You're right, Sierra. It still uses just one main Library, but it's a whopping big Library - support for 250,000 images. I think the Albums and Smart Albums are supposed to do help break up the main Library into something more manageable. There are limitations to this approach, but it's simpler than having multiple libraries. The great thing about iPhoto is that it is so easy. It doesn't do everything that I want it do, but it is a great program for simple media management.

I do like iPhoto quite a bit, but I just wanted a little more ooomph! I'm spending a lot of time playing with iView right now. I should be making my son's baby album, but I'm having too much fun organizing and tagging all the digi stuff I've found.

Deanne and chellouise, are you two doing okay with iPhoto? I hope I've answered your questions, or at least not confused things even more.

Kelly

Kelly,
I think I will look into iPhoto Buddy. I have heard about it before but that was just after I got my Mac. I like iPhoto so far but just need to start tagging etc. I just have too much scrapbooking stuff and I still don't know what to do with it all. I read somewhere that with spotlight I really don't need to put things into iPhoto but I really like to see things when I am scrapbooking. iPhoto with iPhoto Buddy might be just what I am looking for right now.

I looked at iView and right now it might be a bit expensive for what I need. I think I am going to use my money on iLife 06 instead. (I use iMovie and iDVD a lot). Are you considering the upgrade?

Just to clarify - if I use iPhoto Buddy, I can put all my scrapbooking elements into iPhoto in a different library and then the elements and the photos won't be mixed together? Then I should be able to tag all the elements according to what I need? Thanks so much for all the help (especially because I am a new Mac user - about 6 months).

Sierra

Yesm thanks Kelly. Now I'm going to have to go and play with iPhoto some more. One more question, Have you ever had trouble with PSE3 not seeing one of your albums from iPhoto? I have an album that PSE doesn't even bring up when I go to open it to scrap. WEIRD! (The other albums I have created all show up fine)

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You know, this thread has me a little confused. I use PSE3 for Mac, but I NEVER store my digiscrapping supplies on my computer. They're all on CDs. I wouldn't even be able to do anything on my computer if I had it all stored on there!! I've been downloading freebies for only about a year now, and that's not counting the mega kits and kits I've purchased. Are you all actually talking about just viewing your layouts in iPhoto or REALLY organizing your digiscrapping kits, etc., on your hard drive? I have my layouts on my hard drive. I suppose I could organize THEM in iPhoto.

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Sierra - yes, iPhoto Buddy will let you keep your elements and photos separate. It's a free download (actually, donation-ware), so it's definitely cheaper than iView MP - lol! You can play with it and see if it meets your needs. I don't know why Apple doesn't just incorporate that feature into iPhoto.

Michelle - I've never had that issue with iPhoto and PSE. As a matter of fact, I've never had PSE "see" anything from iPhoto? Usually, I use iPhoto to open a file up in PSE, not the other way around, ykwim? How are you doing that? I'd like to know that trick.

Sheila, we must have cross-posted. I somehow missed your post earlier.

Up until recently, I did have all my digi stuff on my computer, but I just purchased iView Media Pro because it lets me keep thumbnails of all my images on my computer while the actual files are on my external hard drive or DVDs. I can still search for and view everything that I have, but it's not taking up space on my computer.

Kelly

Kelly, that is amazing!! But I see from your other post that it's not a cheap program? I was looking at their site. They have a 21-day trial. Which one is more what I'd be looking for - Media or MediaPro? I haven't even seen the prices yet. And what about the earlier versions they have available? Could they still work for me?

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I am going to jump into this discussion too if it's ok because just before I checked this site, I was trying to figure out how to organize my downloads for digital scrapbooking. I am an ol' time Mac user but a real newbie with digital scrapbooking. In fact I haven't created a digital page yet but soon I hope. Anyway, I thought I'd see if I could use iPhoto for organizing my digital stuff. Opened it up- imported just 2 things and then I opened PSE3 to see how it would work. I think the only way to use the things in iPhoto is to export to the desktop but now that I think about it, I have selected PSE3 as my picture editor so if I double click on the item, it will open up in PSE3..... so that's where I am now. I have not done any tagging in iPhoto nor keywords. I will have to go back to the beginning of this thread to read again what someone suggested as far as tagging and keywords.... But I have come across another program that looks pretty good for organizing photos. It's $30 ($80 for the pro edition- not sure what the difference is)- the URL for it is: http://www.kavasoft.com/Shoebox/
I don't work for this company and have no personal interest in the company. Just came across it and bookmarked it to take a better look at later. So anyway, this is an interesting thread and I hope that we can all learn from each other. I would love to get the new iLife but since my Mac won't read DVD's, I don't see the point. I would love to get a new one though- that picturecasting and iWeb looks great!!! But I LOVE my Mac! Judy