David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Flagging Photos

In both iPhoto and Picasa, you can flag, or star, any photo. That marking can mean anything you want it to mean; it's open to a multitude of personal interpretations. The bottom line, though, is that you'll find this marker extremely useful for temporary organizational tasks.

For example, you might want to cull only the most appropriate images from a photo album for use in a printed book or slideshow. As you browse through the images, use the Flag button to flag each shot you want. Later, you can round up all the images you flagged so that you can drag them all into a new album en masse.

Here's how you flag a selected photo, or a bunch of selected photos:

• iPhoto. Press ⌘-period, or choose Photos→Flag Photo, or click the Flag button on the toolbar. A tiny, waving-pennant logo appears on the upper-left corner of the photo's thumbnail.

• Picasa. Click the Star button in the toolbar (at the bottom of the screen). A tiny yellow star appears on the lower-right corner of the photo's thumbnail.

You remove flags and stars the same way you applied them. (That is, click the Flag or the Star button a second time.)

Tip

iPhoto Tip: You can also rate your photos on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. Just highlight the thumbnails you want, and then press ⌘-1 for one star, ⌘-2 for two stars, and so on. (Or use the Photos→My Rating submenu.)

Once you've applied your star ratings, you can view ...