About Picasa
Picasa is free software that you download to your computer from Picasa.Google.com. It is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. Examples in this blog are from the Windows version.
- Download Picasa for Windows at www.picasa.google.com
- Download Picasa for Macintosh at http://picasa.google.com/mac/
- It’s the only software you’ll need for managing your digital photos
- It’s fast and easy
- It’s Free
The Process
No matter what software you use, you need to:
- Transfer photos from camera to computer
- Delete the bad, rename or caption the keepers
- Organize the photos with folders, albums, tags, faces and places
- Find and View photos on your computer
- Edit pictures; make them look better with single-click easy features that rival much more complex photo-editing software
- Prepare and Resize pictures for use in other programs
- Share via Print, Email and Websites
- Back them up!
Picasa does all of the above. It is the only software you’ll need to manage your photos on a day-to-day basis. The only thing it doesn’t do is serious editing and drawing like removing a person from a photo, or adding a bird to the sky, or drawing a logo.
It is especially good at backing up your photos and burning the CDs or DVDs to store them. You don’t need any extra disk-burning software.
Here is an overview of Picasa’s features:
Here is a sample of our ‘Show-Me-How’ tutorial videos on Picasa. This one shows you the very basics of looking at your individual pictures in Picasa. For many, many more videos go to Geeks on Tour Picasa Tutorials.
I have had Picasa for some time but am still only stumbling around and trying to get things done. And now I have just learned that there is some kind of Picasa that I need to be a member of.
Please, isn’t there a written manual, that tells me EVERYTHING, available? And things keep changing. I thought I had the text option nailed, but just today I had to resort to entering text one line at a time. Gadzooks, bro!
I am, as you know, in Tutorials now. I suppose I could examine and print every single item……but wheeeew!
Please tell me what the score is.
Thanks a meg.
Sincerely, Rod O’Connor
I like to take landscape pics. When I print them often a small slice at either side of the pic is missing, how can I stop this from happening please?
How can I make the border equal at top, bottom and sides of pic when printing please?
That’s a function of the size of the picture and the size specified for printing. So, for example, if you make sure to crop the picture to a ratio for 4X6, then print 4X6, it should have an equal border.
Make sure to check ‘Shrink to fit’ rather than ‘Crop to Fit’ when printing. See this article: http://50.22.81.91/~chrisg/2009/08/picasa-tip-printing-options-white-borders/
Check the box ‘shrink to fit’
I am having the same problems and I can’t get any information. The biggest problem with picassa is there is no one to call, even for a fee to help fix the problem. Half my photos are grayed out and it is getting worse and worse. I use these for work and clients are waiting to see their photos on the site. I need to get this resolved straight away but to no avail. Am going to have to switch to another program soon. Please give us a link where we can contact someone, a telephone number, something!
Rod,
We do have a printed book, and it’s available as an e-book as well. You will find it on this page: http://www.geeksontour.com/shopping/picasabook.cfm Thanks for the reminder … I need to add it to this ‘PicasaTutorials’ site as well!
I note some messages mentioning Windows 7; however, no messages regarding all the problems with Picasa 3 and Win 7 especially Win 7, X64. Is there no source for this information? I loved Picasa, but it is worthless in Win 7, x64 due to being extremely slow and hanging constantly. I’ve almost given up after having searched the web and found nothing that really works. Google, help?? where?? Thanks.
Kallie,
I use Picasa 3 on Windows 7 – 64 bit. I don’t notice any of the problems you mention. How much RAM memory do you have? I recommend minimum 4GB.
Also, if you have Quicktime on your computer, you need to upgrade it at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/. I know it sounds weird, but that has fixed several people’s Picasa-crashes-on-windows-7 problems.
I am using picasa but I keep getting duplicates in differant folders but its the same pic. Can this program sort and get rid of the doubles?
Does Picasa has any video edit tool that can correct for exposure, low light conditions? Similar to what it has for still digitals photos? I only came across video file trimming (clipping) tool but no other video editing features.
Vijay – Nope, in order to edit the quality of video you need real video editing software. Picasa doesn’t do it. MovieMaker will increase/decrease brightness but not much else. I use Adobe Premiere Elements. Other products include Pinnacle, Nero, and Roxio.
A simple but powerful editor is Apple Quicktime Pro for Windows. It is useful and only $30 (doesn’t want more money for constant upgrades either). You probably want to install Quicktime for playback anyway.
Other consumer level quality software to edit videos is Corel’s VideoStudio Pr X4. you can watch some tutorials here: http://my-video-tutorials.com
Help! I can ‘t figure out how to add slide shows from picassa albums to my blog. I want to upload albums and have readers click on the arrow on the first picture and then see a slide show…can this be done?
To add a slideshow to your blog you need to first upload all the photos into one web album. Then, go to that web album and click the link to Link to Album – grab the code to embed the album, then go to your blog and paste the code into your post.
Here’s a ‘Show-Me-How’ video:
http://www.geeksontour.com/showme/picasa/pica25_slideshow.cfm
I seem to have a problum downloading photos from my camera as they download and go through the normal process and then cut off and no down load has taking place and nothing,so I dont know what happened !!!!!!
Remove from Picasa just stops Picasa from displaying those pictures in its library, the pictures are still on your computer. Delete erases them from your computer … GONE.
Is there a way to view photos in fullscreen (without going into slideshow) in Picassa?
When clicking on a pic it does make it bigger – but sometimes not big enough to see really well for editing…. So big fullscreen would be nice.
Thanks
Slide show is the only way to go full screen, but you can magnify the picture for editing purposes. Just drag the magnification slider to the right. You’ll find the slider underneath the picture and status bar about in the middle – just to the right of the face button
Help… I had no problems using older version of picasa on my vista windows laptop. I had a video file stored that had no problem with sound hearing it when I played it. Once I upgraded and downloaded the newest version of Picasa that same video file no longer has sound to it when I play it. I no longer have sound on any videos in picasa. I can hear sound when I view it through windows media player or roxio with blackberry software. What can I do?
I haven’t had that problems, but I found this conversation in the Picasa Help forum that says you can fix it by downloading an AC3 decoder.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Picasa/thread?tid=17652b8dac41b27d&hl=en
I need to move the pics off the computer on to DVDs but still have thumbnails visible in the application with metadata so I can search my pictures and then when I find an offline picture have it tell me which DVD it is on. Does Picasa do this?
Nope. Picasa doesn’t do that.
You can move all pictures off to an external hard drive. See this article: http://50.22.81.91/~chrisg/2009/06/storing-pictures-on-an-external-hard-drive/
I was using g-mail to send pics, forgot my password and received an error message, tried what I thought was the correct e-mail, another error. Meantime the pics are now 18 not 9 too many to send, can’t remove the message and pics also in the tray is a picture with 18 in the middle, can’t delete anything. What can I do? Thands, Mary G
Not sure I understand. Hopefully it’s been corrected by now.
If not, please use our Members’ Forum for asking questions.
No way to delete all captions that I know of.
My black and white photo’s print pink and white cannot get them to change
I want to edit an Picasa album I uploaded. I want to delete some photos but keep others. How can I delete without permanently deleting the photos from my hard drive? I merely want to update the webalbum.
You say ‘a Picasa album that I uploaded’
To me, that means a Web Album. If that’s true, you can certainly delete a photo from the web album without it affecting the photos on your computer. See this article on Deleting photos from a Web Album
How do I create a slide show (with an option to select the number of seconds each picture is shown)? Since I am older and not high tech, I need step by step. For example
1. Select photos
2. Create a CD slideshow to be shown on TV through player.
I need someone to take me by the hand on each step.
Thanks
Better yet, you can watch a video if you are a Geeks on Tour member.
First you make a movie with Picasa, or with Photo Story.
The Picasa tutorial videos are located at: http://geeksontour.tv/picasa-learning-series/ and the one on making a movie is #43. The Photo Story videos are at http://geeksontour.tv/photo-story-3-learning-series/
Then, to make a DVD from the results, read this article: http://50.22.81.91/~chrisg/2010/05/dvd-of-pictures-that-plays-on-your-tv/
Can i link picasa to facebook & how?
See this article:
http://50.22.81.91/~chrisg/2009/06/picasa-tip-picasa-to-facebook/
Al momento dell’importazione aggiungendo cartella mi si sono scaricati tutti i files di questo mondo da non riuscire a fermarli,cosa faccio adesso che me li trovo tutti in Picasa.Ho provato a disinstallare e reinstallare ma sono ancora tutti la’. Grazie e Buon Natale.
Please, PLEASE, how do I disable the annoying little box in the right lower corner that appears every time I try to edit a photo? It’s not useful (to me, anyway) and I have click the X on the box each time on every single photo to get rid of it. Help!
Does this ‘little box’ say ‘Zoomed to 100%’? If so, I think maybe you’re clicking one too many times to get into edit mode. Try, very carefully, just double-clicking on a picture in the library. That’s all, just click-click. It’s after you’re in edit mode and you click and drag (ever so slightly) that Picasa zooms in and shows you that little box.
Yes, but your suggestion doesn’t help, sadly. When I click the photo once and then “retouch” (once) the box appears “zoomed to 64%” or whatever. I don’t double click; I just use the left hand side tools. The box is often in the way of the area I want to edit. Help!
In fact, I don’t click the photos at all other than the first one – the next one opens without clicking when I’m finished with the first one. But the box appears each time regardless.
The “zoom” box appears on the lower right hand corner every time I click the “retouch” tool on the left hand side of the screen.
Hello? Any answer to this plea? I’m begging….
Well … Retouch is a special tool and is supposed to do that – it’s nothing wrong. Retouch is meant to operate on a small part of your picture, so it automatically zooms you in a bit and provides the box so you can position to the spot where you want to retouch.
Hello,
I use Picasa a lot. I’ve recently purchased a new Panasonic LX5 camera. The RAW files from this camera (.RW2) only show up in Picasa with a purple tint over them. Do you know if/when there will be a fix for this?
I see that .rw2 files are supported. Check that you’re using the latest release of Picasa 3.8 117.29 And, be sure that Raw files are checked in Tools / Options / file types
Although some .RW2 file types are supported by Picasa not all are. The .RW2 file extension is used by many different companies yet each have their differences. In fact there are actually differences between models with in a brand, as is the case with the LX5.
The predecessor to the LX5, the LX3, also records a .RW2 file extension however it is supported by Picasa. Panasonic changed the way the file is created, yet has kept the same extension.
As of version 3.8 build 117.43 Picasa still has not integrated support for the LX5 style .RW2. I suspect support will be added in time. How long, I don’t know… I’m waiting anxiously in the meantime.
I need to transfer my complete picasa library from my desk top computer to my new laptop computer. Suggestions?
Hope you saw my post that answers your question:
http://picasatutorials.com/2011/02/move-pictures-to-a-new-computer/
Have always found Basic Fixes very useful for crop,contrast,etc.,but for some reason I no longer can get this facility to come up.
Basic fixes come up on the left whenever you double-click to open a picture. *unless* you’ve clicked on the ‘show/hide edit controls’ button which is at the left of the status bar – the blue bar below the picture. The button looks like two angles.
I came across Picasa when I first started blogging. I needed to make my pictures look more professional, and a friend had recommended using Picasa. Just like you said, not only was it easy, and had several functions, but it was free!
Desperate for help. Out of the blue, my computer has suddently started randomly graying out half, a slice, or all of a photo. This is becoming more and more frequent. We did allot of research and was told to reinstall picasssa. STill…the same problem. For over 2 years we had no problem and then it started with one photo or two, and now every download is loaded with these grayed out pictures. I am desperate to stop this as we are losing fantastic shots and are going to have to leave picassa and use a different program. Please help!!!!!
Karen, we offer support thru our members’ forum. See http://www.geeksontour.tv/forum
Have you looked at your pictures outside of Picasa? Just go to My Pictures and see what they look like there. Also, check out this article: http://picasatutorials.com/2009/01/picasa-tip-when-your-pictures-get-all-messed-up/
I would like to backup Picasa Photos in a USB instead of a CD is that possible ?
Joe
Yes, – just make a New backup set and choose ‘disk to disk’ instead of CD/DVD
My files are uploaded to a designated folder on the college’s main computer system and I have to click on that folder before launching Picasa. Several folders I uploaded have been automatically populated with tags from other folders. Also, folders are appearing in different years in the Library list. (I use a Mac and have Picasa v 3.8.9). Any thoughts?!
Is there a way to email photos to a group of people from my email account (not gmail)?
If I received picasa photos via email can I forward that email on to others so they can view them?
I did this and people are having trouble viewing the pictures — do they have to do anything special to view them?
Help – My Picasa ia going crazy. It’s making duplicates over and over and over again. How do I make it stop? I’ve turned off the computer and started it again, but it just continues. Is there somewhere to tell it to eliminate duplicates once it does stop? Thank you
I understand what Collections are (groups of folders) and what Albums are (groups of pictures). Most help/tutorials talk about using Allbums. I’m trying to understand how to best use both – what conventions and organizing tips for making the most of both organizing features. Any ideas/suggestions for best using both?
After I edit my photos in Picasa and then try to send them to walgreens, the sides of the picture get cut off. How do I make sure this doesn’t happen????
hi, is it possible to retrive my forgotten username / album link with the help of saved image url
example
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Esv_N8nMxfo/Trq-5JUPdhI/AAAAAAAAG9Q/mfyyOhhtSS8/s720/DSC_3690.JPG
Quite often when I launch Picasa I find that a search will not bring up certain pictures that had been searched for and found before. Is this a glitch? Has anyone come up against this before? Is there a solution?
My pictures are on several disks, and it seems to affect some of the pictures all the time.
Thank you for any help
Prakash
Are you sure the disks are connected to the computer?
Yes, and I can “see” the picture file names if I try to import a folder or a file from the “File” menu.
I have several real problems. When I transfer photos to my I Pad to sync only about 1/3 of my photo albums show up on the Apple I Pad Synce page. (the page you check each album you want to synce. Also have real problem, when I date an album they will not necessarily go to where I want them to go. Example. If I date an album 12/01/11…it might show up at a different calendar date/year.
I just don’t know who to turn to on these issues.
Please help: jthornton@mchsi.com Cell: 515-3144858
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi My editing effects tool has gone mad on my macair. I’ve reinstalled twice. The particular one with tints, sepia etc is just not working, makes pic go paler and paler until it disappears. What am I doing wrong.
Sounds like your database is corrupt – did you choose to delete database when you reinstalled? Here’s the official Picasa instructions: http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=11502
How do I transfer photos into Picasa that were not loaded into my computer using Picasa? For instance, I would like to move some from Windows Photo Viewer into my preferred Picasa.
Your answer lies in the Folder manager .. Tools | Folder manager
I’ve had Picasa for many years. Unfortunately for some reason my 2010 pics are gone. This happened a couple of years ago…all the pics were gone. I had contacted someone from Picasa and was told how to retrieve them. I can’t seem to find a way of contacting Picasa by email. Any idea how to retrieve them or who I can contact?