How to Embed a Picasa Slideshow of a Folder

Turn any website into a slide projector by embedding a Picasa slideshow.

The free Picasa software from Google lets you organize and edit the photos that exist on your hard drive. You can upload those photos to Picasa's online photo sharing counterpart, Picasa Web, by signing in to your Google account and syncing them. When uploading an entire Picasa folder to Picasa Web, the folder becomes an online photo album. From there, you can embed a fully customized slideshow of the album into any website you control.

Instructions

Uploading a Picasa Folder to Picasa Web

1. Launch Picasa on your computer and wait for it to import any photos added to your hard drive since the last time you launched Picasa.

2. Click the arrow to the left of the "Folders" sub-menu in the navigation menu on the left side of the screen in Picasa. This reveals the folders you have imported to Picasa.

3. Scroll-down the "Folders" sub-menu until you see the one you want to embed, and click it to view its contents in the main window.

4. Click the arrow to the right of the "Share" button under the folder title in the main window and select "Enable Sync" from the resulting drop-down menu. A new window opens.

5. Type your Google username and password in the new window if you are not already signed-in to the Google account associated with your Picasa Web profile, and then click "Sign In." A "Sync Album to Web" window opens.

6. Select the "Sync" button in the "Sync Album to Web" window and wait for all the photos in the selected folder to upload to your Picasa Web profile. A new Picasa Web album is created on your profile automatically.

Embedding a Picasa Web Album

1. Launch a Web browser and navigate to the Picasa homepage at picasaweb.google.com. Sign in to your Google account if you are not already signed in.

2. Click the newly uploaded album cover to view its contents and all the associated actions you can take with the album.

3. Select "Link to this Album" in the options menu on the right side of the screen while viewing the contents of the album. An "Embed Slideshow" link appears below that. Click the link to reveal the slideshow options panel.

4. Click the drop-down menu in the slideshow options panel and select a size. You can choose "Small," "Medium," "Large," "Extra Large" or "Extra-extra Large."

5. Click to select or deselect the boxes labeled "Show Captions," "Autoplay" and "HTML Links (for Myspace)," according to your preferences.

6. Click inside the yellow box containing the embed code for the slideshow. Copy the code to your computer's clipboard by pressing "Ctrl-C."

7. Open your website template and paste the code where you want it to appear on your site.

References

• Picasa Help: "Sync to Web" Basics: Syncing Your Changes - Picasa to Picasa Web Albums
• Picasa Help: Embedding Albums, Images and Slideshows: Different Ways to Share

Resources

• Picasa 3: Free Download From Google
• Picasa Web Albums: Home