding to Library. Uncheck this checkbox (Figure 2.17), and iPhoto will create aliases to your original photos in the Originals folder, leaving the original files wherever they're located on your hard disk.

Figure 2.17. Uncheck Copy Files to iPhoto Library Folder to leave photos imported from your hard disk in their original locations.

Tips

• Turning off Copy Files to iPhoto Library Folder has no effect on photos imported from cameras.

• When you edit a photo, iPhoto stores the edited version in the Modified folder, just as you'd expect. But the changes you make are not reflected in the version stored outside of your iPhoto Library folder.

• To locate a file corresponding to a photo in iPhoto, -click it in iPhoto and choose Show File. If you have edited the file, you can instead choose Show Original File to display the original file in the Finder.