User Guide

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User Guide

Picasa is free photo management software from Google that helps you find, edit and share

your pictures in seconds. We recommend that you print out this brief overview of Picasa’s

main features and consult it as you use the program for the first time to learn about new

features quickly.

Picasa helps you find and organize all your pictures.

Once you start Picasa, it scans your hard drive to find and automatically organize all your

pictures. Picasa finds the following image and movie file types:

• Image file types: JPG, GIF, TIF, PSD, PNG, BMP, RAW (including NEF and CRW). GIF

and PNG files are not scanned by default, but you can enable them in the options dialog.

• Movie file types: MPG, AVI, ASF, WMV, and MOV.

If you’re upgrading from a previous version of Picasa:

When you uninstall older versions of Picasa, you will be prompted whether or not you want to

delete your existing database (your previous organization and picture edits). If you opt to

save your Picasa 1.618 database, your Picasa 2 database will be upgraded automatically,

preserving your previous organization and picture edits. If you delete your Picasa 1.618

database, you can download and install the new version of Picasa and create new edits.

Picasa 2 User Guide 01 of 11

Summary of content (11 pages)

PAGE 1
User Guide Picasa is free photo management software from Google that helps you find, edit and share your pictures in seconds. We recommend that you print out this brief overview of Picasa’s main features and consult it as you use the program for the first time to learn about new features quickly. Picasa helps you find and organize all your pictures. Once you start Picasa, it scans your hard drive to find and automatically organize all your pictures.
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Library View Picasa automatically organizes all your image and movie files into collections of folders inside its main Library view. Layout of Main Library screen: FOLDER LIST The left-hand list in Picasa’s library view shows all the folders containing pictures on your computer and all the labels you’ve created in Picasa. These folders and labels are grouped into collections that are described in the next section. By default, the folder list is sorted by creation date.
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Collections Folders on Disk This collection displays folders on your computer that contain pictures or movies, sorted by date, with the original folder names as they appear on your computer’s hard drive. Changes you make to the folders in this collection affect the matching folders on your computer’s hard drive. Renaming a folder in Picasa is the same as renaming it in Windows Explorer. • Adjust which pictures and folders appear. Only folders that Picasa is conﬁgured to scan appear in this collection.
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• Delete a picture from a label Select a picture. Right-click with your mouse and select “Remove from Label” in the context menu or press the Delete key on your keyboard. Note: Deleting a picture from a label does not delete the original ﬁle from your computer’s hard drive. • Rearrange pictures in a label or between labels. Click and drag a picture to change its order within a label or drag it into another label to add it to that label.
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as a slideshow on the CD, check that box. Finally, choose a size for your pictures. Under Step 2, name your CD. (Note: by default, a copy of Picasa software will be included on the CD.) Click the “Burn Disc” button to create your CD. Backup CD Insert a blank CD into the writeable drive on your computer, select pictures you want to save, and click the “Backup” button. You can choose what folders will be backed up to a recordable CD or DVD (the kind you use on your computer, not your TV).
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Basic Fixes Tab: Crop Use the “Crop” button to cut out parts of a picture that you don’t want to see. In the “Crop Picture” view, you can select a pre-determined picture size (for instance, 4x6) or manually select the part of the picture you’d like to keep. To crop a picture, drag and drop the bounding box directly over the picture. Click on and drag the corners of the box to change the cropped selection while maintaining the same proportions.
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Tuning Tab: Fill Light slider Use the “Fill Light” slider to add light to the foreground of pictures with too-bright backgrounds, making them more balanced. Click the “Undo Fill Light” button to remove the change. Highlights slider Use the “Highlights” slider to add to or reduce the brightness spots, or highlights, in your picture. Click the “Undo Highlights” button to remove the change. Shadows slider Use the “Shadows” slider to add more shadows to your photo.
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Saturation – Increases color saturation. Soft Focus – Soften the focus around a center point that you select. Glow – Give pictures a gauzy glow. Filtered B&W – Make a picture that looks like it was taken with black and white film and a color filter Focal B&W – De-saturate color around a center point with adjustable size and sharpness sliders. Graduated Tint – Add a graduated filter from a color you select. Useful for making gray skies blue.
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Star The star button adds a small gold star to any picture in the tray. These stars are searchable ratings that help you find favorites quickly. Any picture to which you add a star can be easily accessed when performing a search in Picasa. Rotate Left and Rotate Right The two rotate buttons will rotate the selected picture clockwise or counter-clockwise inside Picasa. Print The “Print” button lets you print the pictures in the picture tray using a local or networked printer.
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Mail account). You can invite friends to join Hello by email. Any photos you receive from friends using Hello will appear in your From Hello collection inside Picasa, sorted by Hello username. Blogger (Internet access required) A blog is an online web journal. You can publish pictures to the web for free using Picasa and a blog that you create on Blogger.com. Simply select pictures (they’ll appear in the “Picture Tray”) and click the “Blogger” button.
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System Requirements PC with 300MHz Pentium® processor and MMX® technology. 64 MB RAM (128MB Recommended) 50 MB available hard disk space (100 MB Recommended) 800 x 600 pixels, 16 bit color monitor. Microsoft® Windows 98, Microsoft® Windows Me, Microsoft® Windows 2000, or Microsoft® Windows XP. Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.01 (6.0 recommended). Microsoft® DirectX 7.0 or higher (8.1 ships with XP, 9.0b recommended).