Do my bidding, PICASA!
October 18, 2012 10:46 AM Subscribe
How can I get Picasa to organize the way I want?
I'm trying to set up a workable way for my dad to transfer photos sent to him as email attachments into Picasa. The current setup allows him to right click-save the photos to a folder (let's call it Email Pictures), and that folder is being monitored by Picasa for new photos. What is happening is that the photos are going into Picasa under a folder called Email Pictures, which is swelling to an unmanageable girth.
Photos that he transfers from his camera using "Import" from within the Picasa program are being sorted properly, from what I can tell. However, that may just be because he is creating a new dated folder each time he imports, whereas the email pictures are being added to a pre-existing folder.
I want the pictures saved into Email Pictures to be integrated into Picasa according to the date taken. Ideally, his entire Picasa library would consist of dated folders or albums (not sure which), each containing pictures taken only on that date. I also would like to avoid having him create a new folder each time he saves some photos from email. This seems like something that should be doable, but durned if I can figure it out. Can anyone help?
I'm trying to set up a workable way for my dad to transfer photos sent to him as email attachments into Picasa. The current setup allows him to right click-save the photos to a folder (let's call it Email Pictures), and that folder is being monitored by Picasa for new photos. What is happening is that the photos are going into Picasa under a folder called Email Pictures, which is swelling to an unmanageable girth.
Photos that he transfers from his camera using "Import" from within the Picasa program are being sorted properly, from what I can tell. However, that may just be because he is creating a new dated folder each time he imports, whereas the email pictures are being added to a pre-existing folder.
I want the pictures saved into Email Pictures to be integrated into Picasa according to the date taken. Ideally, his entire Picasa library would consist of dated folders or albums (not sure which), each containing pictures taken only on that date. I also would like to avoid having him create a new folder each time he saves some photos from email. This seems like something that should be doable, but durned if I can figure it out. Can anyone help?
Response by poster: He doesn't use Picasa Web. I use it to back up my pictures online, but have never done any monkeying around with it. Also, that seems like the same amount of work as saving them to a common folder on his PC and then manually creating new folders for each set according to the date the photos were taken. I'm really hoping there is a way to automate this process to take as many steps as possible out of my dad's hands (no offence dad who will never ever see this website let alone this question). Maybe using the metadata?
posted by joelhunt at 11:39 AM on October 18, 2012
posted by joelhunt at 11:39 AM on October 18, 2012
Ideally, his entire Picasa library would consist of dated folders or albums (not sure which), each containing pictures taken only on that date.
One of the things I really, really like about Picasa is that it does not mess with the way I have my photos organized on disk; it just watches my existing photo folders and copes.
So I'm thinking that Picasa is probably not your best option for doing automated folder structure maintenance. You might want to look into using something like AmoK Exif Sorter instead, which looks like it's designed for the exact job you want done.
posted by flabdablet at 2:27 AM on October 19, 2012
One of the things I really, really like about Picasa is that it does not mess with the way I have my photos organized on disk; it just watches my existing photo folders and copes.
So I'm thinking that Picasa is probably not your best option for doing automated folder structure maintenance. You might want to look into using something like AmoK Exif Sorter instead, which looks like it's designed for the exact job you want done.
posted by flabdablet at 2:27 AM on October 19, 2012
Picasa doesn't sort photos. It just indexes them in place - which is honestly why I like it, because it respects the folder structure I have set.
I use a Java program to sort photos - Dim. I have it set to watch one specific folder. My camera import software dumps images into that folder. After import, I open Dim, run it, and the photos get sorted into my desired folder settings (Pictures/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD/). Then I open Picasa and let it index the photos.
I haven't used Amok but it looks like it hits the same buttons (free, cross-platform, etc.).
The settings in Dim need to be tweaked. By default it will rename photos - you have to turn this option off if you prefer to keep the images names as-is (I don't want anything renaming images, personally). It can be set to check for duplicates, and either ignore, overwrite, or make copies of duplicates as desired (e.g. duplicate is named "Image001-1.jpg"). It can be set to delete files after successful move (although it warns you every time when using this setting). You can also set it to move things like the video formats commonly used by cameras, just add the extension into the preferences. (It ignores any file types not included in the prefs.)
It remembers the last settings used, so will start up again on the same initial folder with the same output settings. This is again why I like it: All imports get dumped to a single source folder, whether they come from my phone, camera, or email. I open and run Dim, and they all get moved where I want them. Then I close Dim and delete anything left in the source folder, because anything not moved is clearly a duplicate.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:41 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I use a Java program to sort photos - Dim. I have it set to watch one specific folder. My camera import software dumps images into that folder. After import, I open Dim, run it, and the photos get sorted into my desired folder settings (Pictures/YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD/). Then I open Picasa and let it index the photos.
I haven't used Amok but it looks like it hits the same buttons (free, cross-platform, etc.).
The settings in Dim need to be tweaked. By default it will rename photos - you have to turn this option off if you prefer to keep the images names as-is (I don't want anything renaming images, personally). It can be set to check for duplicates, and either ignore, overwrite, or make copies of duplicates as desired (e.g. duplicate is named "Image001-1.jpg"). It can be set to delete files after successful move (although it warns you every time when using this setting). You can also set it to move things like the video formats commonly used by cameras, just add the extension into the preferences. (It ignores any file types not included in the prefs.)
It remembers the last settings used, so will start up again on the same initial folder with the same output settings. This is again why I like it: All imports get dumped to a single source folder, whether they come from my phone, camera, or email. I open and run Dim, and they all get moved where I want them. Then I close Dim and delete anything left in the source folder, because anything not moved is clearly a duplicate.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:41 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
PS - Dim stores the settings in an XML file, "DIMConfig.xml" - on a Mac this ends up in the home folder, no idea where it is placed in Windows - but this also means you can set it up, then copy the xml file to his computer so that your dad doesn't need to know the details on how to get it configured to his liking. All he will have to do is open and run Dim.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:45 AM on October 19, 2012
posted by caution live frogs at 7:45 AM on October 19, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by COD at 11:10 AM on October 18, 2012