Working with Smart Albums

Like a regular album, a Smart Album contains references to images in your library. Unlike for a regular album, you don't add images by dragging them into a Smart Album. Instead, you use Smart Albums' own associated Query HUD. Using this HUD, you define criteria to determine what images should be in the album. Aperture then automatically populates your Smart Album with all images that match that criteria. The advantage of a Smart Album is that its contents are automatically updated as your library changes.

For example, if you create a Smart Album for five-star images shot this year that include the keyword Travel, then any additional five-star travel images that you define in your library this year will automatically be added to that Smart Album.

To create a Smart Album, follow these steps:

1.	Select the project to which you want to add the Smart Album.
2.	Choose File > New Smart > Album or press Command-Shift-L. Alternately, you can click the New Smart Album button on the toolbar. Aperture adds a Smart Album to your Project, and the album's Smart Settings HUD appears (Figure 4.50). Figure 4.50. The Smart Settings HUD for a Smart Album works just like the Query HUD. The results of these settings are automatically added to the attached Smart Album.
3.	Configure these settings just as you would in the Query HUD. The results of the query are automatically added to the album.

Note that if the Smart Album finds an image that matches its search criteria and that image is in a stack, then the entire stack will be placed in the Smart Album. If you want the Smart Album to include only the individual images that match its criteria, select the Ignore Stack Groupings check box in the Smart Settings HUD. Your image will remain stacked, but the Smart Album will show only the one image that matches.

At any time, you can alter the criteria for a Smart Album by clicking the small magnifying glass to the right of the Smart Album's name in the Projects panel.