Who doesn’t love iPhoto and iMovie? What’s not to like? Both are included free on every new Mac. iPhoto even manages both photos and movies.
The only problem is when your photos and movies begin to outgrow iPhoto. After 20,000 photos and almost 3,000 video clips, iPhoto became difficult to use, painful to browse, and cumbersome to export photos and clips. Mac utilities to the rescue.
A Better Way To Manage Too Many Photos And Movies
It’s not that there’s anything really wrong with iPhoto, but with thousands and thousands of photos and video clips, and thousands of events, management requires more patience than I’m willing to give.
iPhoto To Disk is a simple Mac utility which enhances and improves iPhoto.
What I don’t like about iPhoto’s management system is that I can’t manage it. Photos and movies are lumped together. Events grow in number and become burdensome and there’s no organizational structure that I can manage.
iPhoto To Disk gives six basic ways to improve on iPhoto without dumping iPhoto.
#1 – Browsing: Now we’re talking. iPhoto To Disk lets you show or hide specific Events for specific years, group events together, display movies or photos only, even display photos that have been edited.
#2 – Folder Hierarchy: Photos and movies can be exported and organized in a typical folder hierarchy, by Event or year and Event, making them easier to find.
#3 – File Names: Naming files has never been a strength in iPhoto. Now you can keep the original names (the ugly ones) and keep the photo Event names, labels, and titles even when you export a bunch of photos.
#4 – Filters: iPhoto just doesn’t do this. Everything is kept in the iPhoto Library. iPhoto To Disk has filters for exporting photos or movies only, or both. Export photos in RAW or jpg or whatever, or both. You control the export criteria.
#5 – Metadata: If you don’t know what metadata is, iPhoto To Disk is a good way to learn without sacrificing all the descriptions and labels and keywords you’ve carefully placed into each photo or movie. All this information gets saved when you export files.
#6 – File Conversion: This isn’t the feature for everyone, but comes in very handy when you need it iPhoto To Disk converts images from jpg to PNG or TIFF.
A New Way To View Photos And Movies
iPhoto To Disk gives you a different way to manage photos and movies stored in the iPhoto Library.
It counts the number of Events, photos, and movies in the iPhoto Library and organizes them by year. Exporting is as simple as placing what you want in and Export Basket, by Event, if you want.
Export filter options are simple, pull-down menus for Folder hierarchy, File name, Media filters and more.
The Advanced options include converting from jpg to TIFF or PNG.
The real question you have to ask is, “Do I really need a utility to manage an iPhoto Library?”
If you’re iPhoto Library is large and unwieldy, with a thousand or more Events, and a growing mixture of photos and movie clips, and, if exporting files has become cumbersome, then look at iPhoto To Disk.
It’s straightforward, easy enough to use, and comes with basic features for management and export that you won’t find in iPhoto.
About Jeffrey Mincey
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