Organizing Images

After you've imported some image files into iPhoto, switch to the Organize mode to work with your images. The iPhoto window in Organize mode, shown in Figure 12.1, looks very similar to the Import mode except for the controls in the bottom pane. Here you can choose ways to share your images. We'll talk about those options later in this chapter.

While in the Organize mode, you can choose whether to display the images in your viewing area with additional information, including their titles, keywords, and film rolls, by selecting those options from the View menu.

Selecting Titles displays the title of each image beneath its thumbnail image. The default titles of images imported by iPhoto aren't very helpful. You can give them more meaningful titles as explained earlier.

The Keywords option shows any keywords you've attached to an image file to the right of its thumbnail image. We'll look further at applying keywords in just a moment.

Displaying by Film Rolls divides the photos in the viewing area into sections labeled with roll number, date of import, and number of photos imported.

You can choose to view your images with any, all, or none of those pieces of information.

You can tell iPhoto to order the images in your Photo Library by film roll, date, or title by selecting the appropriate option in the Arrange Photos submenu of the View menu.

You can select an image in the viewing area by single-clicking it. You can select a group of consecutive pictures by clicking just outside the edge of the first photo and dragging to create a box connecting all the photos that you want to select, or select a group of nonconsecutive pictures by holding down the Command key as you click the desired images.

If you want to delete a photo or several photos that are visible in the viewing area, highlight the photos you don't want to keep and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. In the original version of iPhoto, when you deleted a photo it was truly gone forever. In more recent versions, deleted photos are stored in a special Trash area, much like the one for your entire system.

You can view the contents of the Trash by selecting its icon on the left side of the iPhoto window. If you decide to save a photo that you sent to the Trash, you can drag it back to your Photo Library. When you are positive that you don't want to see any of the items in the Trash again, choose Empty Trash from the File menu.

You can also drag selected photos to your desktop, which will make additional copies of them, or into a new album, which we'll discuss later in this chapter.

Applying Keywords

A good way to organize your photo collection is with keywords. When applied, keywords appear next to the image thumbnails in the viewing area whenever you check the box for Keywords.

To open the Keywords/Search window, choose Keywords from the Edit menu.

You can use iPhoto's default keywords or create your own custom keywords. To write your own, choose New from the Keywords pop-up menu at the top of the Keywords/Search window. Then, in the line that appears, type your new keyword.

To change an existing keyword, choose Rename from the Keywords pop-up menu. Keep in mind that the change is passed along to any photos that were assigned the previous keyword.

To delete a keyword, click to highlight it in the keyword list, and choose Delete from the Keywords pop-up menu.

To apply keywords to a photo, select the image thumbnail in the viewing area and highlight the keyword you want to apply by clicking it. Then, click the Assign button below the keyword list. To remove a keyword, select the image and click back into the Keywords/Search menu. All the keywords you've added to the selected photo will be highlighted in the list so you can remove them all, or click on only the one you wish to remove.

Included in the keyword list is a check mark symbol, which acts somewhat differently than the other keywords. Whereas other keywords are visible only when you've chosen to display them in the View menu, the check mark is visible in Organize mode at all times, superimposed in the lower-right corner of the thumbnails it has been applied to. Also, the check box cannot be renamed or deleted as the other keywords can.

After you've applied keywords, you can search your image collection for photos labeled with a given keyword or combination of keywords. Simply open the Keywords/Search window, select the keyword you want to target, and click the Search button near the middle of the window. Only those pictures that match your search appear in the viewing area. Click the Show All button to return to the full photo listing.

In addition to searching by assigned keywords, you can also search for words in your image titles or comments. Just type the word in the Search field at the bottom of the Keywords/Search window. You don't need to click the search button, or even finish typing the word, before iPhoto attempts to match your search criteria. Delete the search term or click Show All to return to the full photo listing.

Task: Creating an Album

You can't arrange the individual images in your Photo Library just any old way. To choose the sequence of a set of images, you must create an album and add the photos you want to work with. (Keep in mind, that every photo imported into iPhoto will appear in your Photo Library; adding photos to albums doesn't move them out of the Photo Library.)

You can choose whether to arrange the photos in an album by film roll, date, or title using the Arrange Photos option in the View menu, just as you can for your Photo Library. However, for albums there's a fourth option that lets you arrange your images manually, which gives you the power to arrange them in any order you see fit.

Albums are an especially useful way to organize your photographs into collections, especially if you have a large number of photos. Albums are also a basic unit in iPhoto that's used when creating books, slide shows, and Web pages, which we'll discuss later.

The option to make a new album is available from any mode in iPhoto. To create a new album, perform the following steps:

1. Click the button showing a + sign near the left edge of the iPhoto window, or choose New Album from the File menu.

2. A dialog box appears, into which you can type a name for your album. (If you change your mind later, you can double-click the name of the album in the album list to change it.)

3. When you've named your album, click OK.

The album you created appears at the bottom of the album list at the upper left of the iPhoto interface. If you want to change the order of your albums, select the one you want to move and drag it to a new position. A black bar indicates where the album will be inserted. If you want to remove an album, select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard. Unless the album is empty, you will see an alert asking you to confirm deletion.

To add images to your album, make sure that you're in Organize mode and select the images you want from the viewing area. You can select them one at a time or in groups. Drag your selection to your album name until a black border appears around it. As you drag, a faded version of one of the selected images appears behind your cursor, along with a red seal showing how many items you're dragging.

The images within albums are something like aliases on your desktopyou can delete a photo from an album without affecting the original file. However, when you delete an image from the Photo Library, it also disappears from any albums to which it has been added.

After you've created an album and added images, you can open the album and drag the contents into any order you want, as long as the Arrange Photos setting under the View menu hasn't been changed from Manually. You can also remove images from the album by selecting them and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. Because the photos in your albums are always a part of the Photo Library, only the album copy will be removed. (If you want to delete a photo altogether, you'll need to delete it from the Photo Library as you learned earlier.)