Picasa Tip: Different ways to Save

If you’ve been reading these tips all along, you know that we advocate *not* saving. As long as you use Picasa every time you work with your pictures, you don’t need to save. However, if you ever want to use your picture in another program; like Word, or Powerpoint, or a website – then it is important to know the different save options available. Here they are:

Save – File Save or right click Save. Saves all edits to the file on disk – puts the original in a hidden folder called originals.

Save all Edits – same as File Save for all pictures that have been edited in the current folder.

Save As – Saves all edits to a new file, allowing you to give it a new name and/or location.

Export – Saves all edits to a new file in a location you specify. Also allows you to resize. This is the only way to resize.

Save a Copy – File / Save a Copy … duplicates the selected file, adds a number to the end of the file name. Puts the copy in the same folder as the original.

Edit Copy – with one photo selected, Edit / Copy. Now you can go to Word, or Outlook, or Powerpoint and Paste.

Each of these techniques is demonstrated in the Show-Me-How video at Geeks on Tour:
Picasa 3: Different ways to Save (Membership required)

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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 Organizing, Picasa

6 Comments to Picasa Tip: Different ways to Save

Roberta Williams says:

August 5, 2009 at 5:31 am

Thank you for this tip. I also want to know, when I save the changes to the picture – is it saved in my file folder in the My Pictures in My Documents?

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Chris Guld says:

August 7, 2009 at 5:41 pm

Yes! That is exactly what save does.

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Margaret Carrington says:

August 5, 2009 at 7:44 pm

This is the easiest explanation of the different Save functions I have ever read. Clear, no complicated, hard to understand computer talk. Any one can understand this.
I use “Save As” before I leave Picasa if I want to add picture frames or special effects in another program.
However, there are two items I am not sure about. I cannot find the “Save All Edits” function you talk about and you did not mention “Save to Disk”. When I edit a pic and then “Save to Disk”, does this over ride the original or do the two show side by side? I used to have them showing side by side on my hard drive but I now forget how I did it!!!
Thanks for you tips.Margaret

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Chris Guld says:

August 7, 2009 at 5:45 pm

oops – it doesn’t say, ‘Save All Edits’ … What I’m referring to is the button in the upper right above each folder – “Save to Disk” ## files edited. When you click the button it will Save all the edits that have been made to photos in the whole folder.
When you save to disk, it does overwrite the file on disk, BUT it saves the original in a hidden folder. Watching the video explains it best.

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Edmond says:

August 26, 2009 at 4:11 am

Sometimes my albums will display the number of files edited, e.g., “2 file(s) edited”, which usually disappears once I click on “save to disk”. However, every now and then, I see a message like “2 file(s) edited”, but when I click on “save to disk”, nothing happens.

What’s more, when I edit say 3 more files, the message becomes “5 file(s) edited”, but when I click on “save to disk”, the progress bar only shows 3 files being saved, and when the save is done, the “2 file(s) edited” message still remains.

Any ideas? Thanks.

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Five Deadly Sins of Picasa | Picasa Tutorials says:

January 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm

[...] Using Export instead of Save When you edit a picture, Picasa doesn’t change the actual picture. Picasa remembers all your edits and displays the picture to you accordingly, but if you look at the picture outside of Picasa you won’t see any of the edits. To make a picture outside of Picasa that looks like the edited version, many people us the Export command. This creates an entirely new picture … now they have two! If they had used the Save command instead, it would have applied the edits to the one existing photo. See Article: To Save or Not to Save Also: Different Ways to Save [...]

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