Help! with Picasa & PSElements 7

[Liz]

I purchased a new HP computer about 6 months ago - and it's working fine. However, I'm having a major problem trying to upload and edit my images. At the same time I purchased the pc, I also had PSE7 installed. Up until now I had always used PSE3 which was quite easy for me (I don't spend much time editing). The person who set up my computer and installed the software also set up Picasa on the new pc (I had been using it on my old computer without a problem). Also, up until this time, I had always saved my images on the external hard drive.

Now I don't quite know what is happening - and I don't know if it's "me" or the computer, Picasa or PSE7 that is the causing the problem, but here is what I'm encountering. (BTW, I'm a bit "technically challenged" so I'm probably doing something wacky, but don't know how to resolve it).

As soon as I put in an SD card, the photos automatically are picked up by Picasa and downloaded into my hard drive. I have tried just "viewing" the images, but for some reason, when I look for my pictures later, they are all there in Picasa - and on my hard drive. The biggest problem is, I can't figure out how to save one or two photos. If I have 50 photos on my SD card and just want to save a couple new ones, every photo gets saved. I have recently found photos that I spent hours deleting - they are still there! They just have a red-x through the photo - but they are still on my hard drive - and they come up on Picasa too. I have also found 3-4 or more copies of the same image in different files throughout my computer. I cannot figure out how to transfer them to my external HD.

PSE7 - I don't know if Picasa is messing with this software or what. But I have a similar problem here. The photos seem to get downloaded over and over again each time I try to edit a photo, I end up with every photo on the card showing up in PSE7 and saved on the HD.

I think the source of the problem is Picasa - for some reason, I can't stop it from uploading every photo. Then PSE7 seems to find all these photos - and once again, my screen is filled with duplicates.

Also - I have read where Picasa does download photos more than once. I have also read where PSE7 has some problems. I wish I had PSE3 back. Now PSE8 is out, but there is nothing about "fixing" glitches from PSE7.

Bottom line: how can I delete these multiple photos and files? How can I prevent this from happening. My goal is to be able to put in a SD card - and pick and choose what I want downloaded and saved. Then edit the photos on PSE7 without Picasa saving them somewhere - and I find them later. I also do not want them saved on my HD - but to my external HD.

For me personally, I need a simple set up - that I can control.

I hope this makes sense. Any thoughts, advice, whatever?

Thanks!

Liz

[Frog]

I'm technically challenged to but have to ask if you've emptied your recycle bin lately, or ever?
That's the first thing I think of when you say they are still there with an x on them.

[Liz]

I'm technically challenged to but have to ask if you've emptied your recycle bin lately, or ever?
That's the first thing I think of when you say they are still there with an x on them.

Frog - I do empty my recycle bin often. However, I'm really glad you mentioned this because my recycle bin disappeared from my desktop. I must have deleted it vs deleting the photos! At any rate, I emptied it just now. In the meantime, I didn't see any more red-x photos on Picasa or PSE7. However, I did not put in the card from where I deleted them - I didn't want to upload any more photos to my HD. And, as I mentioned, every time I put in a card, all the photos get downloaded again.

Thanks Frog! Hopefully this solves one problem. I appreciate the info.

Liz

[BlueRob]

I have played with Picassa only once in my mothers machine...TBH I did hate it, same issues you are mentioning and I do not understand the job Picassa actually does...for me it does the same as Windows but in a more challenging way. I have played with computers for many years from A to Z hardware to software and deal with images very often, from my camera and from 3D renderings.

Without Picasa or other Imaging software windows its easy and simple IMO...just plug in the camera or card, open the folder, and either copy, cut or delete images within...simple as that.

If you dont have a heavy reason to have Picasa in you machines my suggestion is to delete (uninstall) it and deal with you images with the windows environment., it fast and very straight forward in my humble opinion

[Liz]

I have played with Picassa only once in my mothers machine...TBH I did hate it, same issues you are mentioning and I do not understand the job Picassa actually does...for me it does the same as Windows but in a more challenging way. I have played with computers for many years from A to Z hardware to software and deal with images very often, from my camera and from 3D renderings.

Without Picasa or other Imaging software windows its easy and simple IMO...just plug in the camera or card, open the folder, and either copy, cut or delete images within...simple as that.

If you dont have a heavy reason to have Picasa in you machines my suggestion is to delete (uninstall) it and deal with you images with the windows environment., it fast and very straight forward in my humble opinion

I agree about Picasa - I probably will delete it at this point. However, I need an editing software.

One question - For editing, in the past I found PSElements 3 exactly enough - simple editing does it for me. I try to get the best I can out of camera. Do you have any input on PSE7? I read somewhere that there are some problems with it (can't recall exactly what). I'm wondering if I should try to get an "old" copy of Elements3 - or upgrade to PSE8 which is on sale for $50 right now.

Thanks.
Liz

[BlueRob]

Sorry Liz I cant give any input on PSE, I have never work with it. I have worked with Corel and lately with Adobe Products CS3 bundle mainly. I found Adobe Photoshop very complete thus its much more expensive.
For mere editing I`m currently trying Lightroom2 and before using I was a bit skeptical about it, I thought I would miss the "chunky" feel of photoshop, to my surprise I was very pleased with it, I has a super straight forward interface, easy to understand and learn and the results were really over of what I expected. If you have a chance try it out, might be worth getting an evaluation copy for you to try out. If you like better PSE go for it.

HTH

[readingr]

Liz,

I am going to assume that your using Vista. If not can you let me know what your using.

1. to get the recycle bin back on the desk top right click on an empty sapce on the desktop and click personalize.

2. under tasks in the darker color banner on the left click on Change desktop icons

3. click on the box next to Recycle Bin

4. Click OK then your done.

One more thing. Under All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, there is a program called Disk Cleanup. Once a week you should run this program for all users and all drives on the computer and tick all the tick boxes. This will make sure that your file system is kept clean of clutter.

Now Picasa v Photoshop

One likely reason is that Picasa and Photoshop store the photos in different places so when you started up Photoshop to import photo's it picked up all the photos from both areas giving you duplicates.

Another is that neither Picasa nor Photoshop remember what has been imported so they keep re-importing all the pictures on the card each time.

In Photoshop there is a button to go into advanced dialog. This allows you to see all the photos on the card and chose which ones you want to import by unticking the little check box.

Hope that helps - if you have more questions then send me an e-mail to roger.reading@readingr.com and I'll help. By the way this is how it is in PSE7.

Roger R.

[Liz]

Sorry Liz I cant give any input on PSE, I have never work with it. I have worked with Corel and lately with Adobe Products CS3 bundle mainly. I found Adobe Photoshop very complete thus its much more expensive.
For mere editing I`m currently trying Lightroom2 and before using I was a bit skeptical about it, I thought I would miss the "chunky" feel of photoshop, to my surprise I was very pleased with it, I has a super straight forward interface, easy to understand and learn and the results were really over of what I expected. If you have a chance try it out, might be worth getting an evaluation copy for you to try out. If you like better PSE go for it.

HTH

Thank you for taking the time to reply - and for the thumbs up on Lightroom. I'll look into it. A "super straight forward interface" sounds good to me. I'll have to check out the price too! I'm inclined to keep PSE7 for the moment since I installed it not too long ago. Sometimes I just don't have the patience because I'm technically challenged and found PSE7 to be a bit complicated. However I just purchased a new book "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 Visually." I've used the Visual books before and found them easy to follow.

Liz

[Liz]

Liz,

I am going to assume that your using Vista. If not can you let me know what your using.
1. to get the recycle bin back on the desk top right click on an empty sapce on the desktop and click personalize.
2. under tasks in the darker color banner on the left click on Change desktop icons
3. click on the box next to Recycle Bin
4. Click OK then your done.
One more thing. Under All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, there is a program called Disk Cleanup. Once a week you should run this program for all users and all drives on the computer and tick all the tick boxes. This will make sure that your file system is kept clean of clutter.
Now Picasa v Photoshop
One likely reason is that Picasa and Photoshop store the photos in different places so when you started up Photoshop to import photo's it picked up all the photos from both areas giving you duplicates.
Another is that neither Picasa nor Photoshop remember what has been imported so they keep re-importing all the pictures on the card each time.
In Photoshop there is a button to go into advanced dialog. This allows you to see all the photos on the card and chose which ones you want to import by unticking the little check box.
Hope that helps - if you have more questions then send me an e-mail to roger.reading@readingr.com and I'll help. By the way this is how it is in PSE7.
Roger R.

Roger,

Thank you very much for your help here. My recycle bin is back on my desktop - and empty! I also went through all my photos and deleted all the duplicates (I hope). For some reason since the last time I checked, Picasa for some reason duplicated every photo that had been uploaded on their website. After deleting these photos, some of the duplicates and deleted photos showed up on PSE7 - so I deleted them. Frog was correct - I didn't see any more of the deleted photos marked with a "red-x."

I also moved many of the files/photos from my HD to the external HD where I want them. My goal is to move the rest of the photos from the HD to the EHD and get rid of Picasa so I'm only using one program PSE7. This should simplify my photography life quite a bit! At least this way I can view the photos from PSE7 and delete some right from the card and upload only what I want uploaded - the EHD.

I also purchased the "Teach Yourself Visually" PSE7. I've used this series of books previously for computer learning and find them quite easy to follow.

I am using Vista, but the person who installs/repairs my pc is going to install Windows 7 when he is available. He has been using Win7 for months (he gets the beta version long before the sale begins). He said it is excellent - the best yet. I trust his judgment since his work is building computers.

I'm printing out your email so I can follow the rest of your advice. I think I'm about 3/4 of the way through sorting out the photos now. I have a new EP1 camera and have many new photos on the SD card, but have not even viewed them on the computer because I couldn't deal with all the duplicates, etc. (I still haven't deleted the old photos from the cards). I'm hoping to complete this project by the weekend.

One question - when I confirm that all my photos are moved to my external HD, is there an easy way to get rid of Picasa? I usually just delete the software, but I'm not sure how to do this. I also have google as my home page - and use gmail. I want to be sure what I do doesn't effect either one.

BTW, I was 3/4 of the way through typing this and my pc decided to update - and restarted! Back to square one!

Thank you again, Roger. What a great help you've been!

Liz

[BlueRob]

Thank you for taking the time to reply - and for the thumbs up on Lightroom. I'll look into it. A "super straight forward interface" sounds good to me. I'll have to check out the price too! I'm inclined to keep PSE7 for the moment since I installed it not too long ago. Sometimes I just don't have the patience because I'm technically challenged and found PSE7 to be a bit complicated. However I just purchased a new book "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 Visually." I've used the Visual books before and found them easy to follow.

Liz

No problem Liz, glad to help. Is good to "marry" a software you like...but on the other hand if you feel its to complicated and you have to "struggle" be open minded and try other options, usually you can work for 30 days on evaluation copies for free....enough to get to feel them.

Regarding books....remember that if you press F1 key on your keyboard it will display the help file for the given software currently open. Usually but not always this files are very easy to understand and gives you a good insight of the tools and interface. As a compliment look for tutorial videos on internet...this is particularly helpful IMO
Hey you never know! you might end saving some in the piggy bank ;)

One last hint....choose software the meet you needs...some of the programs around pack a ton full of options that you might not be interested in...all this gadgets or features tend to complicate things if you are aiming for "ease of use".

[Liz]

No problem Liz, glad to help. Is good to "marry" a software you like...but on the other hand if you feel its to complicated and you have to "struggle" be open minded and try other options, usually you can work for 30 days on evaluation copies for free....enough to get to feel them.

Regarding books....remember that if you press F1 key on your keyboard it will display the help file for the given software currently open. Usually but not always this files are very easy to understand and gives you a good insight of the tools and interface. As a compliment look for tutorial videos on internet...this is particularly helpful IMO
Hey you never know! you might end saving some in the piggy bank ;)

One last hint....choose software the meet you needs...some of the programs around pack a ton full of options that you might not be interested in...all this gadgets or features tend to complicate things if you are aiming for "ease of use".

Wow! Thanks again. To be honest, I did not know the F1 key would display help for software that was not in the computer to begin with. See, I told you I'm "technically challenged" and need to work with the "dummies" books (although I prefer the "teach yourself visually series). Show & tell works well for me!

I hadn't thought about video tutorials online. Great information here. Since I already invested in the PSE7, I'm going to give it my first try. I really like the PSE3 version (very simple). Version 7 has a lot more features that I won't use, but if I can figure out the basics, the editing should be simple. Using Picasa and PSE7 together caused this mess. I feel much better now that I have so much accomplished already.

Thanks again. I'm most grateful for all the help I'm getting here. AND, I'm looking forward to seeing some of the images from the EP1 that I purchased a couple of months ago - once I get organized. :thumbsup:

Liz

[BlueRob]

Wow! Thanks again. To be honest, I did not know the F1 key would display help for software that was not in the computer to begin with. See, I told you I'm "technically challenged" and need to work with the "dummies" books (although I prefer the "teach yourself visually series). Show & tell works well for me!

I hadn't thought about video tutorials online. Great information here. Since I already invested in the PSE7, I'm going to give it my first try. I really like the PSE3 version (very simple). Version 7 has a lot more features that I won't use, but if I can figure out the basics, the editing should be simple. Using Picasa and PSE7 together caused this mess. I feel much better now that I have so much accomplished already.

Thanks again. I'm most grateful for all the help I'm getting here. AND, I'm looking forward to seeing some of the images from the EP1 that I purchased a couple of months ago - once I get organized. :thumbsup:

Liz

:thumbsup: "technically challenged" is a hard...I´ll tell you a little secret about computers...dealing with computers is like dealing with women...in you case with men LOL ...you need to spend time "investigating" do´s and dont´s and the only way to achieve this is to spend time trying, and don´t be discouraged if you fail try to understand what happen and try again....software interfaces are meant to be intuitive (some fail no doubt but is the minority) seat down a spend time trying different tools and procedures...its fun! I´m sure in no time it will become a breeze ;)