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I have a lot of family photos and documents I have digitized and would like to have a database of them for searching etc., as I will be sharing the files with my siblings.
I am running Mojave 10.14.6. I use to use Filemaker at work before retirement but for my limited needs the price is prohibitive and overkill. Ditto for Microsoft Access since I do not need to subscribe to 365.
I've looked at Libre but their database needs Java (JDK) installed which I have questions about. Willing to give it a try I guess.
I am currently using Excel for the data but of course it is a spreadsheet at heart.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks
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Man I miss the days of a reasonably priced FileMaker...
But honestly, one of the online albums is probably the way to go if your are sharing. People like Flickr.
You have not defined "a lot" but if the number is not too high, I might consider building a simple Wordpress site.
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flickr pro might be a good option.
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Markintosh wrote:
Man I miss the days of a reasonably priced FileMaker...
But honestly, one of the online albums is probably the way to go if your are sharing. People like Flickr.
You have not defined "a lot" but if the number is not too high, I might consider building a simple Wordpress site.
By "a lot" I mean close to 3 thousand photos and many documents total to 83 gigs. My mother's family saved everything and I do mean everything. :-)
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That is a heck of a lot of content! My worry is that uploading to someplace like Flickr could be temporary and then you have to start over. No service has been completely stable even over the last 10 years. Even the giant of Google Photos has been going through some significant downsizing.
What is the longevity of Flickr Pro? Who knows?
Maybe just the Photos app on a Mac can do it. I just looked, I have 21,000 photos totaling 49 gigs. It's time to slim that down!
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Before Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Bridge was a free download and works well for that.
So if you have a version of one of the CS apps (2 or later IIRC...):
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jh,
I think your best bet is to find an app specifically designed to manage a collection of photos and vids, i.e. Apple Photos, Google Photos, Adobe Bridge (which is available free of charge via an Adobe account _without_ creative cloud), etc..
If you're interested in Adobe Bridge, here are free ways to get it:
Keeping your photos organized as a collection within a single app _isn't_ futureproof. What happens when the app is discontinued? Too expensive to upgrade? No longer compatible with the current OS? Or, you lose access to it (as you've experienced with Filemaker)?
So, a key to this is making sure it's easy to backup your photos within the confines of the app _and_ back them up as photos _outside_ of the app. That way, in one of the above scenarios, you can always import them easily into another app.
FWIW, I use Apple Photos with both local and cloud backups of all my pics. Hate to say, I generally don't organize much of anything unless they are taken for a special occasion or during a specific period of time like on a trip. Typically, if I want a particular photo, I scroll around until I find it.
Robert
