[cjq999]

I'm new to Macs and I'm trying to organize my photos. What's the difference beween a folder and album? Is everything stored in the library? I'm having trouble figuring out what files are stored where. Is what I'm seeing just a copy or do I have duplicate photos stored on my computer. I'm used to Windows with its A, C, D, E drives, etc. Is there just one Macintosh hard drive on my computer?

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by cjq999

I'm new to Macs and I'm trying to organize my photos. What's the difference beween a folder and album? Is everything stored in the library? I'm having trouble figuring out what files are stored where. Is what I'm seeing just a copy or do I have duplicate photos stored on my computer. I'm used to Windows with its A, C, D, E drives, etc. Is there just one Macintosh hard drive on my computer?

Firstly, welcome to the wonderful world of Apple! (no kidding, it's great).

Now you really should have posted this in the Applications forum but I'll try to give you some help anyhoo. (A moderator will probably move this thread at some time).

Now, regarding iPhoto:

When you import pictures/movies into iPhoto it makes a copy of the source, places the copy into iPhoto's library and leaves the original intact.

An album is a just a collection of photos that you set up. It's not a physical folder but a logical one.

iPhoto stores everything in it's own folder hierarchy, by default in ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/.
Within this, the photos are stored by year, then by month and finally by day. (could be different if your date preferences are set to some other scheme-this is the U.S. date scheme.)

Now I've set up Smart Albums and assigned keywords and/or Spotlight comments. That way, when I import new photos/movies, they end up in the Smart Album automagically! Very nice.

Finally, no drive letters on the Mac. Thank God! You just give each volume a name; the default for a new Mac OS X install is "Macintosh HD". If you add another volume, you give it another name. The nice thing is that you can change the volume names anytime you want. Try doing that with C:.

Good Luck!

[mpancha]

I just want to elaborate a bit on what msuper69 said.

First off, yes, every photo is in your library.

Then there are albums, which are just what they say, albums. Just like a physical photo album you would hold in your hands, except its not so physical. its a grouping of photos you determine. You just drag and drop them together.

Then there are the folders, which is a group of albums.

As for the a/b/c/d/e thing... Apple does something similar, but its behind the scenes and you don't have to worry about it until you want to get dirty in the terminal. When you find a need for that, post another thread and we'll all be happy to help. Until then, for all intents and purposes, its behind the scenes, it works, dont worry about it.

here's a screenshot of my iPhoto sidebar with folders/albums/etc.... maybe that will help you visualize the differences a bit.

[cjq999]

thanks for the replies. i think i understand. when I'm viewing pictures in iphoto it's just a way to display them in an organized way. they are actually saved to my hard drive, by date, month, year, etc. I was trying to drag and copy a picture to a folder but couldn't, now I know why.

mpanch, what are the numbers next to your albums/folders? I don't have any numbers.

Is the date that iphoto uses to organize the pictures the date the photo was saved to my hard drive. I only have an 80 gig drive. What if I have more than 80 gigs of pictures. I have an external drive with 300 gigs. Is there a way to use iphoto with my external drive? thanks.

[wataru]

The numbers in parentheses are the number of photos in that album. You can probably enable that in the preferences.

The date iPhoto uses is the date the photo was taken according to the metadata attached by the digital camera. If that's not available, it probably uses the file creation date.

There are utilities out there that will let you move the iPhoto Library around. Do a search at MacUpdate.

[mdc]

if you hold down the option key as you open iphoto it will ask you if you want to create a new library or choose a library to use.

you can drag your Macintosh HD/Users/[Your user folder]/Pictures/iPhoto Library to another drive, hold option as you open iPhoto, and then point it to your new location of your library.

A little more information on what everyone said, iTunes works the same way. A library where everything is and then playlists and smart playlists which are not copies, but rather just a list of files from your library.