Picasa 3 Video

Picasa 3 Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:04

>> Are you looking for a single application to organize, edit, and share your digital photos? As long as you're not seeking pro-software this one may be the only one you need. I'm Jessica Delcourt [assumed spelling] from CNET.Download.com with a quick video tour of Google's free Picasa 3. If you're already familiar with Picasa you know that it indexes all the images it finds on your hard drive and has basic editing features so you can do some quick touch-ups. You'll also know that you can then email or print the photos, burn them onto a CD, or upload them to a blog or a free Picasa Web album. Picasa 3 ads about a dozen new features on top of all that, for instance, it will now index screen shots you take using the Print Screen button. You'll also be able to sync your Picasa Desktop photos with your Picasa Web albums so that any changes you make on the Desktop will be reflected on the Web. As another shortcut you can send links to on-line albums from the Desktop where as before you had to share photos from your Web folder only; this new method is a great time saver. Picasa adds a new movie maker as well, it's pretty basic but it does let you mix photos with most major movie file types, you can also add a song but there are no fades or other editing controls to trim the track. Also, movies are only saved as WMV files, it's a decent start but Google can do better. Picasa 3 has also greatly improved its collage feature, which now lets you drag photos around, rotate them and add on text. In another change you'll no longer have to highlight individual eyes to correct them with the Red Eye Reduction tool, just click and Picasa will now correct all eyes at once, in most cases it works pretty well. Finally, there's the Drop Box tool which works like a holding zone for people who want to upload photos to Picasa Web first and then add the photos to specific folders later. The drop box will also store photos you upload from Orca, Show Zoo, or other third party photo services that also use Picasa Web albums. While these new features will appeal to some more than to others this is a major upgrade that offers something for everyone. There's still plenty of room for improvement though especially in the movie maker but overall Picasa 3 continues to be a terrific system for everyday photo management. I'm Jessica Delcourt; this concludes your video tour of Picasa 3. ^M00:02:18