Is picasa the easiest photo management program?

[Inspector Jihad]

I need something for my parents that is easy to use. As with most old people, they are pretty computer illiterate and end up yelling at me for being a failure cause I can't help them organize their pictures D:

 

[shortylickens]

Actually I dont think its the easiest. Its good for being free, especially with batch uploading and basic editing tools. But I find ACDSee to be easier to use. For one thing it doesnt require you to make albums just to view photos. I find it easier to browse all over my computer within ACDSee but in Picasa its easier to just close, go back to Explorer and click on the image.

Also what OS are they using? Cuz frankly the new thumbnail viewer in Win 7 is much better than the one in XP (just about the only Explorer change I liked) and its also much faster than before. I recommend that for most people. Took Microsoft forever to make it work right but now I save 30 bucks a year on utility software cuz of that.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Picasa is pretty good for being free. I think Windows Live Photo Gallery (also free) is more intuitive.

 

[corkyg]

Picasa has some serious limitations. ACDSee is good - as is Irfanview and Gimp. And, Windows Picture Manager comes with MS OFFice - also good.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

they're on windows 7...i'll try windows live photo gallery with them.

 

[EagleKeeper]

6 year old granddaughter uses it pulling pictures off the camera and organizing.

Much would depend on what else your parents want to do with the pics.

 

[Griffinhart]

Picasa is pretty good for being free. I think Windows Live Photo Gallery (also free) is more intuitive.

I've been using Windows Live Photo Gallery for a while, and decided to try Picassa again as I used to use that previously.

Picassa is quite good, but I like Live Gallery better. Both manage photo's fine, but Picassa only publishes photos and videos to Google owned services (Picassa web and YouTube). On the other hand, I can use Live Photo Gallery to publish photo's to more than just Microsoft services but a host of 3rd party services such as Inkubook, AutoCollage, Image Composite Editor, Photosynth, Facebook, Youtube, Digital Picture Frames, SmugMug, Gallery, Twitpic, Multiply, Drupal, Rajce.net, Flickr....

I use it to post photo's to Facebook and Flickr all the time.

 

[shortylickens]

ACDSee only uploads to their own service or Flickr or SmugMug. Nowhere else.

Truth be told I like Picasa best cuz its totally free, and easy to manage from either the app or the page directly. And its right there in my Gmail which is always logged on anyway.
ACDSees albums are a pain and I dont see the advantage to Flickr or SmugMug.

My only beef with ACDSee as a program is it gets bigger and more expensive each version, and thats just the Basic. The Pro is way overpriced for what it does.
BUT, it also gets faster. It was always the fastest decoder/viewer for massive numbers of files, and the new version now displays RAW's just as quickly as JPG's. In the last version RAW's usually hiccuped for a second before displaying but now they pop up instantly.
For someone like me who prefers to shoot in RAW its kinda nice.

 

[WildHorse]

Coppermine Photo Gallery

or
Gallery


But if EASE is the priority, then just use the Windows Picture Manager

Or, make a free account on skydrive.live.com
and make a folder in there for photos.

 

[blinblue]

I've been using Windows Live Photo Gallery for a while, and decided to try Picassa again as I used to use that previously.

Picassa is quite good, but I like Live Gallery better. Both manage photo's fine, but Picassa only publishes photos and videos to Google owned services (Picassa web and YouTube). On the other hand, I can use Live Photo Gallery to publish photo's to more than just Microsoft services but a host of 3rd party services such as Inkubook, AutoCollage, Image Composite Editor, Photosynth, Facebook, Youtube, Digital Picture Frames, SmugMug, Gallery, Twitpic, Multiply, Drupal, Rajce.net, Flickr....

I use it to post photo's to Facebook and Flickr all the time.

I personally use Picasa, haven't tried Live Gallery yet, though I think I'll give it a shot.

However, Picasa can do uploads to Facebook (and Flikr, and probably most of those other ones too) via plugins. Just do a quick google search. I use the facebook one fairly frequently, works like a charm each time.

 

[Griffinhart]

I personally use Picasa, haven't tried Live Gallery yet, though I think I'll give it a shot.

However, Picasa can do uploads to Facebook (and Flikr, and probably most of those other ones too) via plugins. Just do a quick google search. I use the facebook one fairly frequently, works like a charm each time.

Ah, I didn't know there were plug ins, I just didn't see any obvious method when I looked at picassa.

 

[corkyg]

Has Picasa ever been upgraded so as to be able to do a SAVE AS with a displayed photo? As of Version 2 it could not - that's when I dumped it.