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

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.