USING PICASSA FREE PHOTO MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Picasa helps you find and organise all your pictures.

you start Picasa, it scans your hard drive to find and automatically organise all your pictures. Picasa finds the following image and movie file types:

Image file types: JPG, GIF, TIF, PSD, PNG, BMP, RAW (including NEF and CRW). GIF and PNG files are not scanned by default, but you can enable them in the options dialogue.

Film file types: MPG, AVI, ASF, WMV, and MOV.

Library View

Picasa automatically organises all your image and film files into collections of folders inside its main Library view.

Collections

This collection displays folders on your computer that contain pictures or films, sorted by date, with the original folder names as they appear on your computer's hard drive. Changes you make to the folders in this collection affect the matching folders on your computer's hard drive. Renaming a folder in Picasa is the same as renaming it in Windows Explorer.

Adjust which pictures and folders appear. Only folders that Picasa is configured to scan appear in this collection. To modify where Picasa scans for pictures, select “Folder Manager” on the “Tools” menu. Use the settings there to select or de-select the folders Picasa scans, choosing from these options: “Scan Once,” “Remove From Picasa” and “Watch For Changes.”

Move pictures between folders. Select a picture. With your mouse, drag and drop the picture to its new folder. To select more than one picture, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard as you select pictures. If you move a picture into a different folder on disk, Picasa will remind you that you are about to move the actual file on your computer's hard drive. Click the “OK” button to move the picture to a new location. Note: Moving pictures between folders in the “Folders on Disk” collection will affect their physical location on your hard drive.

Edit a folder description. Double-click on the title of any folder to open the Folder Properties box. Enter the new description. You can also modify the folder's date, place taken, or caption. Any descriptive information you add will be searchable in Picasa. Click the “OK” button. Changing the name of a folder in Picasa will change the name of the actual folder on your computer's hard drive.

Delete a picture from a folder. Select a picture, then go to “File” > “Delete,” or just hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Picasa will remind you that you are about to send that file to your computer's wastebasket. Click the “OK” button to remove the picture.

Labels Collection
This collection contains labels that you create in Picasa. Labels are used to group and organise pictures based on your own criteria and identified by a simple word or title. For example, you can create a label called “Flowers” to group all your pictures of flowers, or you might create a label like “Trip to the seaside” to arrange all your latest holiday snaps. Unlike the “Folders on Disk” collection, which matches exactly the folder locationson your computer, labels do not correspond to physical folders on your hard drive. If you delete or move pictures inside the labels collection, the original files stay safe in their original locations on your hard drive. You can even add the same image to multiple labels without creating multiple copies of the same image. Edits you make to a picture will also be applied to every instance of the image, including the original.

Create a new label. First select one or more pictures (you cannot create an empty label). Select “File” > “New Label” to create a new label in Picasa containing the selected picture(s). You can do the same thing by choosing a picture, clicking the “Label” button and selecting “New Label” on the popup list.

Add an existing label to a picture. The same picture can be assigned many labels in Picasa. Select a picture, click the “Label” button, and select an existing label from the list.

Change a label description. Double-click on the title of any label to open the “Label Properties” box. Enter a new description for the label. You can also modify the label's date, place taken, or caption. Any descriptive information you add will be searchable in Picasa. When you have finished, click the “OK” button

Delete a picture from a label. Select a picture. Right-click with your mouse and select “Remove from Label” in the context menu or press the Delete key on your keyboard. Note: Deleting a picture from a label does not delete the original file from your computer's hard drive.

Rearrange pictures in a label or between labels. Click and drag a picture to change its order within a label or drag it into another label to add it to that label. This does not affect the order in which the original files are stored on your computer.

Library tools:

Import
To import pictures from a digital camera, plug the hardware into your computer using its usual connection device, such as a USB cable or your camera cradle. Open Picasa. Click the “Import” button and select your device or folder from the dropdown menu (your camera should automatically be detected). Your pictures will automatically begin to appear in the “Import Tray.” After your pictures have finished loading, click the “Finish” button. Picasa will save the folders on your computer (in the My Pictures directory under a folder name you create) and display them in the “Folders on Disk” collection.

Slideshow
Select a folder or label and click the “Slideshow” button. This will open the slideshow player. Click the onscreen “Play” button to start the slideshow and make the player's controls disappear. You can hit the spacebar key on your keyboard or simply move your mouse to make the slideshow controls reappear at any time while your slideshow is playing. You can rotate pictures in the slideshow mode, add a star rating, and change the time duration that each slide is displayed. Hit the Escape key on your keyboard to stop the slideshow and return to the Picasa main library screen.

Timeline
The timeline view in Picasa is another way to look at the pictures in your collections. Just click the “Timeline” button and sweep back and forth through your photos using your mouseto navigate. Double-clicking on any album will start a slideshow.

Gift CD
Insert a blank CD into the writeable drive on your computer, select pictures or an album and click the “Gift CD” button. On the “Create a Gift CD” screen, photos with a checkmark will be included on your gift CD. De-select any pictures you do not want included. Under Step 1, click the “Add More” button if you would like to add pictures to the CD. If you would like your pictures displayed as a slideshow on the CD, tick that box. Finally, choose a size for your pictures. Under Step 2, name your CD. (Note: by default, a copy of Picasa software will be included on the CD.) Click the “Burn Disc” button to create your CD

Backup CD
Insert a blank CD into the writeable drive on your computer, select pictures you want to save, and click the “Backup” button. You can choose what folders will be backed up to a recordable CD or DVD (the kind you use on your computer, not your TV). You can create multiple backup sets, which makes it easy to keep all your pictures safe.

Search
If you type any text into the search box at the top right corner of the main Picasa library screen, Picasa will search your picture files' EXIF/camera data, keywords, labels, and any additional properties or captions you have entered inside the programme.

How to Change the Background Picture on your Desktop

Change Date and Time

Your computer's clock is used to record the time whenever you create or modify files on your computer. You can change the clock's time and time zone.

1. Click on the START button.

Change Date and Time

WINDOWS VISTA

Your computer's clock is used to record the time whenever you create or modify files on your computer. You can change the clock's time and time zone.

Defragmentation XP 
 

1 First, close all other programs and turn off your screen saver.
Close all programs that run automatically in the background, as an example; windows messenger, real player, virus software and etc. These will often interrupt the defragging process.

2 Click on Start then click on my My Computer.

3 Right Click on the C: Drive and choose Properties.

4 Choose the Tools tab.

5 Select the Defragmentation Button.

6 Click the Defragment button.

Defragmentation Vista

By default Vista is set to defrag automatically. If you right click on your hard drive and then go to properties and into Defragment now... There should be an option there that tells you whether auto defrag is on, how often it is set to run and when the last time it ran was.
It's probably easier just to let Vista automatically.

1. Firstly click HERE and select AVG FREE from the list of downloads
   
2. Click on download and select save
3. Save the file to your desktop
4. Once the download has complete double click on it to launch the setup
5. Follow the on screen instructions (the default settings will be fine)