PICASA - BE WARNED (Page 5): I don't generally use Picasa anymore but perhaps you're making more of it than you should. Most beginners I've worked with figure if they delete a photo...

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

I don't generally use Picasa anymore but perhaps you're making more of it than you should.

Most beginners I've worked with figure if they delete a photo it's gone. Doesn't matter where they are seeing it. Delete a photo, it's gone... that's exactly what Picasa does.

I stopped using it because it IS so simple. It lacks some of the more advanced features you may eventually want.

Others have mentioned you need to read the screen - I have to agree - When you installed Picasa you were presented with this:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh17/sloscheider/Misc%204%20the%20Web/picasasearchquestion.jpg

You chose to scan your entire computer. Also notice the paragraph at the bottom where it tells you how to manage what folders are scanned by "using the Folder Manager tool (available from the Tools menu)"

From what you're describing you may like Adobe Lightroom - when you delete a photo you are asked if you just want Lightroom to forget the photo or if you want to delete the real file from the hard drive.

swallowtail Loc: Melbourne, Australia

I don't agree with you, it DID erase the photos from our hard drive and it Did re arrange, downsize and even cut some of the photos in half when it 'Compacted'.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

It is my opinion that all of these "free" editing programs have a number of shortcomings. Picasa, by far, seems to have the most complaints. I would hate to go through what Mike had to encounter. My editing programs over the years have been Adobe Photo Deluxe, then Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, and then Photoshop versions 5,7,CS,CS2,CS3, and now CS5. The only freeware program that I have experimented with is Gimp and I find it unacceptable for real photo processing.

I find it strange that many good photographers have spent thousands of dollars on great cameras and lenses but are hesitant to spend the money for a good editing program. Photoshop Elements 10 is now available for less than $70. That is a small fraction of the investment in our equipment. A good photo processing program should just be considered a part of your photographic equipment just as is quality filters. Oh, and we should control the editing program....not it control us!

Frumpilot

I use lightroom but a great free app is faststone viewer. It's similar to picasa and you can edit as well my version does not "take over" your computer
Hope this helps!
Jake

user11850

MIKE GALLAGHER wrote:

28 April 2012
Reading that PICASA is a great Photo Editing Programme I finally downloaded it today. The first hint that all was not right was that it went through my whole computer including 2 External Hard Drives and made an "Index" of every picture there is. That includes not only my photos but ANY PICTURE! I immediately tried to stop it and couldn't.

The download said that no photo would be moved from my files and that they were all safe

I looked up "Help" and found only marketing stuff that decided me to take it in the first place. No Manual. I went online to find myself floundering around up to the waist in marshmellow. Meanwhile my files were teeming into the programme until it had them all (there is a point to this!) so I decided to try PICASA out. I got stuck - back online for help - none. I tried to get into the PICASA forum but the words I had to copy were too hard to read, and the spoken words were so distorted I kept getting them wrong and kept getting rejected.
As I couldn't find a way to get my photo off the workspace (guess how every other programme I've ever used does that?) I turned the computer off.

I went back into PICASA determined to delete its index. I started by deleting advertisement photos - r/click>delete - and it worked. No way in the world to select the whole lot and delete them all in one fell swoop though so I was ready to spend hours deleting one file or folder at a time. GOOD THING I DIDN'T!

I decided to find an unimportant photo in my collection on an external hard drive, then found it via PICASA, brought it up and deleted it. GOOD THING I DID! Because the photo had GONE from my album on the external drive and I found it, later, in the Recycle Bin.

I disconnected the external drives and uninstalled Picasa. At least the uninstallation worked, which made a change from anything else it would do.

Not to be beaten I reinstalled a new copy (externals disconnected) thinking I'd be more selective in the options I downloaded and all would be ok. But no! IT DID IT AGAIN. And wouldn't stop. So I hit "uninstall" in my Control Panel while it was running and got quite unceremonious, and vocal, while I waited. The good thing about it all is that I'll never have to do that to PICASA again.

Work out the ramifications of all that for yourself. But remember the word PICASA and be warned. And don't recommend it to others unless you know something I don't.

Mike Gallagher

28 April 2012 br Reading that PICASA is a great Ph... (show quote)

my daughter used it and everyone of her photos went out on the open web!!!!!

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

Nikonian72 wrote:

I use Picasa 3 daily. It is a fairly simple, straight forward program, and I can still access PicNik through Picasa 3.

http://picasa.google.com

I use Picasa too, but I have never tried the Piknic section. What does it do?

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Way back when I first used Picassa I had been warned that it would do a catalogue, seems to me that there are two delete buttons , delete and remove from picassa, have not used them in several upgrades so they may have been removed, not bad as you get free albums that are shareable via google plus, I don't do facebook, Bob.

ken4peace

MIKE GALLAGHER wrote:

28 April 2012
Reading that PICASA is a great Photo Editing Programme I finally downloaded it today. The first hint that all was not right was that it went through my whole computer including 2 External Hard Drives and made an "Index" of every picture there is. That includes not only my photos but ANY PICTURE! I immediately tried to stop it and couldn't.

The download said that no photo would be moved from my files and that they were all safe

I looked up "Help" and found only marketing stuff that decided me to take it in the first place. No Manual. I went online to find myself floundering around up to the waist in marshmellow. Meanwhile my files were teeming into the programme until it had them all (there is a point to this!) so I decided to try PICASA out. I got stuck - back online for help - none. I tried to get into the PICASA forum but the words I had to copy were too hard to read, and the spoken words were so distorted I kept getting them wrong and kept getting rejected.
As I couldn't find a way to get my photo off the workspace (guess how every other programme I've ever used does that?) I turned the computer off.

I went back into PICASA determined to delete its index. I started by deleting advertisement photos - r/click>delete - and it worked. No way in the world to select the whole lot and delete them all in one fell swoop though so I was ready to spend hours deleting one file or folder at a time. GOOD THING I DIDN'T!

I decided to find an unimportant photo in my collection on an external hard drive, then found it via PICASA, brought it up and deleted it. GOOD THING I DID! Because the photo had GONE from my album on the external drive and I found it, later, in the Recycle Bin.

I disconnected the external drives and uninstalled Picasa. At least the uninstallation worked, which made a change from anything else it would do.

Not to be beaten I reinstalled a new copy (externals disconnected) thinking I'd be more selective in the options I downloaded and all would be ok. But no! IT DID IT AGAIN. And wouldn't stop. So I hit "uninstall" in my Control Panel while it was running and got quite unceremonious, and vocal, while I waited. The good thing about it all is that I'll never have to do that to PICASA again.

Work out the ramifications of all that for yourself. But remember the word PICASA and be warned. And don't recommend it to others unless you know something I don't.

Mike Gallagher

28 April 2012 br Reading that PICASA is a great Ph... (show quote)

I have been using Picasa for some time now and I have not had any of the bizarre occurrences you have described. It is a simple beginners tool that helps a newbee like me to photo editing get into it with no fuss and no muss. It does not have some of more advanced stuff that Photoshop and Light-room have but that is for the advanced photographers. Are you per chance using a Mac. I know that they have compatibility issues. If so this might be an issue for Mac users, but for the rest of us it is great. Also it may simply be user error. I hope you find a program that works well for your computer. You may want to ask this group for recommendations based on the type of computer you have. As for me I think Picasa is great and I will stay with it thank you very much.

thegrover Loc: Yorba Linda, CA

I find Picasa quite useful, I use Lightroom to download and reprocess. I use Photoshop Elements 10 for editing Jpegs. I use Picasa to keep track of all my photos, however I use the Folder manager tool to select which folder it selects, updates and displays pictures from. This I think is what you need to do. Go to the Folder manager tool and select what you what Picasa to do.

Jim F. Loc: North Richland Hills, TX

If (when) you download something like that, the first step when you see problems happening is to stop the program from running (Ctrl/Alt/Delete) then remove it. Next run the System Restore program to a day or two before you downloaded the program and you will very likely (notice, I said very likely) have your computer back like it was before you set the mess in motion.

Jim

mdorn Loc: Portland, OR

Wow... those are some interesting comments and experiences. Picasa is very well documented, but nowhere did I read it was for beginners. If you can't find answers online, then there are other resources. Check Amazon. Picasa does exactly what it claims to do. If it does something you didn't expect, don't panic. Just wait for the program to finish doing what it was designed to do, and then uninstall.

mdorn Loc: Portland, OR

Jim F. wrote:

If (when) you download something like that, the first step when you see problems happening is to stop the program from running (Ctrl/Alt/Delete) then remove it. Next run the System Restore program to a day or two before you downloaded the program and you will very likely (notice, I said very likely) have your computer back like it was before you set the mess in motion.

Jim

Very bad advice.

bio80

I am sorry that you have had some bad experiences with PICASA. I can understand the frustration of dealing with new software. As an instructor at a senior center, I use Picasa and find it easy to us, easy for my students(all levels) to use and the online help very useful(http://support.google.com/picasa/?hl=en), and most affordable to those on fixed incomes. In fact as pointed out in other replies most of the issues mentioned are explained there.
I pass this advice on to all my students and I think it helps them to think before leaping: If you don't understand an instruction - don't reply yes until you do; Be extremely careful when deleting stuff and understand what is going to happen; Software doesn't always do what you expect because your thoughts are not always the way it is designed; while I may like the software, only use it if YOU like it.
Here another tidbit about changes made in Picasa. Your original picture is not changed unless you save a copy with the changes. In fact if you look at a pic in another viewer you may/will not see the changes. The changes are stored in change files and applied in Picasa, that makes it easy to remove any changes by using the undo button(even a week or more later).
Amen to to my rants - so just make sure you understand the software before you use it and remember most software have quirks that many appear when least expected - after all software is only human..

MIKE GALLAGHER Loc: New Zealand

Frenchcoast -
did you manage to run it satisfactorily as a lot of others say they have or did you freak out and dump it like me?
Mike.

jekbeck60

I had Picasa for years, only recenly decided to uninstall it as I got LR4, I didn't lose any photos and found it to be a very useful program for some types of photo editing.
Not sure what you did wrong, sorry.