Module 6

Picasa

I have mixed feelings about Picasa. Perhaps we got off to a bad start when I suddenly realised that fourteen years worth of down loaded photos were suddenly being transferred onto the programme. Not only photos, but scans, album cover images and just about anything that was vaguely picture related!

I tried pressing escape, stop, delete.... nothing could stop the rapidly down loading images. In desperation, I switched off the computer, uninstalled Picasa and then tried again... 

Second time around, I was more careful about selecting specific folders....

It is quite a handy programme with a lot of useful editing features and is certainly pretty good considering it is free. The collage maker is lovely, but the inability to slide or re-size photos if someone has had their head chopped off is annoying. Photos can easily be moved around when using 'scatter', but not in the mosaic or grid modes. This collage was easy to create and there are a variety of templates. It was also easy to insert into this blog - when I finally worked out how to transfer it from Picasa onto Picasa Web....

The editing tools are all very user friendly and offer a variety of tools that you would require several apps or more expensive programmes to have access to. The special effect tools are fun and the editing tools like red eye and crop are very useful.

The ability to share and save on line is handy. Being able to download from your camera onto any computer with internet access is great too.

The video creation part was easy and it would be good for sharing. It isn't too packed with features though and I much preferred Animoto. Sometimes a programme that tries to do so much only seems to manage all the jobs just adequately, while dedicated programmes like Animoto can really refine things a little more. The video is VERY basic and not nearly as engaging as the one I created with Animoto (See Blog 4) - and Animoto was easier too... 

Inserting it into this Blog has also been an ordeal. Maybe I am missing things, but I ended up down loading it onto my hard drive and up loading it from there. I did manage to get it from Picasa onto my Picasa Web Albums, but when I installed it onto my Blog from there, I only got a picture with an arrow that did nothing. 

Using Picasa by itself is probably straight forward enough, I think my confusion ended up being compounded by the fact that I was constantly trying to transfer from one Picasa to the other Picasa and remember which was which and which did what. 

And so the learning curve continues....