Parsing Picasa
Why should I put photos in a Picasa Collection when I can just keep them in Folders? For that matter, how is a Keyword different from a Labeland how on earth do I know when to use each?
Lots of Picasa neophytes find its features’ names confusing, but each gives you a uniquely useful organizing tool. Here’s a cheat sheet:
1. Folders.
Actually, Folders aren’t a Picasa feature at all. The folders you see in Picasa mirror the folders already on your computer. As you can read below, Picasa’s helping you organize your photo folders right in its own attractive window.
2. Collections.
If you have a lot of photo folders, Collections are a great way to divide them into logical groups, sort of like filing folders in drawers by subject. Unlike folders, Collections exist only within Picasa, so you can create as many as you like and shuffle your folders among them freely without disturbing the folder system on your PC.
3. Labels.
When you add a Label to a photo, Picasa creates a special folder by the same name in the Labels Collection (at the top of the Folder List). Unlike standard folders, these virtual folders exist only within Picasa, and the thumbnails in them are just placeholders for the actual photoswhich are still in their original folder on your computer. A single photo can have as many labels as you care to give it, so you can slice ‘n’ dice your collection in different ways without making extra copies of the original file. (This type of grouping is called an album in Kodak EasyShare and some other programs.)
4. Keywords.
Unlike Labels, Keywords don’t create thumbnails that you can view in a folder. Instead, they’re text labels that help you search your photo collection. While Labels and Folders let you break a big photo collection into tiny chunks, Keywords work best when you use them for general image categories. For example, if you assign all your animal pictures the keyword “pets,” you can then use that keyword to extract every shot of your seven cats, four dogs, and two horses from the far corners of your hard drive.
