Picasa Tip: Synchronized Web Albums

If you haven't made a Web Album yet, you really need to. It is just the best way to share photos with friends and family. Picasa Web Albumsis actually a separate program.(Member Tutorial Video.Upload Photos to the Web)

It's a website that anyone can use whether they have Picasa on their computers or not. But, if you do have Picasa on your computer, it makes it so much easier to make a Web Album. The two programs are partners, if you will. In Picasa, you just select the photos you want in a web album and click the Upload button. See this previous article for more.

A new feature in Picasa 3 is the ability to Synchronize a folder or Album on your computer with an album on the Web. What that means is that you don't even have to click the Upload button! All you have to do is add a photo to the folder or album in Picasa, and as long as you're online, Picasa will automatically upload that photo to the Web Album.

Here's how I use it. We have a membership to Thousand Trails (TT) and Resorts of Distinction (ROD), so we like to stay in those parks whenever we can. If we stay in a TT park in January, the pictures will go in my January folder, stay in an ROD in June and those go in my June folder. Then, I will add the best ones to my TT-ROD Album. This is just to have them all together for organization. You can see the web album at this link.  I have another one for State Signs.

With the Album selected in Picasa, all I have to do is to click on the 'Sync to Web' button. It will pop up a dialog box, but if you don't want to make any special settings, you can just click Yes. From now on, any picture in the album on my computer will be automatically uploaded to the one on the Web.



Not only will it upload the picture once, but, if you change the picture on your computer, it will re-upload the picture to the Web.

It truly boggles my mind how easy this is. Try it. You'll like it

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos.  Not a member?  Join now.

• Sync Photo Sort Order

 

Picasa Tip: Using the text tool

You may have discovered how easy it is to add a few words to your photo using Picasa 3’s Text tool.  But, did you know you can write complete paragraphs?(Member Tutorial Video:24.Adding Text to Pictures)



You need to know that the text will not wordwrap, so you must end each line with Enter.  It also helps to have a solid background for the paragraph.  But, notice that you can control both the fill color and the outline color of the text.  If you play around with making the fill a light color and the outline dark (or vice versa depending on your background), you can usually make the text pretty readable.



 

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos.  Not a member?  Join now.

• Basic Edits


• Tuning


• Picasa’s 12 Effects

 

 

Picasa Tip: “Cancel unfinished operations?”

Question:  “I am new at Picasa 3. I have viewed your tutorials on the Basic editing.  I spent several hours adjusting my pictures on the computer.  This included cropping, light etc.  As advised in the tutorial, I would check apply and go back to library without saving.  When I went to close out of Picasa, I got the following message, "Closing Picasa will cancel unfinished operations. Do you really want to close? Yes or No".

Now I am afraid of closing and losing the work I did.  What do I do - close and don't worry - go back and save each one individually?  Help?  “

Answer:  The message you’re getting has nothing to do with the edits to individual photos.  It’s referring to other processes that you began and didn’t close … like importing photos from your camera, … or making a collage.

Look at the top part of your screen and see if you see multiple tabs:



Usually, when you complete an import, or a collage – these tabs close, and we never even notice they appeared in the first place.  When they get left over like this … just click on the tab to be sure there is nothing there that you do need to finish … then you can close the tab by clicking on the little x at the right side of it.

In any case, you can close Picasa without any worries about losing the work done on your photos.

Picasa Tutorial Videos

Picasa Tip: “Cancel unfinished operations?”

Question:  “I am new at Picasa 3. I have viewed your tutorials on the Basic editing.  I spent several hours adjusting my pictures on the computer.  This included cropping, light etc.  As advised in the tutorial, I would check apply and go back to library without saving.  When I went to close out of Picasa, I got the following message, "Closing Picasa will cancel unfinished operations. Do you really want to close? Yes or No".

Now I am afraid of closing and losing the work I did.  What do I do - close and don't worry - go back and save each one individually?  Help?  “

Answer:  The message you’re getting has nothing to do with the edits to individual photos.  It’s referring to other processes that you began and didn’t close … like importing photos from your camera, … or making a collage.

Look at the top part of your screen and see if you see multiple tabs:



Usually, when you complete an import, or a collage – these tabs close, and we never even notice they appeared in the first place.  When they get left over like this … just click on the tab to be sure there is nothing there that you do need to finish … then you can close the tab by clicking on the little x at the right side of it.

In any case, you can close Picasa without any worries about losing the work done on your photos.

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos.  Not a member?  Join now.

• Quick Collage


• Import from Camera

Picasa Tip: I'm Feeling Lucky

Picasa's one-click auto-correct button is called 'I'm Feeling Lucky.' Try it! You'll like it. If you don't like what it does, no problem, just click the Undo button and it will forget all about it.
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I recommend *always* clicking on I'm Feeling Lucky whenever you're editing a photo. You may be surprised that a photo you liked - you'll like even better. Like the photo below that I took yesterday at White Sands National Monument. It's nice. I like the picture, but it doesn't pop out at you. Look at the difference just one click on 'I'm Feeling Lucky' gives me!



Now *that's* White Sands!

Another tool that can help you get whiter whites is the neutral color picker on the Tuning tab. If you are a Geeks on Tour Member, I will show you how to use all the edits and tuning features in the tutorial videos below:

Picasa 3 Basic Edits (including I'm Feeling Lucky)
Picasa 3 Tuning
Picasa 3 Intro to the 12 Effects
Picasa 3 Redeye (free for anyone to view)
Picasa 3 Retouch Tool
Picasa 3 Sharpen and Batch Edit

More photos from White Sands (using Picasa web albums embedded slideshow):

Picasa Tip: I'm Feeling Lucky

Picasa's one-click auto-correct button is called 'I'm Feeling Lucky.' Try it! You'll like it. If you don't like what it does, no problem, just click the Undo button and it will forget all about it.
{+}
I recommend *always* clicking on I'm Feeling Lucky whenever you're editing a photo. You may be surprised that a photo you liked - you'll like even better. Like the photo below that I took yesterday at White Sands National Monument. It's nice. I like the picture, but it doesn't pop out at you. Look at the difference just one click on 'I'm Feeling Lucky' gives me!



Now *that's* White Sands!

Another tool that can help you get whiter whites is the neutral color picker on the Tuning tab. If you are a Geeks on Tour Member, I will show you how to use all the edits and tuning features in the tutorial videos below: Not a member?  Join now.

• Basic Edits (including I'm Feeling Lucky)


• Tuning


• Picasa’s12 Effect


• Fix Redeye


• Retouching Photos


• Editing Tip – Cut thru the Haze


• Using Special Effects for an artsy-fartsy Miami Skyline

More photos from White Sands (using Picasa web albums embedded slideshow):


 

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

 

Picasa Tip: Screen Captures

Ever wondered how people (like me) are able to show you a picture of how their computer screen looks at any given time?  Like this screenshot of Picasa:



Or maybe you do already know about the ‘PrtScn’ key on your keyboard that will take a snapshot of your screen.  But then what?  Pressing the PrtScn key captures everything on your screen and puts it on your clip board, the same place any ‘Cut’ or ‘Copy’ text or objects go.  Then, you still have to open some application where you can ‘Paste’ it before you see anything.  It’s a rather involved process.

With Picasa 3, you get instant gratification!  With Picasa open, you can view any screen possible on your computer – your desktop, your email program - whatever is showing on your screen will be captured when you press the PrtScn (or Print Screen on some computers) *and* it will instantly become a picture file in the ‘Screen Captures’ project folder of Picasa!

Now you can use that picture like any other, crop it, print it, email it etc

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

 

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