A Future Mock Up For Picasa 3

Dave, over at Picasa Musings does some mock photo's on what he thinks Picasa 3 should look like.

 

Explanation (via Dave): This mock-up is the LIBRARY with 'thumbs only' display preference. This would be the equivalent view to the current library, and picture area can be expanded by collapsing the browser and/or the left side panel at will.

Note: Corrected for grammar.

Dave's whole idea is to make Picasa simpler and easier to use, mainly by giving users more choices and moving some of the tool bars around. You can view more of his mock up's for Picasa 3 over on his web album. 

Picasa Book For Dummies?

(Hat Tip: Bill in the Picasa Forum)

No, this book is not authored by me (although perhaps I should consider writing one when my skills are up to par) but apparently someone wrote a book for Picasa newbie's on how to use Google's photo product.

 

Looks very interesting and it only costs about $12. I may have to pick this up over at Barnes and Noble and perhaps write a review on it later on. 

Update: It looks like Amazon has a cheaper one for about four dollars. Heh.

Digg Me Out Of This Mess!

Alternate title: Updating your original post with correct info could save your blog life.

After making this mistake early on in this young blog's life, I decided to contribute this towards Darren's If I Had To Start My Blog Again project as fair warning to all blog newbie's.



(Note: Above photo from FAS.USDA.gov)

About almost a month ago I had posted an article detailing a feature I thought Google had rolled out.

It later on turned out to be nothing but a Firefox extension, which I posted four days later after some users were unable to see it in their Gmail accounts and I was unable to see it via IE.

What I should have done was inserted an update alerting users that this was not a feature rolled out by Google, (as any Pro Blogger would have done) but being careless I soon forgot about the post and moved on blogging about other topics on other blogs. Thus began my first nail in my coffin.



(Note: Above photo from Under Ground Humor)

Later on, my post was picked up by Digg and thus began the confusion and destruction of my poor weblog's image.

It came to the point where I debated even continuing the site (as I felt very low blog wise) even though I went back and inserted those little bold updates that you see on blog posts every so often.

After coming across Darren's post (my unofficial blog mentor) I decided to continue on blogging and perhaps highlight this post as a monument to my mistake for future bloggers.

So, to sum up the moral of this story:

• Always verify your sources or posts.


• If discovered to be inaccurate, post an update for your readers lest you lose "blog honor" which may be hard to recover.


• Thank your readers for correcting you.

For all future readers, learn from other's mistakes as you will go far in life (especially the blogging kind). 

Update: Sigh, even my Picasa program is angry at me. Updated photo html links.

Sharing Your Images (Via Hello)

For those of you who do not know, Hello is a chat program developed by Picasa which allows you to share images with your friends, neighbors, or even strangers. ;)

You can also use Hello to post to your blogspot blog, although it would be wiser using Picasa's button (I'll cover this later) as you can add titles for your images.

In order to post via Hello, you are going to have to download it from their website. If Hello is on your machine and you are having problems, see this post to resolve this issue.

After selecting your images, click on the Hello button below.



If you are not logged in, a screen should pop up asking you to type in your Hello screen name and password. Simply enter your info and press the Sign In button near the bottom right corner of the screen.



Another screen should appear asking you to select which friends you would like to share your images with. Since all mine were offline during this screen shot (a good thing), I'll use Blogger Bot as an example.



Your image should appear to the left. If your satisfied with how it looks, share it with your friend and don't forget to comment about the image you are sending.



Although this is a partial snapshot, you may notice the Send Recent button near the top. This allows you to send all of your recent images to your friends as well as review the ones you have shared with each other.

You can also send images to your friends while they are offline, which is pretty handy if you are in different time zones. 

Picasa Web Albums Upgrade: Americans Only?

Note: Published on The Social Networking Weblog



There seems to be an explanation regarding the upgrade link dissappearing within users Picasa web albums, a Google network where people can upload and comment on photos.

Apparently a user in the Picasa Usernet forum contacted the Google team in order to find out what was going on and received this reply.

Hi [name removed],

Thank you for your note. At this time, you must have a United States billing address to purchase additional Picasa Web Albums storage. As such, users located outside the United States will not see the link to upgrade their storage and they may also see an error when attempting to purchase.

We appologize for the inconvenience and look forward to offering you more
options, for international purchasing, in the near future.

Regards,
The Google Team

Google's servers were probably trying to figure which users were from America and which ones were not, resulting in the upgrade link disappearing and then reappearing every time the page refreshed.

The upgrade link should be now appearing in American accounts, although it will be interesting to see if Picasa can dethrone Flickr (owned by Yahoo!) once it opens the gates to the international community. 

Trouble Shooting Picasa's Hello

Some of you may not know this, but Picasa has a chat client called Hello. Hello is a chat program that allows users to swap images with each other and (for IE lovers) share web linked screen shots.

If you are having trouble reinstalling or uninstalling Hello from your computer, you may need to download the Hello Cleanup Tool (http://public.picasa.com/HelloCleanup.exe).

I also came across this in the Picasa forum which may be handy if you are still having some issues. 

Sharing Your Images (Via Email)

One of the unique things about Picasa is that it presents seven ways for a person to show their pictures towards their friends. (there is an eighth way, but you have to become "a little geeky" in order to accomplish it).

Note: This is a seven part series, and I'll start with the simple ways and end on the more complex.

The first (and perhaps easiest) way to share your images is via email. Once you have selected your picture, simply click on the Email button near the bottom of your screen.



Next a screen should pop up, asking you which method you want to choose to send your email.



If you are a fan of Bill Gates, Microsoft Outlook is available for you to use. Since Gmail is better (in my opinion, so if you differ don't hate me) I am going to cover that method below. You can also use your Picasa Mail (which basically is your Hello screen name) but I'll cover that one later.

(Update: Picasa mail covered below, scroll down).

Next, Picasa will ask you to log into your Gmail account. Depending on your internet speed it may take a little while for it to go through.



After logging into your Gmail, Picasa will automatically attach the photo to your message.



After typing out your message (and the email address on who to send it to) simply click Send (which is not highlighted in the photo above, but will be once you start typing.). 

Update: For those of you who choose to select Picasa Mail, it basically sends the photos through the email address you signed up with via Hello.

Dude, Where's My Picture?

Depending on which version of Picasa you have installed, you may noticed that Google's photo program is not showing all of the images on your computer.

This can be horrifying (especially after you have edited a photo) and instead of venting on how Google does not work for your life, these tips may help locate where your pictures are.

(Note: These tips are for the latest version of Picasa (version 2.5) so what you see on your screen may differ than what is displayed below).

If your smaller images are missing, simply go to the top of your screen and select View. After the drop menu appears, highlight Small Pictures and Picasa will begin to include these images with the rest of your collection.



You may also want to highlight Hidden Pictures underneath it as well, just in case someone decided to play a prank on you and hide your photo's.

If you still can not find your images, this may be because of two reasons. Picasa does not like you (just kidding) or it may have excluded certain types of images from your collection.

To make them viewable again, simply go to the top of your screen and select Tools, then highlight Options.



A window should appear with several tabs on top. Simply select the File Types tab, then check off all of the boxes (or those that you desire) for Picasa to include them in your collection.



After that click on Apply, then OK, and Picasa will update and organize those images for your viewing pleasure.

(Note: If you still are unable to find your images, then post here and I'll rack my brain in order to help you out.) 

Picasa Web Albums Upgrade Link Disappearing

(Note: After testing this out, it is official.)

Published on The Social Networking Weblog

Many users of Picasa's Web Albums, a photo community allowing users to upload and comment on each other's photo's is a buzz with the realization that the upgrade link vanishing from their accounts.

Users have been discussing the apparent disappearance of the upgrade link which allowed users to increase their hosting size from 250 mb to 6 Gigs (as this screen shot shows).



After logging in and clicking on the link to upgrade, many users are being redirected towards the same page, except the upgrade link vanishes from their screen (as seen below).



Their is some speculation on the web that Google may be providing free image hosting for it's users, or perhaps even premium hosting with bandwidth limits (similar to Yahoo!'s Flickr). Either way, this is confusing, especially for users who desire to upgrade to 6 Gigs.

In Search Of Color

Some users may not realize that Picasa is not simply just a photo organizer or photo editor. Picasa also enables users to search their pictures "in color" as well. If you look in the top right screen their is a search box.

If you type in color: [color name], Picasa will search all photo's containing that color. Here is an example below using the color black.



All images containing the color black will be shown.

 

This code also defaults for the black and white photos as well, but if you wanted to see images containing red, typing in color: red would pull up a similar result. 

Picasa Upgrade Link Fading In And Out

(Hat Tip: Haochi over in the Blogoscope forums for the link)



Despite the upgrade link disappearing from many users accounts, there is a way to visit the upgrade link and process your transaction there. Simply click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/upgradeStorage

...and you will be able to upgrade within your account.

Note: You may have to refresh your page a couple of times, as the link "fades in and out" on every fifth attempt (on average, at least for me). 

Update (1:28 pm): It's fading in and out for me on my Picasa Album screen. Now I see it...



...and now I don't.



Confusing, isn't?

No Upgrade For Picasa Web Albums?

(Hat Tip: To Computers.net for providing screen shots)



Apparently that is the case according to ZDnet.com which picked this up from a Blogscope reader in the forums.

As the observant Blogoscoped readers spotted, a link that once prompted users to upgrade their 250MB Picasa Web account to 6GB has recently disappeared. Could Google be getting ready to make this upgrade free?

I am not seeing the link in my account, and others have noticed this as well. Here is a blurry screen shot of what should be at the bottom of everyone's page.



There should be a "Storage" section, with some linked text saying, "Need more space? Upgrade your storage with an additional 6 gigs!" If a user clicks on the link, they would be taken to this screen which would ask for $25 in order for one to upgrade to six gigs.



Perhaps Google is moving the Picasa Web Albums upgrade over to Google Checkout as it seems to be a more "secure feature" for the search engine giant king. Perhaps they may provide unlimited storage for a fee (have it grow like Gmail).

Either way, I hope they inform the masses soon, as this is a great way to send potential clients towards Yahoo!'s Flickr. 

Picasa Web Albums Via Gmail Skins

 

I previously posted about my surprise at seeing a link towards Picasa Web Albums within my Gmail account. After testing this out in several browsers, it became clear that this was only appearing within Firefox.

I was able to narrow it down to a Firefox extension called Gmail Skins which enables you to post emoticons, images, and even change your Gmail background.

You need Firefox in order to use it, so if you are an IE fan, I pity you right now. 

Avoiding Picasa "Shrink Mode" Via Blogger

Well, it seems that after complaining about how Picasa was resizing images within my blogger posts, I scrolled through the help section and low and behold I discovered a solution to resolve this issue.

First select the image you want to upload into Blogger, via Picasa. After logging in, you'll either see your image or notice some "html code." Simply ignore that and click on the Settings button on the lower right hand side of the screen.



After doing that you will be directed towards another screen which will ask you how large will your image be. Simply select the Large circle and then save your settings.



Unless you are posting wall paper sized photo's, this should resolve your image problems. If you need any more help with this, let me know. 

Picasa Woes?

Unfortunately it seems that I will be unable to post via Picasa anymore if I "mess" with the image sizes. I am going to forward this problem to the Picasa Team, as it is very frustrating adjusting the images afterward. Hello does not do this (what I am using right now) and I think Picasa should not either.