Picasa Tip: Backup or Gift CD? What’s the Difference?

Picasa has the ability to burn your pictures to a CD or DVD – a DVD is simply greater capacity – all from within Picasa.  You don’t need any extra steps.  But wait!  There are actually 2 ways that Picasa can burn your pictures to disc.

1. Gift CD: Create menu | Create a Gift CD…
   The purpose of a Gift CD is to give all your pictures to a friend.  You want your friend to see the improved pictures … *after* your edits.  So the disk will just contain the Exported file of each picture.  You also have the option to Export the pictures in a smaller size.
   
2. Backup Pictures: Tools menu | Backup Pictures …
   Backups are intended to be insurance that you will never lose your original pictures. Picasa burns to disc your originals, even the ones in the Picasa Originals folders, along with all the picasa.ini files with hold your edits.  When you restore using a backup made with Picasa, you are completely back in business with all your edited photos and the ability to undo every edit back to the original.
   

The lesson is … don’t use Gift CD for your backup.  Unless you don’t care about having your original pictures and the ability to undo your edits.

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Backup your photos to CD

Backup Monthly to Disk (CD or DVD)

Backup to External Hard Drive