introduction : interface : importing photos : organizing photos : Searching iPhoto
Searching iPhoto : Now that you have learned to organize photos using keywords and comments, we will look at how we can search iPhoto using those same criteria. These are very handy tools but they do take some dedication. You have to remind yourself to add keywords or comments to photos every time you import photos or, eventually you will get too many and it will seem overwhelming (that is the stage that I am at right now!).

Search by Keyword : Adding keywords is probably the easiest of the two, so we will start with that (because it is more likely that you have used it). To search by keyword, change the Assign/Search toggle to Search (highlighted in orange in the image below). Now, you can search by any of the keywords by clicking on the keywords that you want to look for. For example, if I click on the Friends keyword, iPhoto will show only photos that have been assigned the keyword Friends. I can also search for images with multiple keywords. In my example in lesson three, I assigned three keywords to one picture (Favorite, Outdoors and Vacation) and I could now find it by clicking on any or all of those three keywords. Click here to view a video demonstration of Searching by Keyword [235 k]. You will notice in the video that as I click on the keywords that I am searching for, the number of images are narrowed down.

Search by Comment : The Search by comment feature works much the same way. To use it, you must go to the preferences (iPhoto menu or apple-Y) and change the Assign Search option (see image right) from Keyword to Comment (as mentioned above and in lesson 1). Searching by comment will only work if you have named your photos or have added comments to them.

Now, you must switch from Assign mode to Search mode (image above - orange circle). Once you have switched to Search Mode you can begin typing in letters or words (see image below). As you begin typing letters, iPhoto will begin to sort your photos and weed out all of the images that do not have the letters that you are looking for in either their Title or Comment field.

Click here to view a video demonstration of Searching using the Comment Field [425 K]. In the video demonstration you may notice that with each letter that I put in the search field, the number of images I am searching through goes down. Starts at 960, B goes to 236, R down to 81, and finally add the AD and I get down to 69. So, I have 69 pictures with BRAD in either the name of the image or in the comments.

Final Thoughts : The searches that I demonstrated used the entire photo library. You can do these types of searches in individual photo albums as well. Like I said before, keep up with naming and adding keywords...this will pay off in the long run.

If you feel comfortable searching for and finding images, now you can move on to the next lesson, editing images.
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