[lkalliance]

OK, I admit it, I'm lazy. There's an old adage: "If you've got a tough job, give it to a lazy person; he'll find an easier way to do it."
Here's my challenge:
I've got over 400 digital pics in an album in iPhoto, which I'm going to put on a CD-rom for the recipients. I want each of them to have a unique name. I've titled them with the name of the subject, and I did not number the titles (lazy, remember?). So I've got a couple dozen named (for instance) John, another couple dozen named Jane, etc.
I know that when I export these pics to a location, all the John's will be sequentially numbered (john.jpg, john1.jpg, john2.jpg, etc.).
I want to export them at a particular size. Vertical ones at height=572 pixels, and horizontal ones at width=572 pixels. IN THE PAST, I could select all the pics, export, and select to scale all of these pics to a maximum height of 572 and a maximum width of 572, and it would do the appropriate operation to the appropriate pics.
BUT, in iPhoto 2, this seems to be the case: I try to export all pics, and it settles on the 4:3 aspect ratio. I put in 572 for the height, it sets 429 for the width automatically. IT WILL NOT LET ME PUT 572 FOR BOTH HEIGHT AND WIDTH.
This has the effect of making all the vertical photos the correct aspect ratio, but all the horizontal ones to be too narrow (or vice versa).
I tried doing it a different way, to assign "vertical" or "horizontal" keywords to each pic (I'm lazy, but this is something that could be done in bulk), then exporting them as different groups. But in that case the second group starts renaming from the beginning. So if I export vertcals first as john.jpg, john_1.jpg etc....when I do the horizontals its starts again from john.jpg and wants to overwrite the verticals. I don't want to have to rename 200 or so files to keep them unique.
So, here's the deal: does anyone know how to eliminate the aspect ratio restriction on the export? That would solve all the problems.

[Daft&Dewey-eyed]

I don't know about changing the aspect ratio, but I suspect that renaming your files will be easier. Export your horizontal and vertical pictures to different folders, and rename them appropriately.
Now, no lazy person who uses a Mac should have to do actual manual work to rename files, so head over to Macscripter.net's Scriptbuilders section and download one of these handy Applescripts that let you batch rename files. The link should take you to a selection of scripts designed to rename files. Find one you like and relax while your Mac renames your files for you.
Then do a little work and learn some AppleScript. It's a lazy man's best friend.

[ssand]

Ok here's the easy and I guess lazy solution.
Filename issue:
Export your all your photos out of iPhoto that you want to use ... using the normal Export > File Export using the Full-size image selected and check the by Title name (if that's how you renamed them).
Problem one solved. You have all the photos exported with filenames you want.
Resize issue:
Next grab the 30-day trial version of Fireworks MX from Macromedia.com P.S. they are picky about the browser you use, try IE instead of Safari.
Launch Fireworks.
From the menu bar select File > Batch Process...
Navigate to the folder you exported the images.
Select the first image and the hit the "Add All" button.
Click "Open"
It will bring up Batch Options window... highlight "Scale" and hit the "Add" button. Select the "Scale to Fit Area" from the pop-up menu and enter in the amounts you want (572 by 572) Click the "Next" button.
Select where you want to save the resized images. (uncheck the Back-up images check box and it will just rewrite over the originals).
Click "Batch".
Go grab a drink or a sandwich and let Fireworks do the work - it will take a while since it opens and resizes then saves each image.
Ta-da! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif