Teaching Picasa to your Computer Club or Photo Group

 Google+, Organizing, Picasa  2 Responses »
Aug 082014
 

Computer Clubs are great ways to learn! We wanted to share with you how Google+ Hangouts on Air allows us to present a seminar remotely and then automatically have it recorded as a Youtube video.

As we travel the country in our RV, we often pass thru the corner of Iowa/Illinois referred to as the Quad Cities and we’ll give a live presentation to the Quad Cities Computer Society. We were there in June and presented a seminar we call “What is Cloud Computing” to the general meeting of the whole club. The people involved in the digital photography  SIG (special interest group) then wanted to know – “How do we use the Cloud for our photos with Picasa?” So we agreed to give a follow up seminar to their next monthly meeting where we would answer questions. The problem is that we would be a couple thousand miles away by then! So, we used Google+ Hangouts on Air to do the presentation. Since it is recorded, we can also share it with you! If you are interested in a Geeks on Tour presentation to your club, use the Contact Us form.

To watch the entire presentation will take you about an hour. I have gone thru it and marked the places where certain topics start so you can click on those links and get straight to the point.

  1. Watch the seminar starting at the beginning (well, actually, this starts after the few minutes of technical difficulties with sound.)
    image
  2. Start at 7m22s:  Using Dropbox Camera Uploads
  3. Start at 15m37s: Autobackup Discussion
  4. Start at 29m38s: Question about Ordering Prints
  5. Start at 38m29s: Question about Making Movies with PIctures and Music
  6. Start at 43m16s: Question about Resizing Pictures
  7. Start at 56m23s: Demo of Picasa Web Albums vs. Google+ Photos

 

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.

Picasa Tip: Keeping Slideshow Pictures in Order

 Picasa, Sharing Photos  6 Responses »
Sep 032013
 

make-movieOne of the most often-asked and troublesome questions we get is “How do I keep my pictures in the order I want?”  You see, although you can drag pictures around into any order you please, it only takes one click on ‘Sort By Date’ or ‘Sort By Name’ to lose all that manual sorting work you just did.  And, if you use the Gift CD feature, the pictures will be shown in filename order on the Gift CD, not your manual order. In a previous article, we wrote instructions on how to rename your photos while they are in the order you want.  Then, any time they are sorted by name, everything is cool.  But, what if you don’t want to rename them?

We’ve written several articles on the topic of sorting and slideshows:

Why not Make a Movie?!

Your first step needs to be selecting the group of pictures you want to show.  Once the group has been identified, and shown as an album, then you can play a slide show, or use the command Create->Gift CD.  But, there is another choice.  Right below Gift CD is Movie.  You can create a movie from a selection of pictures – they don’t even need to be in an Album.  Once you click Movie, you’ll see a screen like the picture above.  Notice all the pictures are on a timeline at the bottom.  You can drag pictures into any order your heart desires.  When the movie is rendered you will have one file, a .wmv file (windows) or .mov (Mac) that will play on anyone’s computer and the pictures order cannot be changed.  For more information on Picasa’s Movie Making function, see this past article: Picasa Tip: Make a Movie

Putting your Movie on a DVD

Once you have a completed movie file, you can use DVDMaker on windows to burn the movie onto a DVD that can be played on any DVD player.  See this past article on DVD of Pictures that plays on your TV. On Macintosh, iDVD used to be the free, included app akin to DVDMaker.  It is no longer available.  If you have it already, it still works fine.  Here’s what MacMost (a Macintosh resource I trust) has to say about alternatives to iDVD.

Geeks on Tour Member Videos

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, using Smartphones, 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.