Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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!

Receive notice of every new Picasa tip by signing up for our Picasa Tip-o-the-week Email.

GOT Class?  Become a member of our Geeks On Tour online classroom and learn from our tutorial videos and members forum.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for telling me how to manage the updates / changes to Picasa. I've got Picasa 2 and am very happy with it. When I clicked on it, it began to update to version 3 without asking, configured my photo viewer so that I couldn't automatically use another programme on my computer and generally took my choice away. The Picasa Help is worse than useless and trying to find a way to email them direct is like walking through a forest in the dark.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barb,
    You can turn the Picasa Viewer off with:
    Tools
    Configure Photo Viewer
    check "Don't User Picasa Photo Viewer"

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can not get Picasa to show my GIF files. The file type GIF is checked, along with a few others.

    ReplyDelete
  4. the problem is even with the automatic update selected to do not check for updates version 3.8 still updates to 3.9 with no way of stopping it

    ReplyDelete