Deleting Sources

It's easy to create items in the Source pane, and luckily, if you decide you don't want one cluttering your list, they're even easier to delete.

Ways to delete a source:

• Select one or more items and press .

  iPhoto prompts you to make sure you know what you're doing; click Delete to delete the source (Figure 3.28).

  Figure 3.28. iPhoto prompts to make sure you want to delete the selected item. Click Delete if you do.

  

• -click an album and choose Delete Album from the contextual menu that appears (Figure 3.29).

  Figure 3.29. You can Control-click an item in the Source pane and choose Delete to delete it, though that's harder than just pressing Delete or Command-Delete.

  

  iPhoto prompts you to make sure you know what you're doing; click Delete to delete the album (Figure 3.28).

• Select one or more items and press .

  iPhoto deletes the items instantly, without asking for confirmation.

Tips

• Deleting an album (or anything else in the Source pane) doesn't affect the original photos in the Library since the album merely contains pointers to the originals.

• Deleting a folder deletes albums, slideshows, and books inside it. Be careful!

• Don't feel that albums must be created carefully and then kept forever. It's totally reasonable to group a bunch of photos in an album, work on them for a little while, and then delete the album. I do that often to avoid scrolling around my entire Library.

• On the other hand, if you think you might want to use an item again, store it away inside a folder for future reference.