How to Install and Use Free Picasa Web Templates

Google acquired Picasa in July 2004 to make photo management on Blogger.com easier.

Picasa is Google's free photo editing and management program that offers uploading and organizational tools to make sharing online albums easier. When you first launch Picasa, it searches your computer, finds all your photos and displays them in the user interface. The program features basic album creation tools but does not have advanced galleries or slide shows. To create a themed or Flash-based album, you need to download and install a template created by a Picasa designer. Designers offer Picasa templates as freeware or donationware on select websites.

Instructions

1. Launch your Web browser. Type "Picasa Templates" into the search field and click a link for a website offering free templates, such as Futureofmemories.com.

2. Select a template and click the "Download" button. If you are browsing Futureofmemories.com, click the "Download Now" button next to "Contributing Templates" to download all of the templates at once.

3. Unzip the downloaded file and extract the contents to "C:\Program Files\Picasa2\web\templates." If you have a Mac, extract to "\Applications\Picasa\Contents\Resources\Web\Templates".

4. Launch Picasa. Look through the folders on the left side of the panel for pictures to add to your gallery. Click the "Pin" icon at the bottom of the screen to add each photo. Alternatively, highlight the name of an entire folder.

5. Click the "Album" icon under the "Pin" icon. Select "New Album" from the list, type in a name and click "OK."

6. Highlight your album in the "Albums" window at the top left corner of the screen. Click "Folder" from the main toolbar and select "Export As HTML Page."

7. Select the size of your photos from the drop-down menu. Select a template from the list and then choose a destination for the HTML file and photos.

8. Click "Export" to save the files and bring up a preview of the gallery in your browser. To add the gallery to a website, upload the files to your Web server using your preferred FTP client.

References

• Google: Picasa Web Albums Help: Creating an Album
• Google: Picasa Web Albums Help: Create Photos Webpage
• The Future of Memories: Narrative Templates for Picasa Two and Three

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Google: Picasa Web Albums Help: Sorting Photos
• Google: Picasa Web Albums Help: Getting Started Guide