Picasa Tip: Use Albums

If you go to the Grand Canyon in the summer of 2008, do you put the pictures in a folder called Grand Canyon? Or a folder called Summer 2008?

How about when you return to the Canyon in 2009? Do you put them in with your other Grand Canyon photos, or make a new Summer 2009. If you make a Summer 2009 folder, how can you see a slide show of all your Grand Canyon photos? Whatever you do, DO NOT make copies of the pictures so they can be in a Grand Canyon folder and a Summer 2009 folder. That quickly becomes a mess.

You don't need to organize your pictures into lots of different folders. Just keep it simple, all pictures into one folder for the year - or, if you take enough, put them into folders by month.

Picasa has this magical feature called Albums. An album is like a virtual folder. You can go thru all your pictures and find the photos of your dog, marking them for a 'dog' album. You haven't moved the pictures, you haven't copied them, you've just created a list of pointers to them so they are all grouped in one place. That place is called an Album.

Select the photos, then click the 'Add to Album' button.

Once a group of photos has been marked in an album, you can now create a Gift CD with all the photos in the album, you can make a movie, or a slideshow, export them or upload them all at once.

So, don't organize your photos into a lot of separate folders. And, definitely don't make extra copies of them to put in different folders. Just make one simple folder structure - I put all photos into a folder for the month they were taken. This also makes it a simple matter to back up my photos. I do it every month and I just back up the folder for that month.

Then, you can create as many different Albums as you want. One picture of my dog, Odie, in June of 2008 will be stored in the folder 200806. But, it could show up in an Album called 'Odie', another album called 'Minnesota', and a third called 'Dogs.' The picture only exists once on my computer - in the folder. You can view it in that folder, as well as in all three Albums. The albums are magical creations - the photos don't really exist there. I can delete a photo from an album but it still exists in the folder and whatever other albums I may have grouped it in. However, if I delete the photo from the folder ... It's gone.

Albums are wonderful creations, but you also need to understand that they are a creation of Picasa alone. If you ever need to use some other program to see your pictures, the albums won't be there.

Geeks on Tour Members can also view the following tutorial videos to learn more:

Using Albums
Picasa 3: Folders
Picasa 3: Search for pictures
Picasa 3: Selecting Pictures
Picasa 3: Starrred Photos
Preparing photos for other programs with Export

Picasa Tip: Make a Banner Collage

Question: I want a header on my blog that's like yours - multiple pictures across the screen - but Blogger only allows me to put in one photo. How do you make a photo that combines several photos into a banner like that?



Answer: Until recently you had to have special photo editing software like Photoshop, or Fireworks. But, now, you can do it quite easily with Picasa 3.

First step is to select the photos you want on your banner. When they are all collected in the selection tray, click the collage button. Make sure to select the 'Picture Pile' type of collage so you can drag the photos into just the right order. A collage is normally a standard print or paper size, but in this case we want it to be a banner, so line up your photos anywhere on the page.

Our Geeks On Tour Classroom has a free video on how to make collages.



When you finish and close your collage, you have a new picture. Next is to crop it, using the 'manual' size setting, into a banner, short and wide. And last is to Export it to the width required by Blogger, I believe that was 750. GOT Class Members can view a video on how to add a banner photo to blogger.

Here's the final banner. It's SOO easy!

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Join ‘GOT Class’ - that’s the Geeks On Tour online classroom, and you will have instant access to over 120 tutorial videos on Picasa, Blogger, Vista, Google Earth, and more.

Picasa Tip: Web Albums default settings

When you upload photos to a Picasa Web Album, there are a few options you want to set. I always make my albums 'Public' as opposed to Unlisted and I choose Medium size so I can store more photos in my web albums.



At first, I was making these selections every time I uploaded, because the default settings were Large Size and Unlisted Album. Then, I found the place to change the default!

The term 'default', in case you're not familiar, means the automatic setting. The default is what's going to happen if you do nothing.

To set the default settings for Web Albums, click on the Tools menu and Options, then the Web Albums tab. You can change any setting you like. My personal preference is for pictures to be uploaded in the medium size, make the albums public, and add a copyright notice to every photo. Once I make the selections below, and click OK, my defaults have been changed. Now, when I'm ready to upload photos to a web album, I don't have to pay attention to the options - I know they're already set the way I want! I just click 'Upload' and then 'OK.'



If you have already uploaded a Web Album and then realize that no-one can see it because it is set to Unlisted, you can change that on the web by clicking on the Edit drop-down button at the top of the album. On that menu is an option for Album properties. Scroll down to the bottom of the properties box, and you'll see the place to select 'Public.'

Lots of new Picasa 3 tutorial videos are now online! Just go visit the Geeks On Tour Classroom ... Picasa page and you'll have your choice of

1. Picasa 3: Overview (Free)


2. Install Picasa 3 (Free)


3. First time using Picasa 3 (Members Only)


4. Folders (Members Only)


5. Orientation to the Library Screen (Free)


6. Adding Text to Photos (Members Only)


7. Tree Folder View (Members Only)


8. Move Folders to External Hard Drive (Members Only)


9. Make a movie from photos (Members Only)


10. Viewing and Sharing Video files (Members Only)


11. Individual Photo View (Free)


12. Search for pictures (Members Only)


13. Selecting Pictures (Members Only)


14. Starrred Photos (Members Only)


15. Importing from Camera (Members Only)

Plus the 25 videos on Picasa 2 are still valid for Picasa 3. Most features still work the same, the screen may look a little different, and there are more features now.

Please Join 'GOT Class' - that's the Geeks On Tour online classroom, so you can watch all the videos. A gift membership makes a great present too!.

Picasa tip: Your photos as Screensaver

My computer is very entertaining. Especially when I'm not using it! It's the photo screensaver. There's not much that entertains me more than watching photos of our RV travels these last 5 years. Just sit back and watch. And I use two monitors, so I have double the fun. Here's what it looks like:

How do you turn it on?
In Picasa, use the Tools menu and click on Configure Screensaver ... From there, you should see the following screen, and you can select 'Google Photos Screensaver' from the drop-down list. If you ever want to turn it off, just go here and select 'None.'


What options are there?
The first option is right on the first screen. How long do you want it to wait to start playing the slideshow? Mine is set to 10 minutes. This means that, if I don't touch the computer for 10 minutes, the slideshow will start playing.

The rest of the options are on the Settings ... button. The most important is that you can choose the pictures to show. I choose to show my Picasa Starred photos, but you can also use the special Screensaver album, or any combination of folders. Since it is Picasa doing the work, you get the edited version of the photo, not the original. You can also select the transition, and the timing.

Maybe it's best to select a smaller number of photos so you won't be tempted to just stare for hours!

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Picasa 3 and Video Files

Many point and shoot digital cameras today have a video mode.  If your video files are stored in a supported format, Picasa will manage them right along with your photo files.  The supported formats are: .avi, .mpg, .asf, .wmv and .mov.  If any of those files exist on your camera card when you import, they will be imported as well.  You will see them in your picasa library.  They will look just like a photo, except you will see a movie icon in the lower left corner, like the image at right.  And, when you double-click on it, it will play.

Viewing Video files in Picasa 3

You may have several video files in your library right now and not even know it!  Picasa 3 gives you an easy way to find out.  Just click the filter, 'Show Movies Only.'  You'll find the filters at the top of the Picasa window in the middle.  Movies is the 4th filter, and it looks like a little piece of movie film.  Click that once and now the only items that will be showing in your library are video files.

Uploading Video Files to Web Albums

You can select video files just like you can select photos.  When you click once on it, it appears in the 'picture tray' or 'selection area.'  Then, anything that is selected will get uploaded to your Picasa Web Album just by clicking the Upload button (in Picasa 2 this was the Web Album button.)  When your friends and family view your Picasa Web Album, they will be able to play your video as easily as as viewing your photos! 

Uploading Video Files to Youtube

Picasa 3 has added a lot of new functionality for video files, including a single-click method to upload to Youtube. When you double-click on any video file, you will see the 'Upload to Youtube' button at the left.  Click on that, make sure you are logged in to your Youtube account, fill out the information fields, and click 'Upload Video.'  Picasa 3 takes care of all the rest.  Just sit back and wait - this will take a while.  And, once it's uploaded, then Youtube still takes more time to 'process' it.  It may even take a day, but then you can go to youtube.com, log in to your account, and view the video.  You can also send a link to anyone else so they can view it too.  OR  embed it in your blog.

Related Videos at www.GeeksonTour.com*:
Create a Web Album (instructions for Picasa 2, still relavant for Picasa 3)
Creating movies from photos with Picasa 3
Managing and sharing movie files with Picasa 3
*available to members of Geeks on Tour classroom

Picasa Tip: Nested Folders

The normal way that you see folders in Picasa is called 'Flat Folder Structure.'   In the Flat view you won't see that certain folders are within other folders.  If you want to see what folders are nested within other folders, you need to view the folder list in 'Tree View.  To get there, just click the 'Tree Structure' button in the top toolbar.  It's right under the word 'Picture' in the menu.

Take a look at the images below.  On the left is the Flat view, notice the Grand Canyon folder.  It's listed in the Flat view along with every other folder in your Pictures.  On the right is the Tree View where you can see that the Grand Canyon folder is within October, and October is within 2004.

 

Geeks on Tour members can view a detailed tutorial video on this flat folders vs. tree view.

Picasa Tip: Moving folders to a USB Hard Drive

The more pictures you take, the more your hard drive will fill up. USB hard drives are a great solution these days. The prices just keep dropping. I bought a 250 Gigabyte USB hard drive about 6 months ago and it cost about $120. I recently saw a 500 Gb drive advertised for $110!

What most people ask about is how to move their pictures from the computer to the external hard drive without losing all their work in Picasa.

Picasa 3 now makes it easy with the 'Move Folder' command. Just right-click on the folder, and choose 'Move Folder...' Select a folder on the hard drive as the destination, and you're done.

From now on, whenever the hard drive is attached to the computer, Picasa will see all the pictures in the specified folder. If it's not plugged in, it won't see the photos. But, unlike a network drive, Picasa won't have to re-find them the next time. As soon as you plug in the hard drive - the corresponding folder will appear!

The following video is a preview of our tutorial on the subject. To see more, please join the Geeks on Tour Online Classroom.


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Picasa Tip: Automatic Updates

Do you know what version of Picasa you have?  And by 'version', I'm not just talking 2 or 3.  There is also a 'build' number that represents updates to the version.  It's important to get the latest builds because they are created to fix bugs and add new features.  To find out what you have, you click on the Help menu and choose About Picasa.  So, for example, my Picasa is currently version 3.0 and build number 57.52. 

Google updates Picasa all the time. You have the choice to 1. let it update automatically, 2. to ask you first, or to 3. only update manually. You make this choice by going to Tools / Options and click on the General tab.





My recommendation is to set this option to update Picasa automatically.  You will then see a message when you open Picasa that updates are ready to be installed.  If you're not sure that you've received all the updates, you can use the Help / Check for Updates Online. 

Picasa 3 Out of Beta?

To get the new version of Picasa ... Picasa 3 ... you will have to go to the website (www.picasa.google.com) and download it.  This is not an 'update', it is a new program.  When you download it, Picasa 2 on your computer will become Picasa 3 - it updates it and keeps all your photos, edits, albums, and settings in tact.

With my latest update to build 57.52, Picasa 3 logo on my computer no longer includes the Beta designation.  It sure looks to me like it has been released from Beta, yet I can find no mention of this in any of Google's blogs or news items. If you don't know about the term, Beta, it's how software companies indicate that they are still testing the software.  They are saying that it is not yet finished. If it is released from beta - they are saying that it *is* finished.  That doesn't mean it is bug-free.  New bugs will always be discovered.

That's why it's important to do your updates!

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Picasa Tip: Add a Watermark to your photos

 

Just because you want to share your photos on the web, it doesn't necessarily follow that you want people to take them without giving you any credit.  Yet, that's exactly what can happen, oh so easily.  Any picture you see on the web can be 'grabbed.'  Then it can be used by others who may even claim that the picture belongs to them.




Although there are some techniques for preventing copying of your photos, the best you can usually do is to add a 'watermark' to the photo itself.  The watermark is text which lays on top of your photo and at least identifies it's source.  Picasa 3 now offers the ability to add a watermark to every photo uploaded to your web albums.

Don't know about uploading pictures to Picasa Web Albums?  Here's a member Tutorial Video Intro to Picasa Web Albums.

Here's what you do:
Tools / Options / Web Albums (or Google+ Photos)
Check the box for 'Add a Watermark for all Photo Uploads' and Type what you want to be typed on the photo


After completing this setting, every photo you upload to Picasa Web Albums will include the Watermark you specify.  This is a great feature, but it's not perfect.  The watermark is small and printed in the lower right corner.  So, if someone wanted to steal your photo, it's still an easy matter to crop off that bottom line.



If your goal is primarily to include a notice with your identification.  This is a wonderful new feature.  Just turn it on once, and you're done.  The watermark feature is also available anytime you Export pictures - just check the 'Add a Watermark' box and write whatever you want.

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Picasa Tip: Make your own Photo Holiday Cards

One of the subtle changes in Picasa 3 is on the bottom row of buttons, what used to be called 'Order Prints' is now 'Shop.'  I actually don't see any difference in what the button does, but the fact that it now says 'Shop' might get a few more people to try it.

Here's how it works - you select one or more photos, click 'Shop' and you'll see a list of stores. 



Choose one of the stores, then you will need to set up an account.  There is no cost for the account, but it is necessary in order to upload your photos and store them for you.  Once the photos are uploaded you can choose your products.  The upload takes a while because, for printing purposes, it uploads the full original size.

They all offer to print the photo(s) you upload, and they offer lots of special ways to print them, including notecards.  This is a great way to get custom, photo Christmas cards.  The price at Walmart is about $12 for a dozen simple notecards.  At Shutterfly, a dozen nice greeting cards will cost $25.  You can check out the products offered before choosing by browsing directly to each store.  So, for example, Walmart's offerings can be found at http://photos.walmart.com/store.    Shutterfly's at http://www.shutterfly.com/store/index.jsp.

And, don't stop at cards!  You can buy the gifts to go with the cards as well.  One of my favorites is photo mousepads.  Or, how about coffee mugs, or t-shirts, or tree ornaments?

You don't need to use Picasa to order these gifts, but, just like so many other things, Picasa makes it so easy.  Just select your photos and click 'Shop!'  And, if you use Picasa, you'll know that the photo that gets uploaded is what you see in Picasa, cropped the way you cropped it in Picasa, color corrected or retouched by Picasa.  You can even add text to the picture in Picasa, and that will become part of the photo to be used for your card.

Happy Holidays!
Chris Guld

GOT Class? 

Join the Geeks On Tour Classroom today.  For only $39 you'll have one year of unlimited access to over 100 tutorial videos on Picasa, Blogger, and others.

4. Library View

When you first open Picasa, you're looking at the 'Library View.'  This video gives you a tour of the screen while using the Library View.

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Download .mp4 Video (14.5MB)

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Picasa Tip: Save Edits and Resize with Export

I just read a question from a Picasa user, Joe, who needs to use his photos in a Website. He makes all his edits with Picasa, cropping, fixing red eyes, retouching a spot ... but when his website software uploads the photo from his My Pictures folder, it's the original photo. It still needs the red eyes fixed, it needs to be cropped and it needs to be resized to something a lot smaller than his original photo.

What Joe needs to know about is the Export command. After making all the edits to make the picture(s) look good:

1. Select the photo or photos you want to use on your website
2. Click the Export button at the bottom
3. Choose or create the receiving folder - e.g. My Pictures\Website photos
4. Choose a size (I use 400 pixels for most web photos)
5. Click OK

Now when you use the website software to upload your photos, upload the ones in the \Website photos\ folder instead of the original folder.

There are a couple of videos in the classroom at GeeksOnTour.com on using Picasa to prepare photos for websites. You need to be a member to view them in their entirety, but here's a 30 second preview of one:


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www.GeeksOnTour.com

You have a Digital Camera ... Now What?

Aren't digital cameras wonderful? You never have to worry about running out of film (just battery :-) )You never have to wonder, "Is that picture going to come out?" because you can look at the preview. And, you don't have to pay for processing. But you *do* have to learn a little about what to do with the photos after you take them.

Emailing Photos with Picasa

Have you ever opened a photo attached to an email and found yourself staring at a person’s eyeball taking up the entire screen? That’s what happens if the person sending the photo doesn’t know about resizing it first. That is, if you receive the photo at all! It may be so big that your email inbox simply rejects it.

Here’s a photo of my motorhome as you would see it if I emailed it to you full-size. This is how it would appear in many programs - then you would need to scroll around to see the entire photo. This photo would be taking up a lot of space in your inbox as well - 2.7 megabytes to be exact. And, if you have a mailbox that is limited to 10 megabytes, it would fill up real quick, and any further mail would be rejected.



There lots of ways to send photos with email and resize them first. Picasa is my favorite. You simply select the photo (or photos) you want to send, click the email button, and Picasa does all the rest. Watch the quick video below to see how.

 

Chris Guld
www.GeeksOnTour.com

Organizing with Sortable Dates

Renaming Photos with Sortable Dates
Watch Video

This tip comes from my photo filing system that I've developed over the years. Filing systems are very personal. If you've devised a system that works for you - that's cool - no need to change. But, if you haven't ... read on.

Making a date 'sortable'
I'm very date-oriented and I like my pictures to be in date order regardless of what program I'm using or what device they are being seen on. I get lots of emails about wanting photos to play in date order when a Gift CD is played on a TV. Usually, the TV is just going to play them in order by the filenames. Filename is often used for sorting whether you want it to or not, so why not have the filename be a sortable date?

Notice that each file in the right column starts with 8 digits. This is the only way to represent the date that sorts properly. Spelling out the date will result in all the April's being sorted together, regardless of what day or year. Using standard 4-21-2008 type of date notation will produce equally erroneous results. The 8 digits that sort properly are referred to as yyyymmdd. That means the first 4 digits represent the year, the next two are the month, and the last two represent the day.

Using Picasa to rename files
In Picasa, you can accomplish this by selecting all the photos that you want to rename to a particular date, press F2, and type the appropriate 8 digits. Picasa knows that no two files can have the exact same name and it will add a -1, -2, -3 etc. to the end. That's OK. As long as the first 8 characters of the filename are a sortable date, these photos will automatically be kept in date order, regardless of what program you are using to view them.

Realize that you cannot add a prefix number to filenames when you rename. Therefore, I rename photos immediately after importing them from the camera. So, at the very least all my photos have a filename that means the date it was taken. Then, if you want words after the date, you can add them later. See the Picasa Show-Me-How video, "Renaming photos with a sortable date."

Date-based folders
I also like to group my photos together by month, so each month I create a folder named with the corresponding 6 digits: 200802, 200803, 200804 etc. This makes it especially easy to keep track of backups. At the end of each month, I create a backup of that month's folder.

I used to create a folder for a year, then have subfolders for each month: January, February, etc. However, in Picasa, if you sort by name - you would end up seeing all the April folders, then all the August folders regardless of year. Using the sortable date system for my folders works much better.

Show-Me-How video tutorial: It's a lot easier to show you what I mean than to explain it all in writing. Check out the new video on Picasa and Sortable Dates.