Thursday, December 4, 2008

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

4 comments:

  1. I just installed Picasa 3 and ever since I cannot post pictures on my blog I had no problem with Picasa 2 Help !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Candace Kane-BadgerMarch 27, 2011 at 11:45 AM

    Up until today 3/27/11 I have posted pictures to my blog with no problem, today I can not get my photos to post on my blog. Am I doing something wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Since Picasa 3, the statement in the beginning of the above is proving to be false. The only way I can see .avi files imported since Version 3 is to use the File/Locate on Disk function. There all my files, .jpg and .avi included are shown. It appears, intentionally or unintentionally, the .avi files do not show up in the regular view.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i send videos made with picasa to family with picasa and they cannot open them why? i dont want to use web albums,just want to send directly to family thanks

    ReplyDelete