Managing Digital Photos with Google’s Picasa

I’ve been using a variety of computer software, and teaching others how to use it, since 1983. I’ve taught everything from DOS, to WordStar, to WordPerfect, PageMaker, Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, and dozens of others in between. I have never seen anything as quick and easy – and powerful – as Google’s Picasa…

And it’s *FUN*. And it’s *FREE*.

I first looked at Picasa a year or so ago. The first thing I noticed is that it doesn’t display the ‘tree’ structure of your folders. I didn’t like that, so I never explored the program further. For a variety of reasons, I decided to look again. It still doesn’t show the tree structure, but it makes it SO easy to find your photos that I understand the reasoning.

With Picasa2, I can guarantee you will find photos on your computer that you had forgotten all about. It makes it so easy to email, print or post photos to the web. It also has several ways that you can enhance your photos – cropping, color enhancements, and effects that make your photos look great. And, it does all this without touching your original, so you’re safe to play with the effects to your heart’s content.

I was able to put together a 2 hour seminar that covers the majority of the programs features. The short length does not reflect on the lack of feature, rather, it reflects on how quick and easy the features are to use. If you’d like to review those features, you can download my outline here. Just please use it for personal purposes only.

We gave the seminar at Palm Creek last weekend and a few people brought their laptops with them. Even during the class, they found pictures they had forgotten about, and they really had fun enhancing them. The following photo was taken during class, transferred from the camera to the computer (using Picasa) and posted to this Blog simply by clicking on the ‘Blog This’ button. Try it! You’ll like it!