My case: I am a theater photographer. I take hundreds of photo from each performance in many different CF disks. For each show, I make one project in Aperture. I assign a name for each project and when I import the photos I give a custom name for my Master files with counter. for the first project, everything is all right. I get counters started with 1 and goes on. But the problem starts when I want to import photos for the second Project. here I want my master files have a new custom name with new counters. I get the new custom name but the counter does not start from 1. It starts with the next figure that last project's photo. Please advise. How can I have different projects with different counters. Have this in mind that each of my projects have more that 1000 picture in it.

You can do this by using a counter on import and resetting its value each time you create a new project. Aperture does not have counters that are tied to the projects, so this is the only way to achieve what you are trying to do.

On the import pane is an area where the name can be modified as it is imported:

At the bottom of the pop-up for the Version Name is an option to edit the presets. That brings up a dialog that allows you to construct the presets out of various elements:

Among the choices are three different counters that can be added to file names when images are imported: a sequence number, an index number, or a counter.

A sequence number is expressed as index of total like "5 of 86". It starts at one and increases for each image imported. Each import resets the sequence number.

An index number starts at 1 and increases for each image imported. Each import resets the index number.

A counter initially starts at 1 and does not get reset by each import. So each image gets a different number irrespective of how or when it was imported.

As can be seen above, the dialog gives the opportunity to set the starting value of the counter to any number, so this is how it can be reset for a new project. It also allows going back to an old project and adding more images: set the counter starting value to one greater than the highest-numbered image in that project. It would be nice if Aperture offered a project-based counter, but so far it does not.

Tags: Aperture, Q&A, Importing, Masters