The idea of tagging photos is nothing new, but most people use it for things like identification, ala Facebook or Picasa (whose face-recognition technology continues to blow me away). After having had several parties in the last few months for people, and thereby putting together slideshows featuring the guests of honor, I realized how much photo tagging could help me — but with the original files.

I'm finally putting iPhoto's tagging to use; not only will tagging the photo files by the names of the people in them to sort through later, it couldn't be easier. iPhoto lets you assign hotkeys to the names of people who frequently appear in your pictures.

To see more of how you tag and use hotkeys in iPhoto, just .

To set your keywords:
• Once in iPhoto, go to Window, then Show Keywords.



• From this box, you can add in all the names of your friends and family, or even themes (like couples, dogs, etc.) that come up often in your photos. In the box, click Edit Keywords.
• Click the plus sign, and start typing someone's name. Once you hit enter or the OK button, you'll see the saved name, and iPhoto will have assigned the name a hotkey (it calls them shortcuts). It's usually the first letter of the keyword you entered, like M for Mike.
• Your Quick Group consists of the names you've added as iPhoto keywords, and you'll see them at the top of the keyword box. You're ready to start tagging once you've added the names.

To start tagging:
• Hover over a photo in iPhoto.
• The phrase "add keywords" will appear under the photo. Click it, and a window will open.
• Start typing a hotkey. iPhoto will populate it with the corresponding keyword you already set. Add as many names or phrases as you want.

Then, the easiest way to get to a grouping of photos — say you want to make a slideshow consisting of your friend Sam — is to type the name in the search bar at the bottom of the iPhoto window. Voila, iPhoto shows you all the photos tagged Sam!