When you first install Picasa, it asks if you want to scan your entire computer or just your My Documents folder for pictures. If you select one option but change your mind, you can add more folders or subtract folders to the Picasa index by doing the following:
1. Click on FILE
2. Click on Add Folders to Picasa
3. Select a file then click on the "Always Scan" bullet at the side.
4. Click OK and it will scan all the given folders for photos.
Every profession has its tools. I have found a number of great tools that help get me through the day.
If you or someone you know tinkers with computer, here are some of the essential tools.
1. Swiss Army USB flash drive knife – This is a genuine Swiss Army knife with a built in USB flash drive, flashlight, ball point pen, screwdriver (perfect size for computer screws), scissors and knife.
2. External hard drive enclosure – this is a cool device that lets you place any hard drive into it to convert it into an external USB drive. These are perfect for transfering data from one computer to another.
The ability to send attachments via email is great. You can attach an important work form to your employees or just a silly picture to a friend.
If you enjoy sending attachments, here are a few things to keep in mind.
1. Not everyone has the same programs that you do. If you are sending a spreadsheet document from Microsoft Excel or Quattro Pro, save the file as a .csv (comma separated value) instead of the default format. If you are using Microsoft Word, Works or Word Perfect, save your file as a .rtf (rich text format) file. These formats can be read by any computer. Microsoft PowerPoint is also a common format for email attachments and very few home computers actually have the program on their computer.
I used to make a lot of Analogies relating computers to cars. I don’t do that much any more because I have realized that computers are not cars. Computers are not like anything we have ever used at any other time in the history of the world.
Your car is used to get you from point A to point B. It is not designed to do anything else. Sure it may have a few bells and whistles, but when you stop to think about it, it doesn’t matter how comfortable the seats are or whether it has a cooled glove box if the car won’t get you from point to point.
The Internet is a wonderful resource for all sorts of topics related to digital photography.
Here are a list of links and topics where you can learn more.
Researching equipment:
Filters: Various filters found in most good image editing programs allow you to make drastic changes to a photo in one fell swoop!
Digital Darkroom Basics
The inaugural meeting of our Digital Photography SIG was amazing. We literally had a standing room only crowd and as with all of your Users Groups meetings the information shared was nothing short of fantastic. Here is some of the information shared at the meeting:
Basic computer requirements
If you already have a computer and it is working great for your purposes, don’t take this as a suggestion to buy a new computer. However, if you are in the market for a new computer and want to know what to look for, here are
my suggestions from the meeting.
Holiday Greeting Cards
Using the techniques discussed this month you can create a stand-alone post card style greeting card, or make the photos on the front or inside of your greeting cards much more personalized.
Although the card above does not look that much like one you would send out for the Holidays, it uses several important effects and techniques that are only limited by your creativity.
What can you do with Picasa 2?
Picasa 2 is a free program made by Google that allows you to organize your photos without any effort on your part.
Besides organizing photos it also has some great creativity tools including gift CDs, slide shows, and blogging tools.
HOW TO GET PICASA:
1. 
Either click on this button, or go to www.picasa.com and click on the Free Download button.
Fun With Photoshop Elements
Photoshop Elements is great for making pictures look better, but there are a number of tools within Photoshop Elements that you may not know about. Some are practical, others are just fun.
Give layers beveled or glowing edges:
This is especially fun with text, but it can also be a handy skill for scrapbook pages or photo collages.
This technique works especially well with text – but you can do it to any layer (besides the background layer).