[amagab]

I just switched to Mac from Windows. I like everything except the way I view pictures. I don't want to open iPhoto to view my pictures. I want to view pictures straight in the folder. In Windows you can view slide show, film strip, etc. in the My Pictures folder without opening an additional application. I want to do that in OS X. Is that possible? If so, how?

Thanks!

[seivad]

i'm not sure as i just got my mac recently too but i can give you this advice;

Apple + J inside the picture folder, select "This folder only", then select "show image as thumbnail" & "arrange by name". Right-click on a jpeg, or bitmap or whatever image you plan to open and "get info" select "open with", and select "Preview"

hope that helps, you can also "apple + A" and then right-click, select view as slideshow, has nice fade transitions. cheers mate

[analogika]

BTW, those functions are also available from the "View" menu and in the little "tool" menu on the Finder window itself.

You don't need to right-click or use the keyboard shortcut if you don't want to.

[skybolt]

Just don't do ANYTHING to your photos from the iPhoto library in finder -- you risk photo loss, corruption, etc. Use iPhoto (believe me, try it, you'll like it) or the methods above (though they seem a lot more trouble than just opening iPhoto). Good luck, and welcome to the wonderful (much easier) world of Macs!

[Curiosity]

The thing I have noticed about iPhoto is that is like a packrat. It wants to keep everything. It will keep every version of an image that you used it to enhance. I do not appreciate that kind of thing. I also have some very nice viewers for viewing images and I prefer the way they handle images. They need the images to be stored in a normal directory structure. After I have used iPhoto to enhance some images, and after I have saved them, I go to the iPhoto Library directory and clear the whole thing out, to wipe the slate clean.

[peeb]

The finder (the OSX equivalent to the folder viewer in Windows) does not have very sophisticated image browsing capabilities because Apple expects people to use iPhoto to browse photos. Try it - I think you'll like it. If you don't, then you can use thumbnails in regular folder views, and slideshows from regular folders too.

[mpancha]

Originally Posted by amagab 

I just switched to Mac from Windows. I like everything except the way I view pictures. I don't want to open iPhoto to view my pictures. I want to view pictures straight in the folder. In Windows you can view slide show, film strip, etc. in the My Pictures folder without opening an additional application. I want to do that in OS X. Is that possible? If so, how?

Thanks!

The closest I can suggest is the following:

1) if you don't want to have to sort through the iPHoto folder structure, you need to organize the photos yourself in the Pictures folder. Basically, do what you would do in WIndows in My Pictures.

2) Select the folder or select all the images you would like to view.

3) Right click (or command click), and go to Slideshow.

This will show you all the photos in "slideshow" mode.

Having said all that, iPHoto seems like a pain and completely useless when you first switch from Windows. But, once you get into the habit of keeping your pictures organized into folders and albums, then iPHoto is a dream. Its a matter of forcding yourself into using iPhoto and learning it.

Once you've done that, you can quickly find what you want, you can search with iPHoto's builtin search, or just use front row to show off how "easy" it is to show off pictures.

[- - e r i k - -]

I'm going to echo this and say learn iPhoto. It really is to your photos what iTunes is to your music. You don't manually organise your music in a browser that was not meant for it, do you?

[shifuimam]

I know I do - organize my music and photos manually, that is. I'm particular about my data, how it's stored, how it's named, and how I get to it.

I actually googled around myself for iPhoto alternatives and found two different freeware apps that may or may not suit your needs:

Phoenix Slides

and

JetPhoto - digital photo organizing, creating, sharing and publishing software

It seems like JetPhoto is a little closer to what Picasa does, while Phoenix Slides is a very simplified browsing app. I would imagine that either one will let you store and name your photos how you please, while allowing you to easily browse them.

[kmkkid]

I just want an option to make picture thumbnails whatever size you want, and for movies to have previews within the finder. Hopefully this comes with leopard.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

I know I do - organize my music and photos manually, that is. I'm particular about my data, how it's stored, how it's named, and how I get to it.

Which is of course not only completely unnescessary, but also a complete waste of time. Specialized data have specialized browsers. This is why we have databases like the address book to sort our data for us. By your logic it would be much better to store each entry in a separate file to your own naming scheme.

Sometimes it's better to let the computer control where it stores the actual data, and let you have the most optimized way of accessing it available to you. Which exactly what specialized browsers like iTunes, iPhoto and even Address Book does for you.

[dn15]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - 

Which is of course not only completely unnescessary, but also a complete waste of time. Specialized data have specialized browsers. This is why we have databases like the address book to sort our data for us. By your logic it would be much better to store each entry in a separate file to your own naming scheme.

Sometimes it's better to let the computer control where it stores the actual data, and let you have the most optimized way of accessing it available to you. Which exactly what specialized browsers like iTunes, iPhoto and even Address Book does for you.

I agree. I used to be of the opinion that it was better to manually organize my files. But I eventually decided that what matters is how my data is presented, and if it is presented in an easy-to-use way the filenames become irrelevant. In iTunes, that happens by ensuring my music has proper ID3 tags and using playlists. In iPhoto (now Aperture for me) it's accomplished by using Albums, ratings, and keywording where appropriate. I've found my pictures and music are much easier to deal with this way than when I was manually naming and organizing them in the Finder. With specialized programs for these purposes my files might as well all be named with random numbers and letters for all I care as long as the apps keep track of them properly.

[shifuimam]

Sigh - this isn't even worth arguing.

I use multiple operating systems with my data. I refuse to allow an application from anyone, including Apple, to dumb it down for me and force me to organize my files in a way that I don't like.

I'm glad iPhoto works for some people. My boyfriend genuinely tried it, hated it, and went back to managing his photos on his Windows desktop with Picasa.

It's just not a good fit for some people.

[shinykaro]

DItto to most of the responses here.

I'm a switcher in my 10th month of iLife. At first I was really averse to iPhoto and actually had a pretty meticulously organized My Pictures folder to import, which I only did recently. Organizing photos into folders and naming individual files really becomes moot because iPhoto does such a damn good job and organizing them. And I have never ever found it so easy to browse so many images at once. In my experience browsing thumbnails in a large folder in Windows XP really slowed things down and they would take forever to load. You will not regret learing iPhoto, and it also works great with Picasa when you're ready to put them online.

Enjoy exploring OS X!

[skybolt]

When I first switched (iBook, G3 700) I worked much too hard to make the experience act like Windows. Once I realized how easy Mac OS is, I could not believe that I had made it so hard for myself. The system is so easy and intuitive to use! I suspect that if the OP would just let go of the Windows way and let the "easy" way flow over him/her that all of this would be moot. Mac OS is so much simpler and easier to use than windows! Relax, take it easy and have a great computing experience! I know I'll never do things the hard way again (except at work, where I am forced into the dark side!)!

[analogika]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - 

Which is of course not only completely unnescessary, but also a complete waste of time. Specialized data have specialized browsers. This is why we have databases like the address book to sort our data for us. By your logic it would be much better to store each entry in a separate file to your own naming scheme.

Sometimes it's better to let the computer control where it stores the actual data, and let you have the most optimized way of accessing it available to you. Which exactly what specialized browsers like iTunes, iPhoto and even Address Book does for you.

You are absolutely correct, except for two particular situations:

Multi-user access, and even worse, cross-platform access.

For both of those scenarios, you CANNOT USE iPhoto. It would be no big deal if iPhoto arranged photos on the drive in directories that corresponded to the structure within iPhoto, but it doesn't. (Presumably that would be impractical, due to redundancy of photographs being in multiple albums, etc., but still.)

[philm]

Hold on, this is not really a debate on iPhoto. I believe the OP would like to look at his/her pictures without using iPhoto (or any other program). So, the best answer was in the first response. Select the pictures you want to view, and right-click (or control-click) to bring up 'Slideshow' in the contextual menu.

[peeb]

You must be new here.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

Sigh - this isn't even worth arguing.

I use multiple operating systems with my data. I refuse to allow an application from anyone, including Apple, to dumb it down for me and force me to organize my files in a way that I don't like.

I'm glad iPhoto works for some people. My boyfriend genuinely tried it, hated it, and went back to managing his photos on his Windows desktop with Picasa.

It's just not a good fit for some people.

Picasa FTW. It's too bad Google hasn't developed a Mac version, though I understand why. Until then, or until something else rears it's head, my photos will stay on my Windows PC.

[peeb]

You know what though, I would love an iPhoto client for windows, so I could share photos the same way I can share iTunes.

[Wiskedjak]

Yes, some kind of cross-platform photo organizer sharing would be nice. The Apple TV has some people thinking that Apple is going to port iPhoto to Windows.

[mdc]

I can't imagine Apple porting iPhoto to Windows. For some (myself included) it's the major reason I buy iLife every year. iTunes made perfect sense since the iPod became usable with Windows and it also gave millions of people access to the iTunes Store. The AppleTV already has a way for Windows users to sync photos.

In response to the original post. I use iPhoto for photos. I have about 13,000 photos in there and I use the Pictures folder for random images. I don't want random images, such as amusing ones I find online, in my iPhoto library, and I like the power iPhotos gives in organizing (albums, key words) and using (resize and attach to emails, slideshows, AppleTV).
I have the same setup for my Music folder. Random audio clips in my Music folder and iTunes for my music.

I have a good idea how the iPhoto folder structure works but I do not see the point of digging through it to find an image. Opening iPhoto is much quicker.

@Curiosity, I like the fact that iPhoto isn't destructive with your originals. Make a change to a file and iPhoto saves the original for you to revert back to whenever you want.
There are applications out there which will remove all the iPhoto originals for you if you want.

[OreoCookie]

My advice is to stop trying to use MacOS X like Windows. The suggestion to use iPhoto to manage the pictures is probably the right way to go. Windows users have a tendency to manage everything by themselves, because they claim `software just isn't smart enough' (my brother sorts all his mp3s manually).

Also, Apple doesn't need to port iPhoto to Windows, Windows users have Picasa.

[peeb]

Yeah, but I would like a windows app that can share with iPhoto libraries.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by analogika 

You are absolutely correct, except for two particular situations:

Multi-user access, and even worse, cross-platform access.

For both of those scenarios, you CANNOT USE iPhoto. It would be no big deal if iPhoto arranged photos on the drive in directories that corresponded to the structure within iPhoto, but it doesn't. (Presumably that would be impractical, due to redundancy of photographs being in multiple albums, etc., but still.)

You are of course absolutely correct.

Except for multi-users you can kind of get around it by storing your pictures under Users/shared. Unless you are both using the library at the same time, that should work fine.

But then again, I hopped over to Aperture as soon as it became usable

[mdc]

Cross platform I can't see how iPhoto would work, but for multi-user access, what if you open iPhoto with the option key held down and when it asks you to create or find a library, tell it to create one in /Users/Shared. Then on the other user's login hold option to open iPhoto and point it to the /Users/Shared iPhoto library. Multiple users accessing the same iPhoto library.

I haven't tested this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
I do know that it does work across multiple computers. I had an iMac that stored my iPhoto library and when I was on my PowerBook it's iPhoto was pointed across the network to the "shared" library. It worked slower than it would if it was local, but other than that, everything worked perfectly.

[analogika]

Because it doesn't allow simultaneous access.

[mdc]

You're right, that does suck. sorry.