Apple Aperture - Manual (Page 77)

Chapter 3 Working with Aperture Projects 77
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You specify that an image will be a managed image or a referenced image when you
import it. When importing images, you can:
 Specify that master files be stored in the Aperture Library.
 Import images as referenced images, so that their master files remain in their
current locations.
 Move or copy image files to a new location. For example, you might decide that a
certain group of referenced image files, such as wedding photos, will always be
placed in one hard disk location, while other groups, such as sports photos, will
reside in a different hard disk location.
You can work with referenced images—creating versions, making adjustments,
cropping, and adding metadata—just as you can with images whose master files are
stored in the Library. Versions that you create from a referenced image are stored in the
Library. In order for you to make adjustments to a version from a referenced image, the
referenced image’s master file must be available on your hard disk or other storage
device. For example, if you delete a referenced image’s master file in the Finder,
Aperture no longer has access to the master file and so no longer allows you to change
your versions or create new ones.
To help you identify referenced images, Aperture marks them with a badge overlay that
you can display or hide. When a referenced image’s master file is missing or offline, its
badge changes to show that the image is not accessible. For example, if you disconnect
a hard disk that holds master files for many referenced images, Aperture automatically
marks the referenced images in the Browser and Viewer as offline. If you reconnect the
hard disk or other storage device later, Aperture accesses the master files automatically
and you can work with and change their versions again.
You can also relocate master files, moving them out of the Library or moving referenced
master files to different hard disk locations. If needed, you can also move referenced
master files into the Aperture Library by choosing the Consolidate command.
You can search for images based on whether they are managed images, referenced
images, or online or offline images. Aperture also provides robust file-management
tools that let you quickly determine which images are offline and easily reconnect
images that have been moved to different volumes.