Digital Camera Master

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to file a single image in several different folders at the same time? You could file that Puerto Vallarta sunset under Mexico, Vacation 2006, and Perfect Sunsets. Then, years later, no matter which folder you search, there it is. You can’t do that with Picasa’s folders, where a photo can be in only one folder at a time. But by giving it a label, you can make a single photo appear in multiple folders, increasing your chances of finding it when you’re browsing. Picasa’s labels work much like the album or category features found in other programs.

When you assign a label to a photo, Picasa displays it in a special folder bearing the label’s name. At the top of the Folder List is a collection called Labels. Folders in the Labels collection look and act just like other folders, with the following exceptions:

• When you add a label to a thumbnail (or drag a thumbnail to a label folder in your Folder List), Picasa doesn’t move the photo from its original folder. Instead, it creates a duplicate thumbnail and displays it in the label folder. Think of the thumbnail in the label folder as a pointer to that original photo file.
• You can add many different labels to a photo. This means, you can place a single photo in many different label folders, unlike normal folders where an image can be in only one folder at a time.
• Unlike Picasa’s other folders, your label folders exist only in Picasa. There are no folders on your computer that match your labels. When you rename, delete, and reorganize your label folders and their thumbnails, you merely change the way Picasa organizes your photos inside the program.

1. Creating a new label
Labels are more flexible than folders in that you can give the same photo more than one label. Say you want to organize your dog photos by both breed and American Kennel Club group. Attach a Basset label to all your Basset Hound photos, and all the Basset pictures appear in a Basset folder in the Labels collection. Then attach a second labelHoundsto your Basset pictures, and they appear in the Hounds label folder, too (along with the Bloodhounds, Afghans, and Foxhounds). All the while, the original Basset photos remain tucked away in that original Dogs folder.

The thumbnails in the Basset and Hounds label folders all point to the original photo files in Dogs. When you choose a photo in one of your label folders to print or email, Picasa hunts down the original photo to do the job. Since you’re not making extra copies of the photos on your hard drive, there’s no real limit to the number of labels you can create.

Take these steps to create a new label and place a photo in the label folder:

1. In the Lightbox, select the photo you want to label. A border highlight appears around the photo when you select it. (You can choose more than one photo by Shift+clicking or Ctrl+clicking.)
2. Right-click the photo and choose Add Label New Label from the shortcut menu. The Label Properties box appears. Its options are the same as those in the Folder Properties box.
3. In the Label Properties box, fill in your new label’s name and other details. Don’t forget to enter a name. (Untitled isn’t a very helpful label.) The other details are optional, but good, descriptive text always makes it easier to browse and search for photos later.
4. Click OK to close the Label Properties box. The new label folder shows in the Labels collection at the top of the Folder List. The label’s name and other descriptive text show in the banner in the Lightbox above the thumbnails.

The Labels Collection at the top of the Folder List conveniently gathers all your labeled photos in eponymous folders. Label folders have a special icon to remind you that they’re different from ordinary folders. The thumbnails in these folders provide a reminder, tooa small triangle in the lower left corner.

2. Editing label descriptions
Label descriptions are just as important as folder descriptions. Good names and accurate descriptions make it easier for you to find and identify photos when you’re browsing. They also make it easier for Picasa to find the photos when you conduct a search.

Change the names and descriptions of labels by choosing Label –> Edit Description. You see the same Label Properties dialog box as when you create a new label. From here, you can change the label’s name, date, place, and caption.

3. Deleting a label
The act of deleting something on a computer always raises alarms (or at least it should). By contrast, when you choose Label Delete, you simply delete the label folder from the Folder List. Since the thumbnails in a label folder are just pointers to the photo in your standard folders, you still have the original photo in its original folder.