Which Folders And/Or Sub-Folders Will Your Picasa Scan/See…

It is your choice and you can change your mind whenever you'd like as to which folder and or sub-folder it will scan...  

Maybe when you began using Picasa you thought you had to have Picasa Scan/See all your photos - Now you only want Picasa to Scan/see specific folders or sub-folders you want to work on - Then simply change those folders in Picasa's Folder Manager..

Each time Picasa is opened, Picasa will scan the computer to find the folders or sub-folders you have chosen (and photos with the compatible photo file types you choose) and display only the photos in those specific folders or sub-folders.

Photos never move to Picasa, the original photos stay in their original folder locations.

To modify which folders or sub-folders Picasa is Scanning/Seeing from your hard drive or Portable Hard Drives/memory Card or Flash Drives - use these steps once you are in Picasa:

1.    Click the Tools menu in Picasa.

2.    Select Folder Manager.

3.    Select a folder from the folder list on the left that you want to add or remove from Picasa's watch list.

4.    Select one of the following monitoring options on the right:

·       “Scan Always”: Picasa views all compatible image types in these folders, and it automatically adds new photos. Picasa actively scans this folder for changes.

·       “Scan Once”: Picasa accesses all compatible image types in these folders only once. It doesn't detect new photos added to folders with this setting.

·       “Remove from Picasa': Picasa doesn't look in folders that are marked with this status.

5.    Click the OK button to save your changes.

The folders that you've set Picasa to continuously scan are listed in the 'Watched Folders' section.

You can also set a folder to 'Remove from Picasa' by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac) the folder in Picasa and selecting “Remove from Picasa.”

Remember-you can always change your mind tomorrow on what you've set this setting to by simply repeating the steps and changing your choices... 

How to Scan Photos Using Picasa

In our last blog posting, we described how to scan photos and documents to your computer using Picasa. Picasa is Google’s Free photo editing software – if you don’t have this on your computer, you can go to www.picasa.com and download it)..

Scanning allows us to save our photos and/or documents onto our computers in “digital format”. Most all-in-one printers today have built in scanners, but we often hear they are confusing to use. So, for an easy option, Picasa might be the right choice for you…

Once you get going, you'll find that you can easily scan 50-60 or more photos in an hour (and this is true whether you use Picasa, your scanner's software or your operating system software such as Windows Photo Gallery, so it’s a great winter or rainy day project… And it’s wonderful to know that those old family photos won’t be lost.. Here's how:

• Be sure your computer and printer/scanner are on
• Open your “Picasa” application software program
• Always scan just one “1” photo or one “1” document at a time
• Put the photo on the glass of the scanner – face down
• In Picasa, click ‘Import’
• Click the arrow for the drop down list of devices. You'll see your scanner listed, select it
• Each scanner shows a different screen, but I beleive all have an option to "Preview"
• Click the "Preview" option and now you'll see your photo
• If you want to crop the photo you can do it now or save the entire photo & crop later
• Once you're happy with, Click the button to Scan
• When it’s done scanning, you’re back at the standard Picasa Import screen
• Click Import all
• Select or create a folder to put it in
• I usually name mine: "Scan & today's date - i.e. Scan 2011.11.2"
• Now my first and subsequent photos scanned today will go in that folder
• Tomorrow I would create a new folder & name it with the correct date
• This way I can either name each individual photo or number them 1, 2, 3 etc..
• Once the photos are in the folder you want, you can certainly export them to your 'My Picture/Picture drawer - in whatever folder you want them in"

Tip: Once you have completed your scanning for the day, some of the Picasa forums recommend that you use Picasa’s Batch Edit command, and choose “I’m Feeling Lucky” and “Sharpen” to all of the photos in the “Old Photos-Today’s Date” that you just created… you can always open this again later to do individual editing of each photo you’ve now saved on your computer..

How to Scan using Windows Photo Gallery

One way to SCAN a photo or document to a computer with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 Operating Systems, is to use the free Windows Photo Gallery that is part of these operating systems. This will allow you to scan, edit, and organize pictures and the pictures you scan will automatically be saved Pictures folder, in a My Scan/Scan folder.

Scanning allows you to create and save a "digital" copy of your photo or document on your computer.

Most printers today are also scanners. Be sure to turn your scanner on and be sure to always scan one "1" photo or document at a time; otherwise you will have one "1" scan of multiple photos or multiple documents - Now:

• Open Windows Photo Gallery by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Photo Gallery
• Click File, and then click Import from Camera or Scanner
• In the Import Pictures and Videos window, click the scanner that you want to use, and then click Import
• In the New Scan dialog box, click the Profile list, and then click Photo. The default settings for scanning a picture are automatically displayed
• If you're using a scanner with a document feeder, click the Paper size list, and then click the size of the picture that you've placed on the scanner or click the size that most closely matches the picture
• Click the Color format list, and then click the color format that you want the scanned file to display
• Click the File type list, and then click the file type that you want to use to save the scanned file – for pictures .jpg is the most popular, especially if you are going to be using 3rd party software for projects, such as Walgreens, Cvs, Snapfsh etc. to create gifts such as books or mugs..
• Adjust the brightness and contrast settings or type the values that you want to use
• To see how the picture will appear when it is scanned, click Preview. If needed, modify the scan settings, and then preview the picture again. Repeat these steps until you're satisfied with the preview results
• Click Scan. When the scan is complete, Windows Photo Gallery prompts you to tag/name the picture so that it's easier to organize or find later
• In the Tag These Pictures (optional) list, type a tag name, and then click Import. Windows Photo Gallery displays the picture so you can view, fix, or organize it.
• Once the photo is in your Picture/My Picture Library/folder-you can move it to whatever folder you want it in and you can now use your Photo Editing software to make changes to the original..

If you don't have Windows Photo Gallery on your computer - go the following link and download it for free:

http://windows-live-photo-gallery.en.softonic.com/download

Tomorrow's blog posting will explain how to Scan your Photo's using Picasa Photo Editing Software...

Photo Scanning Tips

Most of us have old family photos that we would like to share - either in a book or movie maker project, or in online photo albums or facebook - or just to have additional copies made.. So scanning allows us to "convert" those photo to digital and save them on our computers.. Here are a few tips when you are scanning photos and documents...

1) Be sure to remove any dirt, lint, or smudges from what you are scanning with a soft brush or lint-free photowipe. I don’t recommend “Canned air” especially for older photos that could be damaged…

2) Make sure your scanner glass is clean of all lint, fingerprints, smudges and particles-use a camera lens wipe, or if you use a glass cleaner, never spray it on the glass surface; always spray it on a lint free cloth and then wipe the glass.

3) Have clean hands, so you don’t leave skin oil on your photos or scanner glass. Many professionals wear white cotton gloves (available from photo stores and hardware stores) when they handle photos...

4) Choose the type of scan-it’s always best to scan in color, even all those old black and whites, so you have more manipulation options when you use your photo editing software, such as Picasa, Photoshop etc.

5) For the best scan resolution (quality), rule of thumb is a minimum of 300dpi (Dots Per Inch) for decent quality for enhancement and restoration techniques and 600dpi or greater if you plan to store these on CD or DVD.

6) Only scan “1” photo or document at a time. If you put multiple photos – you will have 1 scanned item with multiple photos or documents in it…

7) Once you scan your item, before you "save it" be sure the “sizing handles” are around just the actual photo and not the entire scan plate. And don’t do cropping here – save the actual photo, and then you can crop and enhance with your photo editing software.

8) Saving what you've scanned - Some scanners allow you to choose the folder where you want to name and save the scanned photo – others will automatically save it in the “My Scan Folder” and name it with a numbering sequence (the folder will have the date you did the scanning, and each scanned item will have sequential numbers, ie Scan 0001, Scan 0002, Scan 0003 – and the folder name might be: 2011-3.7 (9) – the number in parenthesis indicates the number of scans you did that day.

9) Once you are done scanning – if your scanned items are in the “My Scan” Folder, be sure to “rename” your scanned items instead of leaving them with the scan numbers – otherwise if you combine several days of scanning into one folder – multiple items would then have the same numbers which is unacceptable and you could lose photos…

It's wonderful to scan as many of our old photos and documents as possible, so that they are identified and in a format for "the future" versus sitting in boxes or closet drawers that may then be someday thrown away because no one knows who or what they are ...

Yes, it's time consuming, but so worth the effort...Enjoy

What is OCR Software?

Typically when we “scan” something into our computer – whether it is a photo or a document, the end results is a “digital picture” of whatever we scanned. But, OCR software (OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition) allows us to EDIT what we have scanned.

Simply “scan” your document into your computer and the OCR software converts it to an "editable file" that can be edited in most word processing and spreadsheet software programs. What types of documents can you scan? Basically any printed material –such as notes, letters, documents, spreadsheets, magazine or newspaper articles, books etc.

The quality of the OCR conversion process will largely depend on the quality of the scanned image and the clarity of the characters of that image.

Today – many of the printers for the home market, especially “all-in-one” multi function printers and “photosmart” printers include OCR software capabilities included with the software or you can visit the manufacturer’s website and download it for free.

So your current printer maybe OCR ready- not sure? Once again, go to the manufacturer’s website – put in your model # and it will give you the specifics on if the OCR software is available, if so how to download and use the OCR software.

OCR software is a real timesaver so we don't have to retype documents to be able to edit them. OCR software is also available as “freeware” and for purchase if it doesn’t come with your printer…