Picasa Tip: Flipping Photos

Someone recently told me that he had some old slides scanned and some of them came out backwards. Think of a photo like:

mirror1

It’s kind of useless like that! He asked me if Picasa could flip the photo so it would read correctly. I thought a minute about how a click of the clockwise arrow would rotate a picture 180 degrees, but I couldn’t think of how Picasa could actually flip a picture so that mirrored text would read correctly.

Fast forward a couple days, and we’re here at a big RV rally giving our Picasa seminar with over 500 people!! One attendee, Frank Geister, came up to me later and said, “Let me show you something cool I’ve discovered about Picasa and collages ….” It was a cool tip, and I might share that with you in a future post, but what really excited me was in our continued conversation he mentioned a keyboard shortcut for ‘Flipping’ a photo. I asked him to demonstrate that one!

All you do is click on the picture (either single click, or double-click) and hold down the Ctrl, Shift and hit the H key … Ctrl-Shift-H … is the command to Flip Horizontal (Command Shift H on Mac). Here’s the result:

mirror2

And, check out the list of all the keyboard shortcuts for Picasa.

THANKS Frank! I wish I knew who it was that asked me the question in the first place 😦 Maybe he’ll read this post!

This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour

Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

 

 

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geeksontour

Chris is a teacher. Although she comes as close to an expert as possible in many areas of computer usage, she can still remember what it's like not to know these things! That means she can communicate with students in a way that teaches and doesn't demean. She really enjoys teaching one-on-one and for groups of people, but she reaches a worldwide audience with her tutorial videos on the GeeksOnTour.com website. She currently travels the country in an RV with her husband, Jim. As Geeks on Tour, they present computer seminars at RV rallies, computer clubs, and Senior Centers all over the US.

12 thoughts on “Picasa Tip: Flipping Photos”

  1. Chris, what is needed to “Scan” a slide? I’ve got a ton of old slides and a scanner, but is there some way to get them to Picasa? By the way, thanks for the article on scanning old photos. I spent 2 weekends scanning hundreds of old photos. Got them out of the shoebox into the computer and 2 backup discs besides. Thanks again! Jim

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  2. I’m amazed at the things we can do with Picasa. Special thanks for the link to the keyboard shortcuts. That’s very helpful.

    I look forward to each issue of your newsletter. Learning CAN be fun, even for us “Seniors.”

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  3. I have a CanoScan 8600f flat bed scanner that will also scan slides and film strips. It can be found for under $175. I have just completed a personal project where I scanned over 50 slide reels. The scans came out beautifully. In addition, if the slide has aged, you can change the picture as well as eliminate dust specks automatically. It’s pretty cool.

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  4. THANK YOU THANK YOU! I just tried out my new wolverine F2D scanner and did not realize I was scanning the slides upside down (printed side of slide holder up). I was going to have to re-scan them all until I saw this horizontal flipping shortcut! THANK YOU!

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  5. How do you do the photo that’s vertical & horizontal? Do you flip them in the library? I just don’t get it. I think I need step by step instructions.
    Thanks Beth

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