When one exports (referenced) file versions from Aperture, the resultant files are not automatically visible in Aperture. To make them visible it seems a reimport is necessary. Does anyone know a way of avoiding this?

To explain by way of example (I can hear Joseph asking why….):

1. Say I have 3 RAW (CR2) format photos visible in Aperture as referenced files. File size on disk for the 3 files is 35.6Mb total.
2. I’ve made some minor adjustments in Aperture, happy that using RAW gave me the best results. I also set ITPC metadata on import, and used Aperture’s Places feature to define the location of each shot.
3. [issue #1] None of these changes are available to external programs that might reference the photos from their location on disk, as the changes remain in Aperture as instructions, rather than physical changes to the masters (a feature, I know).
4. [issue #2] Also, although I want the keep the images available in my browser of choice (Aperture), I’m conscious that they are in this case more snaps than anything else. I’d therefore like to reduce the amount of hard disk space they consume by converting them post-edit to JPG format. Of course, I’d still like to browse them in Aperture.

So the steps to convert to JPG and have the images visible are:

1. Use File/ Export/ Versions to export the versions as JPG Original Size, to the same location as the RAW masters.
2. The three JPG files now exist alongside the RAW ones; total 8Mb for the three of them. They reflect the edits made, contain all the metadata, including the Places/ Locations data.
3. To make the JPG’s visible in Aperture now – as referenced files – I now need to import them. And I need to turn off my normal import presets to do so (don’t rename files; don’t (re)apply metadata presets; don’t (re)apply adjustment presets).
4. Finally, post import (now I have six files), I can use a file type filter against the Album in Aperture to select the RAW files, and Cmd-Delete them. Once I’ve emptied the Aperture and System Trash, I have the 27Mb (in this example) disk space saving I was after.

So, if there was a check box available in Aperture’s Export dialog that said something like “Include the exported versions in the location they were exported from”, all of this would be a lot easier.

Thanks

Steve