Import

Picasa Definitions: Upload, Download, Import

Organizing, Picasa, picasa web albums 10 Responses »

May 262011

Words do matter. If you ask a question and you use the term ‘Upload’ when the correct term is ‘Import’ you might not get the answer you were looking for! I see this all the time.

In the Clouds

Let me give you an image that helps me remember the meaning of Upload and Download. It is very useful to think of the Internet as existing in the clouds above the earth. In reality, of course, the Internet is made up of lots of computers and cables here on the ground, but since they are accessible without regard to space or time, it’s as if the Internet is a parallel universe above the earth. Thus the popular current terminology of ‘cloud computing’ simply means all the data your computer is accessing exists on the Internet instead of on your computer. ‘On the Internet’ and ‘In the Clouds’ have become synonymous. We also refer to this as Web-based.

Picasa Web Albums vs. Picasa

Picasa is software that exists on your computer and manages photo files on your computer. Picasa Web Albums (PWA) is a photo-sharing website. It exists on the Internet, the Web, … in the clouds. To ‘Upload’ means to copy from Picasa to Picasa Web Albums; to ‘Download’ means to copy from Picasa Web Albums to your computer.

The terms are not used just by Picasa. In general computer terminology ‘Upload’ simply refers to a direction … from your computer to the Internet. ‘Download’ refers to the other direction … from the Internet to your computer. Even if all you’re doing is browsing the web, upload and download activity is taking place. When you click a link, you are uploading a request to see something. Images you view on your browser are downloading to your browser.

Picasa’s Import command is what you use to copy pictures onto your computer from some external device. That device is usually your camera, but it can also be a scanner, a USB drive, or even a folder on a CD or DVD. When you insert a camera card into your computer’s card reader (or attach the camera with a cable to your computer) you probably see a popup dialog box asking if you want to ‘Copy pictures to your computer using Picasa.’ When you click on that you are using Picasa’s Import feature.

Import has nothing to do with the Internet. Import is Picasa’s tool for copying pictures onto your computer from whatever device has the pictures. You don’t even have to use Picasa’s Import tool if you don’t want to. For a long time, I preferred the import procedures on Canon’s ZoomBrowser. I would use that software to get the pictures from my camera to my computer. Once that was done, I would use Picasa to manage them. As long as they were somewhere within the My Pictures, Picasa would see them as soon as I opened Picasa.

Import also has nothing to do with the relationship between Picasa and pictures that are already on your computer. If you have pictures on your computer already and you’re not seeing them using Picasa, then you need to use the Folder Manager to make them show up. If you use the Import command to find pictures already on your computer and then import them to another folder – you will now have duplicates! Import = Copy.

Remember, Picasa does not store your pictures. Your pictures are located on your computer, usually within the My Pictures folder, and Picasa sees them there. The Folder Manager (Tools, Folder Manager) is where Picasa is told which folders to watch – aka ‘scan.’

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, orbecome a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Importing and Folders

Getting Started, Organizing, Picasa 7 Responses »

Feb 022010

I’ve written (and said on video) many times that, when I import pictures from my camera, I like to Import All into a folder for the current month. Two points to be made here:

Import All: It’s just a one-click, no choices method. This way, I know that I’m getting all the pictures from my camera card – I can delete any bad ones later in Picasa. If instead, I selected photos to import into separate folders, I may miss some pictures by accident. Also, after importing all, I let Picasa delete them from the card. This way I always have a fresh card for use in my camera.
One folder per month: my first import at the beginning of each month requires me to make a new folder. I just enter 201002 (Feb 2010) in the place for folder name. Every subsequent import, I just use the drop-down list to select an existing folder for ‘Import To:’ It remembers the previous folders I have used.

But, not everyone wants to use my system … they may have their own system – go figure! Many people like to have their photos in folders by individual date – sounds like *way* too many folders to me, but to each his own :-). The latest version of Picasa can do this for you automatically, just click on the drop-down by ‘Folder title:’ and choose ‘Date Taken’ – that will automatically create folders for each date on your photos and import the photos into their respective folder:

Make New Folders after you Import

Sometimes I do want specific folders other than my main, monthly folder. After I import my photos, I will select the one(s) I want in a new folder, right click and choose ‘Move to New Folder.’ Clicking on ‘Move to New Folder’ accomplishes two things, 1)it creates the new folder and 2)it moves the selected photos into it. After that first step, you can now drag other photos into that same folder.

New Video on Importing with Picasa 3.5/6:

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos. Not a member? Join now.

https://picasageeks.com/2009/02/picasa-tip-picasa-web-albums/
Need to learn the basics? Check out our ‘Beginner’s Guide to Picasa’ complete withshow-me videos

Show Me How to Import Email contacts to Gmail

Computing 101 Comments Off

Dec 242009

A Show Me How video from www.GeeksonTour.com: how to get all your email addresses from Outlook or Outlook Express and make a copy of them using Gmail. Even if you don’t use Gmail, this is a great way to have a backup of all your contacts. Just click the Play button below.

Picasa 3.5 Import Screen

Getting Started, Organizing, Picasa 15 Responses »

Oct 062009

The latest upgrade to Picasa came out on September 23. They’re calling it 3.5. The biggest change is in the ‘Import Photos’ screen. In the prior version, Import was on 2 screens; first you selected what you wanted to import (All, or Selected, Exclude duplicates or not) then the next screen asked where you wanted them – the folder specification. In Picasa 3.5 it’s all on one screen. So, you have to specify the target folder before you click ‘Import All’ or ‘Import Selected.’ (Tutorial Videos: Import from Camera)

Notice in the screenshot below the Import From, Exclude Duplicates and Progress note are in the upper left. Everything else is at the bottom. Your procedure, therefore, goes from top, to bottom – then left to right.

Picasa 3.5 Import

A couple things to notice:

Picasa creates a folder name for you with the current date (2009-10-05 above.) You don’t have to accept that – and you probably shouldn’t. You can delete 2009-10-05 and type anything there that you want. I usually put all pictures in a folder for the month, so I put 200910 in that place. In the older version, it would remember the folder name where I put the last imported batch of pictures – I could just select 200910 from a dropdown list. It doesn’t seem to do that anymore, but I can just type it in again and the pictures all go to the same place.
There is a new option to ‘Upload.’ This means that you can upload to your web albums at the same time that you import to your pictures on your computer. I would never do that, because I like to look at the pictures and do a little editing before uploading.

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Members may want to view the following tutorial videos. Not a member? Join now.