organizing photos on the computer

[rondella]

hi- I am trying to get all my pictures organized on the computer and I am feeling overwhelmed with all the choices. What is the difference between downloading pictures from my camera onto my computer into windows my pictures or picasa?? Or do I always have to download to windows first?? Also, I have a few friends using creative memory software for their pictures?? Any suggestions would be a huge help!! I want to get my pictures together and organized. THANK YOU for your help and patience. Rondella

 

[olliea95]

You can use Google Picasa to organise your photos and also I think it can copy them off of your camera too. It is very simple to use and requires no explanation. I haven't used Picasa personally in ages so I can't remember what its like, but I'm sure its as easy as dragging the folder with all your pictures in and dropping it into the Picasa window. That will get all of your existing photos imported - it may take a while though.

After that you just plug in your camera or SD card and Picasa should recognise that and give you some options on importing.

Hope it helps, Picasa is highly recommended from past experience and friends comments.

http://www.google.com/picasa

 

[Hughv]

After you install Picasa it will search your computer for images and organize them. You can have it search My Docs only, or the entire computer. My Docs is probably the better choice.
Picasa will also import from a scanner or camera.
"Organizing" is a variable process and requires a bit of effort on your part, especially with regard to naming files and folders. Picasa's "Star", "Timeline" and "Albums" features will be a big help.

 

[leilani3947]

Hi, I find myself with two options, on 32-bit Vista, for downloading my photos from camera, editing, and (sometimes) emailing. These include Picasa-3 and Windows Photo Gallery, plus I have photos I've saved to My Pictures. I would have stayed with Picasa, which I think is a very good program, but it requires a Google email account, and I did not have good luck with Gmail. So I tried W Photo Gallery, and activated my Windows email account. When I try to save/transfer a photo to my email it doesn't happen. I can, however, drag and drop small files into the attachment area.

I 'd appreciate help: 1) Is there a way to get all my pictures into photo gallery or Picasa, rather than having them all spread out in My Pics folder? 2) Can anyone help me with transferring photos to email w/o drag/drop? 3) Is there a program that will play nicely with Yahoo mail? 4) Do you recommend any particular photo software/program that will provide the most efficient and easiest organization?

Thanks so much, Leilani

 

[Hughv]

Photo organizers just find your pictures and make lists. My pics is the perfect place to have your photos and you can do additional organizing using the features I mentioned above, or by manually organizing your folders in Windows Explorer. To take full advantage of Picasa, or any Program, you'll have to figure out what result you want then use the Help file or just ask here.
Take a good look at the Start feature, the album feature and the Timeline.
Picasa will automatically email your photos using your default email program;just click the Emaill button at the bottom.
Gmail is not a matter of luck. It's consistently voted one of the best email programs over all, but it's a bit different (Which is why it's so good) and will require a bit of your time and effort to get the most from it.

 

[leilani3947]

Thank you for your answer.

 

[Hughv]

You're welcome.
I see a typo in my previous post. That should be "Star" feature, not "start."

 

[leilani3947]

Thanks again! I'm about to try emailing from Picasa, and hope it does work with yahoo, as I couldn't get it to in the past. Also will be checking Star, Timeline and Albums. I'll report back -- so nice to have help on this.

 

[Hughv]

How to Make Yahoo! Mail Your Default Windows Email Program
http://email.about.com/od/yahoomailtips/qt/et_default_mail.htm

 

[leilani3947]

Hi Hugh, Thanks for the site you provided on making Yahoo my default email provider. Sounds so good, but I have Vista, and unfortunately "Yahoo! as Default Email: Does Not Work under Windows Vista." I'm giving it a try anyway. I've attempted so many different ways to change to XP or upgrade to W7 w/o success. It's a 32-bit Vista Home Basic which came preloaded on my Toshiba laptop. I'm going to try making Yahoo my default on my desktop PC, as it is still wonderful Windows XP! Linda

 

[Hughv]

Are you still using Internet Explorer?
Firefox is so much safer and works so much better that you should give it a try.
Companies like Mozilla and Google are trying to make the web a better, easier experience while Yahoo and MS are caught in the antediluvian past of closed source, "We know what's best" software that never seems to work quite as it should.
I know you're got an investment in Yahoo and IE, but if you give Gmail and FF a try you'll never look back.

 

[leilani3947]

Hi, I used Foxfire years ago while working with an online company. It was supposed to be safer overall, but was new at that time. I'll try it again. Also used Copernic -- it was good for the business we were in -- Neoforma -- a startup in Mountain View back in the day! Are you familiar with Copernic? I'm not "invested" in IE, but have always used Windows and have used out of habit. I have, however, resisted the last couple of updates as I've found they don't appear to really offer improvements.

 

[leilani3947]

Could you please explain what you mean by underlined below? thanks "Photo organizers just find your pictures and make lists. My pics is the perfect place to have your photos and you can do additional organizing using the features I mentioned above, or by manually organizing your folders in Windows Explorer. "

 

[Hughv]

I was very interested in Copernic when it came out, but Google changed everything. I've been working recently with a woman who uses Yahoo for everything, and I was astonished at the totally irrelevant and misleading search results they offer. Some day Google might be replaced (I was a big Alta Vista fan at one time) but they are top dog at the moment. I hear good things about Bing, but haven't spent much time with it.
Likewise, Firefox has come a long way. It's fast and stable and the improvements are driven by user input, as opposed to MS' idea of what users might want. Chrome has also improved, but I prefer FF at the moment.
Windows Explorer, I assume you know, is Windows' file manager. If you keep your images in My Docs/My Pictures (As you should to take advantage of both Windows' and Picasa's features) you'll see that it can be confusing. Pictures from a camera, for instance, are often in Folders bearing the default naming scheme of the camera.Pictures from your Paris vacation might be in a folder named 06102009, and the files may be named DSC12345.jpg, DSC12346.jpg, etc. These files and folders can be renamed and shuffled about using Explorer, or you can take advantage of Picasa's uploading features to name the Folder "My Paris Vacation" when you upload them to your computer. Individual files can be batch-renamed (File/Select All/Rename) or individually re-names to something more useful like Paris1.jpg,Paris2.jpg etc. This is much more useful when searching or browsing.
Picasa puts a different front end on the My Pics folder. Not only do you get the thumbnails, but a whole array of tools to manipulate the images. You can crop, adjust color and contrast, make collages and movies, create virtual folders(Albums), move to other folders and upload to Picasa Web Albums to share and create an online back up. Picasa also has a backup feature that keeps track of what's been previously backed up to make subsequent backups easier.
Other photo organizers do all these things, but Picasa seems to be the best at doing the most common tasks for most people.
Again, a bit of study is absolutely necessary to get the most from this, or any software' and the Picasa help files are very good and well written.

 

[leilani3947]

Google is much better than Yahoo. I've used Chrome a few times, but not enough to see a difference. I research medical issues for my work, and Google Scholar is also a help. I like Firefox a lot -- any suggestions on whether I should remove IE from my laptop? Re: photos, I've used a Minolta 35mm for thirty years, and it almost had to be dragged from my clenched hands. But I'm enjoying my digital, although took a while and it still doesn't feel totally familiar in my hands. I'm enjoying editing with both Picasa and W's Photo Gallery. Once again, as mentioned above by Rondella, it's a matter of being able to get them organized in such a way that I recognize the photo I'm looking for. L.