Picasa software is now available for the Mac! We'd like to quickly show you how you can use Picasa to organize, edit, and share your photos. Picasa helps you:
- Control large photo collections
Picasa can find and display a huge number of images (now up to a million photos!) from all over your computer. And Picasa automatically keeps track of new photos on your hard drive.
- Edit without worry
Picasa's easy-to-use editing tools apply 'virtual edits' to your photos, until you're sure you want to save your changes to disk. Even after you save, a backup of your original image is just a click away.
- Keep your online photos up-to-date
Crop a little here, add some shadow there, and watch your edits automatically sync to your online Picasa Web Albums.
- Share with a click
Picasa works seamlessly with Picasa Web Albums to help you quickly share online photo galleries with friends, family, and the world. With 1GB of free storage, album privacy settings to suit all needs, and the ability to upload and download at any size (including print-friendly originals), Picasa Web Albums makes it easy for others to enjoy your best photos, too.
Whether you're a Windows/Linux transplant or a brand new Picasa user, read on to find Mac-specific release notes, getting-started resources, and Mac support information. You can download the Picasa for Mac beta at http://picasa.google.com. It's a Google Labs release and is English-only at this time. Read more about Google Labs.
for Mac release notes
for Mac release notesiPhoto Integration
Picasa for Mac has been designed to play nicely with iPhoto.
Picasa doesn't store any of your photos. It simply scans your hard drive and displays the photo files it finds. In this way, Picasa folders represent the actual directories containing photos on your computer's hard drive.
Picasa handles the iPhoto Library in the same way, with a small variation made for the way in which the iPhoto Library organizes your photos: If you've made edits in iPhoto, each album or event in your iPhoto Library contains an 'Originals' folder and a 'Modified' folder. Picasa scans the photos and videos in both the 'Originals' and 'Modified' folders, and displays a single collective folder with the most recent version of each file.
The photos in your iPhoto Library will be displayed in Picasa in the 'iPhoto Library' collection as read-only files. The read-only status is necessary to ensure that Picasa and iPhoto work well together. You can do a lot with read-only files in Picasa -- upload, create a collage, create a movie, email, print -- but you won't be able to make any material changes: this includes editing, moving, deleting, adding tags and using Sync to Web.
Of course there's a solution: When you attempt to use Picasa to edit an iPhoto Library picture, Picasa will ask your permission to copy the entire folder containing that photo to a location outside of the iPhoto Library -- they're placed in a different folder under 'Pictures' titled 'Imported from iPhoto.' You'll then have access to the full range of tools that Picasa offers.
Missing Ingredients
For those accustomed to Picasa for Windows, there are a few features that aren't yet included in the most recent version of the Mac beta:
- Geotag
- Integrated webcam capture
- Automatic screen capture
- Screensaver
- Picasa Photo Viewer
Getting Started with Picasa for Mac
Getting Started with Picasa for MacGet Organized
New to Picasa? Once you've successfully installed the app, use the following resources to learn the basics:
- Getting Started Guide for Picasa: Pick up the essentials of organizing, editing and sharing your photos from Picasa.
- New! Recently released features: See the most recent additions to the Picasa lineup. (We do of course realize they're all 'recently released' to Mac users)
Sharing with Picasa Web Albums
Once you've organized and edited your photos to perfection, Picasa for Mac makes it easy to share them online. Here are the facts:
- Upload = Sharing: Use the Share button in Picasa for Mac to upload to Picasa Web Albums and send invitations to view in one fell swoop.
- Free storage: Take advantage of 1 GB free photo storage in Picasa Web Albums, with additional storage available for purchase.
- Broadcast or keep them quiet: Album privacy levels to suit all of your sharing needs.
- Organize by face: Picasa Web Albums finds the faces, you add name tags, your photos come alive.
Picasa for Mac Support
Picasa for Mac SupportNeed help with a Picasa for Mac issue?
Picasa Help Center: If you have 'how-to' questions, searching the Help Center is the quickest way to find your answer.
Picasa for Mac beta Help Forum: If you'd like help with a specific issue on Picasa for Mac, please post your question to the help forum to get assistance from our most knowledgable users. Google guides are always in the forum on the lookout.
