Tips for Working with Albums

Albums are Optional

You don't have to create an album in order to share photos: you can create slide shows, books, calendars, and Web pages by simply selecting photos in your library, and then using the appropriate button or command.

But it's better to create an album first. Albums give you the ability to change the sequence of photos. You can resequence photos while creating slide shows, books, and the like, but creating these items is easier when you start with the photos that are in roughly the final order that you plan to use.

Album Shortcuts

You can create an album and add images to it in one step. Select one or more images and choose New Album from Selection from the File menu (Shift- -N).

You can also drag the images into a blank spot of the Source area (below). When you use this technique, iPhoto gives the new album a generic name, such as untitled album. To rename the album, double-click its name and type a new name.

If you have photos on a storage deviceyour hard drive, a Picture CD, or a digital camera's memory cardyou can import them into iPhoto and create an album in one fell swoop.

Simply drag the photos from the Finder into a blank area of the Source list. iPhoto imports the photos, storing them in their own roll. iPhoto also creates an album and adds the photos to it.

Photo Count

You can have iPhoto display the number of photos in each album next to each album's name. In the Preferences dialog box, click General, then check the Show Item Counts box.

To Experiment, Duplicate

You have a photo that appears in multiple albums, but you want to edit its appearance in just one album, leaving the original version unchanged in other albums. Time for the Duplicate command: select the photo and choose Duplicate from the Photos menu ( -D). Now edit the duplicate.

Duplicating an album. There may be times when you'll want several versions of an album. For example, you might have one version with photos sequenced for a slide show and another version with photos organized for a book. Or you might simply want to experiment with several different photo arrangements until you find the one you like best.

iPhoto makes this kind of experimentation easy. Simply duplicate an album by selecting its name and choosing Duplicate from the Photos menu ( -D). iPhoto makes a duplicate of the album, which you can rename and experiment with.

You can make as many duplicates of an album as you like. You can even duplicate a smart albumperhaps as a prelude to experimenting with different search criteria. Don't worry about devouring disk space. Albums don't include your actual photos; they simply contain "pointers" to the photos in your library.

Albums and iLife

Another good reason to create albums surfaces elsewhere in iLife: iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb all display iPhoto albums in their photo media browsers.

Have a batch of photos you want to use in another iLife program? Rather than searching through your library using those programs' media browsers, first stash the photos in an album. Then, choose that album in the other iLife program.

iPhoto album support is also built into other programs, including Mac OS X's screen saver and Apple's Pages word processor. And as shown on page 94, you can choose to transfer only some albums to a photo-capable iPod.

Organize Your Source List with Folders

As you create albums, slide shows, and books, your Source list will become cluttered. Take advantage of the ability to create folders in the Source list.

Folders in the source list have the same benefit that they have on your hard drive: they let you store related items. And as with the documents on your hard drive, the definition of "related items" is up to you.

Filing strategies. You can use folders in any way you like. You might want to set up a project-based filing system: create a folder for a project, then stash albums, books, and slide shows in that folder.

Or you might prefer an object-oriented filing system: stash all your albums in one folder, all your slide shows in another, and all your books in yet another, as shown at right.

You might want to mix and match these approaches or come up with something completely different. What's important is that you create a filing scheme that helps you quickly locate items.

Creating a folder. To create a folder, choose New Folder from the File menu. Or, Control-click on a blank area of the Source list and choose New Folder from the shortcut menu. iPhoto names a new folder untitled folder, and selects its name. To rename the folder, just start typing.

Working with folders. To move an item into a folder, simply drag it to the folder until you see a black border around the folder.

To close or open a folder, click the little triangle to the left of its name.

Like folders in the Mac's Finder, iPhoto folders are "spring-loaded"if you drag something to a closed folder and pause briefly, the folder opens.

Folders within folders. You can create folders inside of folders. You might use this scheme to store all the albums, books, and slide shows that relate to a specific event or theme.

To open a folder and all the nested folders within it, press Option while clicking on the folder's triangle.

Duplicating a folder. To duplicate a folder, select it and choose Duplicate from the Photos menu ( -D).

This can be handy if you've standardized on a project-based filing scheme: a project folder containing subfolders for albums, slide shows, and books. Create a hierarchical set of folders, but don't store anything in themuse the set as a template for a filing system.

Then, when you're embarking on a new project, duplicate that set of template folders, rename the folders as necessary, and start filing.

If you duplicate a folder that already contains albums, slide shows, or books, iPhoto creates duplicates of those items, too.