Photo library software compat with Picasa

**triantos** · July 4th, 2006, 11:46 AM

Hi,

My wife uses Picasa to catalog our photos. All of the photos are stored on a small file server.

I'm now switched over to the Mac, and I'm looking for a way to either (1) configure iPhoto to work from that same repository of photos, or (2) find an iPhoto alternative. I know I can somehow reconfigure iPhoto's library directory, but there are a few problems with doing that:

- iPhoto seems to not realize when new photos have been dropped into that directory on the server

- iPhoto uses its own database for comments, etc., which is not compatible with Picasa's .INI files.

Does anyone have an idea of how I can continue to keep my photos on a server, and share editing between Picasa from Windows, and any decent (ideally, inexpensive) tool from the Mac?

thanks,
-Nick

**triantos** · January 31st, 2007, 10:24 AM

I never got any responses, and now in searching the web again, I came across my own post here looking for help. Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks,
-Nick

**bobw** · January 31st, 2007, 10:33 AM

See if this is any help.

**MisterMe** · January 31st, 2007, 10:41 AM

You have to remember that the purpose of Picasa is to provide iPhoto capability to Windows users. You cannot expect Apple to make its products compatible with products designed to diminish the uniqueness of MacOS X. However, a .jpg is a .jpg. If your photos are on the server, then you should be able to directly access them via iPhoto. However, I am not aware of a utility to import Picasa library directories to iPhoto. If you want to duplicate your wife's directories, then you will probably have to do that by hand.

**triantos** · January 31st, 2007, 03:14 PM

Thanks, yes, I'm not actually looking for an exact match.

I've found a few annoyances and one major shortcoming of iPhoto. I really want the equivalent of a "watch folder", where any time new photos are added to my Photos folder on a server, iPhoto will notice the change. There's probably some way to do this via Automator, but I haven't found any scripts.

iPhoto 6 at least allows the files to not need to be copied from the source, but it's still problematic for me to update iPhoto manually every time we drop new files in from another folder, hence my need for a slightly different tool.

Any other suggestions welcome.

thanks!
-Nick

**sylense** · March 3rd, 2007, 02:46 AM

Originally Posted by MisterMe

You have to remember that the purpose of Picasa is to provide iPhoto capability to Windows users. You cannot expect Apple to make its products compatible with products designed to diminish the uniqueness of MacOS X. However, a .jpg is a .jpg. If your photos are on the server, then you should be able to directly access them via iPhoto. However, I am not aware of a utility to import Picasa library directories to iPhoto. If you want to duplicate your wife's directories, then you will probably have to do that by hand.

Just to clear this up: Picasa was designed to organize photos on your computer, not as some kind of iPhoto clone.

In fact, it is superior to iPhoto in almost every way. See this thread.

**Satcomer** · March 3rd, 2007, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by triantos

I never got any responses, and now in searching the web again, I came across my own post here looking for help. Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks,
-Nick

Picasa Web Albums Uploaders

**triantos** · March 3rd, 2007, 06:35 PM

Thanks. This is fine for posting stuff to the web, but it's the client app that I'm looking for. It's too bad Apple can't get their board member's company to port Picasa.

Oh, well, thanks anyway.
-Nick