In my last post, I talked about the Picasa photo software from Google. Today, let’s continue with seeing what it can do. The slideshow button is next on the list at the top of the startup screen, and it does just what you would think. It shows all of the pictures in a particular folder, one at a time, in sequence, as a full screen view. To exit the slideshow, click anywhere on the screen and use the exit slideshow button on the bottom of the screen to go back.
The next feature to check out is the timeline function. This is one of my favorite ones. To see the timeline, click on the timeline button. What you will see is a chronological listing of when your pictures were added to your computer. There will also be a grayscale photo in the background. You can navigate through the pictures by clicking on the left and right arrows, the pictures themselves, or by clicking on a date on the timeline. There is an arrow at the lower left to return to the main screen.
The next (and last) button at the top is the gift CD button. When you click on this, you are taken to a screen where you can select which photos to burn to disc, what size to make the pictures, and you can name the CD whatever you want. Then just click on the burn disc button to burn a disc, or cancel to stop. This is a great way to share your photos with friends and family. The disc can even include the software, so you can be sure your friend can open the files.
Now, let’s take a look at the options we have at the bottom of the main screen: print, email, collage, hello, blog this!, order prints, and export. By the way, the light blue bar below the photos in the preview window shows you the date, size and name of the photo. I will cover each of these options in blogs to come. So stay tuned!