iPhoto Places: How To Add Locations to Photos

iPhoto '09 has a Places feature that let's you search and organize your photos by location. It does this my examining the location information a GPS-enabled digital camera or iPhone embeds into every photo snapped.

If you've been taking digital pictures for a long time, or you don't have a GPS-enabled camera, you have lots of photos that don't have location information. No worries - iPhoto '09 gives you a way to add location information to your photos.

Select Photos
In iPhoto, select a photo, Event or group of photos shot at the same location. Then, click the Information button (the little white circle with an "I" in it in the lower-right corner of the photo or Event). The photos or Event will flip over (like a card) to show you more information.

Set Location for Photos
Click on "event place" (if you had selected an Event) or "place of photos" (if you had selected a group of photos). Next, type the name of the place the photos were taken. As you type, iPhoto will list locations. If you see the location you want, scroll down and click it. If you don't see the location, click "Find on map" to use a map to select the location. Once you've chosen the location, it will be applied to all the photos in the Event or group.

Using iPhoto Places
Now, you can click the Places library to bring up a map. Each red pin marks a place where your photos were taken. View your photos by location by clicking the red pins.

Zoom the map to see more pins - more locations, even cities and popular landmarks (like the Golden Gate Bridge and Empire State Building).

3 Shortcuts to Quickly Open Favorite Folders in Mac OS X

You keep your files organized into folders in a way that makes sense to you. Accessing these folders can sometimes be less then convenient when you have lots of applications and folders open on your screen. Here a three shortcuts that'll let you quickly open folders you commonly access with a single click (or two).

Places Sidebar
In Mac OS X, when you open a new folder window, you'll see a sidebar at the left of the window that displays three lists (sometimes four), "Devices", "Places" and "Search For". (And, if you're on a shared networks, a "Shared" list.)

You can add your favorite folders to the Places list. Just drag the folder into the list. Now, when you want to quickly get to that folder, open a new Finder window (or, find one that's already open) and click the folder in the Places list.

Mac OS X Dock
You can drag a folder into the right portion of the Dock. Because you have access to the Dock anytime, no matter what application you're in, you can click to open the folder instantly.

Recent Folders Menu
While not as convenient, you can open a folder you've recently opened. Click on the Desktop. Then, select a folder from the Recent Folders list in the Go menu.

As you can see in the snapshot, the Go menu also gives you a shortcut to many other common folders in Mac OS X, such as your Home, iDisk, Applications and Utilities folders.