Mac OS X Power Hound, Second Edition

Film Rolls

Each time you import a batch of photos, iPhoto groups them into what it calls a film roll, which it stamps with a roll number, the import date, and the number of photos in the import.

Faster Scrolling Through Collapsing

In iPhoto 4, you can turn on film-roll grouping by choosing View → Arrange Photos → by Film Roll. The result is shown in Figure 9-4.

Next to each film roll is a flippy triangle that collapses to hide all the photos in that group. Or, if you prefer, you can collapse all of your film rolls at once by Option-clicking the flippy triangle next to any single film roll.

Collapsed rolls make scrolling in iPhoto considerably faster, since the program doesn’t need to process all of the image data. You may find it useful to leave the current roll in an expanded state, with all older rolls collapsed until you need them.

Changing a Film Roll’s Title, Date, and Comments

In many cases, it’s well worth taking the time to change a film roll’s name (“Disneyland vacation” instead of “Roll 135”). To do so, just click its existing name and then edit the information that appears at the lower-left corner of the screen, below the album list. (If you don’t see any information fields, click the small “i” button in the lower-left corner of the main window.)

You’ll find that you can edit not only a roll’s name, but also its comments and date—a great opportunity to rewrite history. When you change the date on a film roll, iPhoto re-sorts that roll based on the modified date. Trouble is, ...