Picasa Updates

A recent Picasa update (3.9 build 136.18) broke some of the functionality of the Import feature.  Some people couldn’t import pictures from their camera at all.  I found that I had to click the dropdown arrow to select my camera – when I hadn’t had to do that before.  They have since issued the next ‘build’ 136.19 and that problem has gone away. 

What Version Do You Have?

To check what version of Picasa you have, click on the Help menu, then About Picasa.  You will see a screen that looks like the following image.  Notice the numbers that are highlighted in yellow – that’s your version and build.

about

How Do You Upgrade?

If you have Automatic Updates turned on, you should get notices automatically when there is a new version and you will be prompted to install it.  To see if you have Automatic Updates turned on, click on Tools->Options->General.  Towards the bottom of the dialog box, you should see Automatic Updates and your choices are: Update Automatically, Ask Before Downloading Updates, Don’t Check for Updates.  Update Automatically is usually the right choice. 

If you want to manually check for updates, you can click on Help->Check for Updates.  If there is an update available, it will start downloading and it will update when you click OK.  If it reports that “the application is up to date” and you know that is not true, you can always go to www.picasa.google.com and click on Download Picasa.  Once it is downloaded, you need to open and run the picasa39-setup.exe to install it.  Don’t worry, you won’t end up with two copies, it will just overwrite your existing software.  It doesn’t touch your photos, everything will be just the same, you’ll just have the latest version of the program.

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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.

5 thoughts on “Picasa Updates”

    1. create a collage with just one photo, make the photo really small, make the background any solid color you want, then …. create the collage. Once it’s created, you can use the add text tool in the basic fixes tab to write anything you want on the new image and move it in front of the photos that this title slide refers to.
      If there is not a lot of text – just caption it and then make sure you “show captions” when you display this slide

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  1. Our version of Picasa does not have a HELP tab!
    I can see that its Version 3 and it looks to have been automatically downloaded on the 18 Feb 14
    Its all excruciatingly frustrating when all we want to do is download a hi res image from our suppliers.
    Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
    David

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