I don't know exactly how to do this, but iView can be scripted with AppleScript, and I sometimes see users discussing scripts to solve needs like yours over on iView's own forums. The other day there was a guy who wanted iView to make an HTML web gallery of each catalog automatically and they worked up a script.

Photshop can generate contact sheets by going to: File > Automate > Contact Sheet command where you can designate the specific folders and subfolders you want to generate as contact sheets and then could save them as a PDF or whatever you would like. Probably easiest is to create a Photoshop "Action" and script exactly to do what you want for saving preferences and size, format, etc. (i'm using CS/8, but i assume 7 can do this as well - not sure about Elements)

I don't think I can take this anymore! The activist in me is finally coming out. Please everyone go to http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html and let Apple know that we are tired of iPhoto messing up our photos (complex organization, duplicates, etc). I know it's lame and that they may not listen, but we can't let Apple go on thinking that iPhoto is a great (much less, acceptable) application, especially when compared to greats like the rest of the iApps. So please take 5 minutes and offer them your suggestions at http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html

(3 years later) Does this mean that it is possible to , say, take a 4x4 photo and print it as a 2x2 without cutting away 3/4 of the photo? How???

Patrick,

Yes it is possible...depending on what program you use...what do you have?

Lightroom is
 

I switched almost a year ago to Ligthroom, and have never looked back. It's a program designed from the ground up for digital photographers, with impeccable non destructive (and not duplicative) library. Designed for easy transfer between different computers, and very powerful editing tools. Brilliant printing tools, easy to create OK slideshows for presenting your pictures to clients.

Tried Aperture for a while, but it was very difficult to learn and extremely slow on my Imac G5. Beautiful program though, if you can live the learning curve.

Now I use Iphoto for creating calendar for the family, and for printing albums, because I find it brilliant for those purposes. Then I just delete the pictures to avoid triplicates, and am back to LR.

Lightroom v Aperture
 

I concur that Lightroom is excellent.....its integration with other adobe apps is great and it is easy to use but feature packed. For sure Adobe will do well on this one.

Aperture is like a wolf in sheep's clothing......the fact that you need a top of range machine and it can still drags it heals.......and quirks like no other app i have ever seen has really put me off it. A few studios i support use Aperture but they have really have the best desktop machines money can buy but as soon as they try and use a top end powerbook on the road it dies on its arse. For sure Macbook pros are better...but any photo management software should be able to do simple tasks quickly and efficiently....Aperture does not do that !

I was using iView Media for a good while but again it has its issues.

I switched to LR last year as well, I was using IVMP. I'm currently tutoring someone who bought Aperture and the experience has shown me I made the right decision (for me).

If you need to manage Raw-files, why not Aperture. Optionally it leaves your files where you want, it's much more effective and direct treating RAW then iPhoto, and you can use it for adding captions and other information, optimze your images, prepare jpgs at different resolutiones… It's not cheap, but it does quite a lot of things you normally need other programs for.

Regards - Klaus

Since this thread was resurrected I should say that the iPhoto problem I ranted about earlier is fixed. iPhoto 6 has a new preference where it will let you bring in your photos without changing where you store them.

But I have also moved to Lightroom. Aperture won't run on my G4 PowerBook, but Lightroom runs fine.