Part 2 of 3: Picasa

PART 2 of a 3 part series on Picasa will focus on creating a slideshow, editing it, adding music, and sharing it out.

STEP 1: CREATE AN ALBUM
I'm not usually one to immediately organize my photos when I download them onto my computer. They're usually all over the place, sometimes with folders named appropriately, sometimes not. That is why the first step is to create an album in which we can organize our slideshow photos into. Creating a slideshow is usually to capture the essence of an event or to showcase a personality. Most likely you will already have some idea of what pictures you would like to use. The next step is to organize these photos into an album for ease of use.
Before we get to the steps, I'd also like to take this opportunity to discuss musical numbers. If you have a few songs in mind that you would like to use for your slideshow, you will need to place the music files into a folder that's easy for you to find. You can place as many songs as you want, but keep in mind that you may need to pick and choose between the them later as you probably won't have a slideshow more than a couple songs long.

1. With Picasa open, click on the top Menu bar "File"
2. Select "New Album" at the top of the list
3. Name your Album when the pop-up window prompts you for one
4. Set a date or leave it
5. Fill out any of the optional details you want
6. Ignore the part where it asks: "Use Music for Slideshow and Movie presentation" This will only allow you to pick one song, not an entire folder. If you are only using one song, then you can pick it now. Otherwise, follow the next steps.

You now have an album, entitled appropriately. You should see it appear in your Album list on the Right hand side, upper corner as seen below.

NOTE:

If you want to use a folder full of songs, click on your new album. Select on Tools on the top menu bar. Select Options. Go to the Slideshow tab and click on "Play music during slideshow". You will see "Select Folder of Music (MP3 and WMA), this is where you will browse for your previously created folder.

STEP 2: ADD PICTURES TO YOUR ALBUM
Once you have your album, you of course have to add pictures. This step is very straight forward. Browse through Picasa on the left hand side and when you see a picture you want in your slideshow, drag and drop it onto the new album.

Once you have all of your pictures, you can go one of two ways. You could create a very quick and easy yet impressive slideshow for emailing, watching on the tv or posting online or you could get more advanced and make it into more of a movie presentation.

If you want to stick with simple: click here for very clear instructions from Google's Picasa website.

If you want to get more advanced and create a movie presentation click here for Google's instructions.

STEP 3: FINISHING OFF BY SHARING OUT
Once you have finished your project you are now free to share it with the world. I will cover the different ways you can do this:

1. With your album selected, you should see the below options immediately above your pictures. Select the one that looks like a little CD to burn this slideshow to a CD and gift it. When you select this option, Picasa will present you with more options for the creation of the CD. You can include the photos as their original size or you can make them larger (think large computer screen). You will need to name your cd, include Picasa, and then Burn the Disc.


If you have selected to make a movie, you will have more options once you have completed your movie. See below for an example of the options you will have on your sidebar.

Upload to YouTube - you will need a YouTube account to do this.
Take Snapshot - Takes a capture of the current frame
Export Clip - Saves out your movie as a .wmv file for emailing or burning to CD or DVD


That's all for now folks. Tune in to part 3 later this week, focusing on some of the fun features in Picasa.