FFXporter - the Free Flickr Exporter for IPhoto

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about the Picasa Web Albums Uploader, a plugin for iPhoto that allows Mac users to upload their photos and photo albums to Picasa Web Albums, without needing to go through the web interface, or even leave iPhoto!

Well, never let it be said that I don't play both sides of the photo sharing fence, because today I'm going to talk about another iPhoto plugin, called FFXporter (which stands for Free Flickr eXporter), which allows iPhoto users, you guessed it, to upload their photos and photo albums to Flickr, again without ever leaving iPhoto.

First, why would anyone need something like this? Like either of these, for goodness sake? Why should I install yet another program onto my computer to accomplish something I can already do via my web browser?

How about because FFXporter does it faster, in fewer steps, lets you keep all your comments, ratings and tags, and does it all without needing to open up a web browser, deal with identifying the images you want to upload one by one, and lets you do it right from inside iPhoto?

All good reasons, in my book. And what's better, FFXporter is coded so that it honestly feels like a part of iPhoto.

Using FFXporter is really simple. Just use iPhoto as you normally would. Tag your images. Create albums. Give your photos star ratings and more.

Then, when you want to upload a set to Flickr, just hit the Export option in the menus, just as you normally would if you wanted to create a web album, a QuickTime movie or other export options.

Now, however, you'll see a new tab, for FFXporter. Navigate to that tab. If you haven't already you'll need to login to Flickr. Hit the Login button, and a web browser will launch and you'll load a page which asks you if you want to add Free Flickr eXporter to your list of "approved" 3rd party applications. Do this, then return to the iPhoto Export Photos dialog and hit to confirm that you have allowed FFXporter.

After this, it's simply a case of filling in the appropriate choices.