Getting to Know the Picasa Desktop

By default, Picasa shows all photos in its picture library, as shown in Figure 34.2. The individual folders in your library are displayed in the left folders pane; the photos within the selected folder are displayed in the main window. You can also use the scroll bars to scroll up and down through all the photos in Picasa's index.

Figure 34.2. Picasa's picture library.

When you select a photo, it's surrounded by a blue border and displayed as a thumbnail in the Picture Tray at the bottom left of the screen. You can select more than one picture at a time; the thumbnails are then resized to fit them all within the Picture Tray.

Also along the bottom of the screen are various function buttons. These buttons are described in Table 34.1.

Table 34.1. Picasa's Function Buttons

Button	Description
Hold	Holds selected pictures in the Picture Tray
Clear	Clears all pictures from the Picture Tray
Label	Adds a label to pictures in the Picture Tray
Star	"Stars"selected photos for future use
Rotate counter-clockwise	Rotates the picture 90 degrees to the left
Rotate clockwise	Rotates the picture 90 degrees to the right
Print	Prints the selected pictures
Email	Emails pictures (using either your default email program, Gmail, or Hello's Picasa Mail)
Collage	Creates a collage of the selected photos (like the one in Figure 34.3)
Hello	Connects to Google's Hello photo-sharing service
Blog This!	Sends the selected photo to your Blogger blog (as a new photo posting)
Order Prints	Orders prints of selected photos from an online photo print service
Export	Saves a copy of any photo that you've edited

Figure 34.3. A photo college, created with Picasa.

Just above all the function buttons, at the bottom right of the main display, is a zoom slider control. You use this slider to adjust the size of the photos that appear in the main display.

At the top of the Picasa window are four buttons and a search box. The buttons let you import new photos; display the pictures in the selected folder as a slideshow; display your photos in an innovative timeline view (shown in Figure 34.4); or burn selected photos to a "gift" CD. The search box lets you search your hard disk for photos that match specific criteria.

Figure 34.4. Picasa's timeline view.