Ingest Existing Folders

[jon]

I already have my pictures on an external network drive in a specfic directory/folder structure.  Is there a way to ingest this existing structure at one time keeping the source directory/folder tree and not duplicating the files? Then, I know that I can create new folders or ingest new pictures into existing folders.
Jon

[Kirk Baker]

Jon,

I already have my pictures on an external network drive in a specfic directory/folder structure.  Is there a way to ingest this existing structure at one time keeping the source directory/folder tree and not duplicating the files? Then, I know that I can create new folders or ingest new pictures into existing folders.

Maybe I don't quite understand what you're trying to do, but Ingest copies files and creates folders.  That's what Ingest does.

-Kirk

[jon]

I'm sorry.  Let me be a more specific.
I have my pics stored on an external disk. They are already organzied into folders, and sub-folders.  Most of the pictures are already "named".  I have been experimenting with the file organization of Aperture, and am not happy with it.  Since the files are already on my drive, I do not want to make another copy of them while importing or ingesting through PM.  How do I ingest my 4000+ photos with their current folders and names; without also making another copy?
Jon

[Kirk Baker]

Jon,

I'm sorry.  Let me be a more specific.
I have my pics stored on an external disk. They are already organzied into folders, and sub-folders.  Most of the pictures are already "named".  I have been experimenting with the file organization of Aperture, and am not happy with it.  Since the files are already on my drive, I do not want to make another copy of them while importing or ingesting through PM.  How do I ingest my 4000+ photos with their current folders and names; without also making another copy?

I see.  You don't need to Ingest them.  Just browse them where they are already on your hard drive.

-Kirk

[Hayo Baan]

As a side note: If you want to restructure your files, you could use the ingest function to take all the images from the aperture directory structure and  move them to another location/naming scheme.  Simply tell ingest to delete files after ingestion (but be careful not to move any file to the same directory this way...)

Hope this helps,
    Hayo

[jon]

Thanks to all. Have not found another organizer that is as easy or fast as PM.
Jon

[schwerd]

so as a follow-up to this thread....I don't want to ingest either, since it duplicates everything...I just want to browse....

is there a way to view/browse the entire nested directory structure? It appears not.
as I drag a top level folders with lots of sub-structure below it into the viewing pane in PM and nothing happens....

it only seems to work if you drag a folder that is a bottom level folder....i.e. has no folders inside it, only photos....

is there a way to view the full nested directory??? please oh please

[Kirk Baker]

so as a follow-up to this thread....I don't want to ingest either, since it duplicates everything...I just want to browse....

is there a way to view/browse the entire nested directory structure? It appears not.
as I drag a top level folders with lots of sub-structure below it into the viewing pane in PM and nothing happens....

it only seems to work if you drag a folder that is a bottom level folder....i.e. has no folders inside it, only photos....

is there a way to view the full nested directory??? please oh please

Yes. You can use the Navigator to open a folder and all of its subfolders into a contact sheet.  Just right-click (or ctrl-click if you have Mac OS X with a single-button mouse) on the parent folder which will display a contextual menu.  Choose "Open Folder and Subfolders in new Contact Sheet" or "Open Folder and Subfolders replacing Contact Sheet".

This can take some time if you have a large directory structure, and can crash PM if you have many thousands of images in the hierarchy.

-Kirk

[schwerd]

most excellent Kirk...thank you.....
did I just completely miss this, or is a secret....and not in the docs?

thanks again...this has been the one major complaint I've had with PM for the 2 months I've been using it.

[Kirk Baker]

most excellent Kirk...thank you.....
did I just completely miss this, or is a secret....and not in the docs?

thanks again...this has been the one major complaint I've had with PM for the 2 months I've been using it.

The manual is currently being updated for the 4.5.x version.  It isn't a secret feature, it's just that the manual has always been behind the development schedule.

-Kirk