iPhoto Librarian

Great thinking with this one, and it appears Apple has taken after you. With iPhoto unlaunched, hold down the Option-key while launching iPhoto (only necessary throughout the monent that you click the icon), and it will ask whether you would like to create a new library, or open an existing one. This way you can manage several iPhoto libraries, without having to use any third party software. http://bildr.no/view/2255

Great thinking with this one, and it appears Apple has taken after you. With iPhoto unlaunched, hold down the Option-key while launching iPhoto (only necessary throughout the monent that you click the icon), and it will ask whether you would like to create a new library, or open an existing one. This way you can manage several iPhoto libraries, without having to use any third party software. http://bildr.no/view/2255

Just thought I'd mention that using iPhoto Librarian with iPhoto 6 breaks Keyword Assistant. Keyword Assistant is a neat little plugin that makes adding keywords to your photos much easier. When Keyword Assistant upgraded to support iPhoto 6, I wasn't able to get full functionality from Keyword Assistant if I launched iPhoto using iPhoto Librarian. When I launch iPhoto directly, Keyword Assistant works just fine.

Once you figure it out or get the hang of it, it's a rather useful utility. I've kept distinct folders of photos on my server and access it via this utility from any client computer with a copy of iPhoto & iPhoto Librarian. So in essence, you only have to manupilate and store your photos in ONE central location with each individually named folder that make sense to you! (eg. Christmas 2004) and not some deeply rooted folder in disparate computers that make sense to only iPhoto! In this manner, any networked or remote (if u configure for access) computer can be use to view your centrally stored photos. Each time you launch iPhoto Librarian from a client computer, you just select the named folder of photos that you want to view. Quit and relaunch to view another folder of photos. So yet another advantage here is that if you've a million photos, your client iPhoto software doesn't have to load each and everyone when you infact had wanted to view only a certain subset! Another plus is that it allows for privacy folders which will never be viewed by people whom you don't want them to see as you're only selecting a certain folder for that moment of shared viewing. The only tricky part is the configuring of the folder so that iPhoto can recognize it once you use iPhoto Librarian to access it. It's really not that difficult to figure out and is as simple as 1)Naming a folder 2)Import new photos to a 'temp' folder 3)Launch iPhoto Librarian pointing a newly named folder in step 1 4)Once iPhoto opens from step 3, import the photos from the 'temp' folder. The newly named folder is now 'blessed' by iPhoto and can be access each time by any copy of iPhoto Librarian and concurrently iPhoto on any client computer! An optional step here is to move the 'raw' photos currently in the 'temp' folder into the newly named folder from step 1. This would also act as a back-up especially good for people with phobias that iPhoto might edit permanently the imported copies from step 2. when foolling around with iPhoto's enhancement tools. Cheers!