Google Power Tools Bible

A major benefit of cataloging images using a system like that found in Picasa2 is the ability to search for specific files or groups of files quickly.

Tagging images with stars

In Picasa2, you can catalog images by adding a star, a keyword, or multiple keywords. Any image can include both a star and keywords.

To tag an image with a star, select the image or images in the Lightbox. In the Photo Tray, click the Add/Remove Star button, as shown in Figure 21.16.

Figure 21.16: Add a star to flag an image for easy access.

To locate any of the starred images, simply click the Starred Photos album in the Library to display all starred images in the Lightbox. If you have a folder containing both starred and unstarred images, click Select Starred in the Lightbox to automatically select the starred images, like the two shown in Figure 21.17.

Figure 21.17: Use stars as a means of selecting images in a folder.

Labeling images with keywords

Keywords are terms you use in a collection of images to describe its contents. Keywords are used to search for a specific image or images in your Library.

To add a keyword to an image, follow these steps:

1. Select the image or images in the Lightbox. If you are applying the same keyword to a group of images, you can select them all at once.

2. Choose View Keywords to open the Picasa: Keywords dialog box.

   You can also use press Ctrl+K to open the dialog box.

3. Type the text in the Add Keyword text field and click Add, or press Enter to move the word to the Keywords list, as shown in Figure 21.18.

   Figure 21.18: Add keywords to describe the contents of an image.

   Add more keywords to the list and click OK to close the dialog box when you finish.

4. To add more keywords, select the images within the larger group and repeat Steps 2 to 4.

   Continue selecting images and adding keywords until you define the images in the group as precisely as you require in a normal search.

You can search a large number of images quickly for a subset of images when a system of carefully designed keywords has been applied. For example, the group of 12 images shown in Figure 21.19 has an assortment of keywords applied. All images use the keywords tropical, vacation, cruise, and belize. Of that group of images, nine images include the keyword beach; six images include the keyword palapa; two images include the words pirate and ship, and one image includes the words braid and beard. When a search is performed, all images are returned using the term tropical while only two images are returned using the term pirate.

Figure 21.19: Keywords can be applied to a group of images at once.

Tagging an image to its location

For added interest, and a really cool addition to your image collection, tag your images to a specific location using Google Earth. The GPS (Global Positioning System) data is embedded into the photo’s metadata, letting you see the photo on a rendered map in Google Earth.

Follow these steps to geotag an image:

1. Select your photo or photos in Picasa2.

2. Choose Tools Geotag Geotag with Google Earth. Google Earth opens, and a small Picasa2 window overlays the bottom right of the program window. You see the images you selected in the Picasa2 window, as shown in Figure 21.20.

   Figure 21.20: The selected images are shown in an overlay window in Google Earth.

3. Display the locale corresponding to your first image. The locale is defined in one of two ways:

   • If you previously typed information in the Place Taken field of the Picasa2 folder description (refer to Figure 21.10) the locale is shown automatically in the Google Earth program.

   • If the location hasn’t been identified, use the navigation tools in Google Earth to specify the locale by placing it below the large crosshairs that overlay the map, as shown in Figure 21.21.

     Figure 21.21: Move the map into the correct location to position the locale below the crosshairs.

4. Once the correct location is identified, click Geotag on the Picasa2 window.

5. Select the next image in the Picasa2 overlay window and repeat Steps 3 and 4.

   If all the pictures use the same location, click Geotag All to set each image’s locale simultaneously.

6. Click Done when you finish tagging the files to add the information to the images.

In Picasa2, thumbnails of images that are geotagged are identified by a crosshair icon in the Lightbox, such as the images seen in Figure 21.22.

Figure 21.22: Geotagged images display an identifying icon on their thumbnails in the Lightbox.

If you want to remove the geotag, choose Tools Geotag Clear Geotag info. The information is removed from the image’s metadata, the icon is removed from the photo’s thumbnail, and the photo is removed from Google Earth.

Viewing an image’s metadata

Picasa2 lets you view an image’s Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) metadata, which includes different types of information about the content and structure of a file. EXIF is a standard for storing interchange information in image files. Most digital cameras now use EXIF and store information such as the camera and flash settings.

You can see basic metadata for a file by selecting an image in the Lightbox and choosing Properties from the shortcut menu or the Picture menu to open the dialog box shown in Figure 21.23. The available information varies according to the type of image and the camera data attached to the file. When you geotag an image, you see the GPS information, shown as the locale’s longitude and latitude, included with other EXIF metadata.

Figure 21.23: The image’s longitude and latitude are included as part of the file’s metadata.