Review of our Picasa Book

Our little book on Picasa caught the attention of a Computer Club in the San Franciso Bay area – The Golden Gate Computer Society.  They have a tradition of reviewing computer books and contacted us to see if we would send them a copy for review.  The reviewer, Babette Bloch starts with how she found the book:

Some time ago, when googling for Picasa information, I came across a site called www.Geeksontour.com. Half suspecting I’d found a rock band instead of an instructional material, I was pleased to discover that the Geeks on Tour are Jim and Chris Guld.
They zigzag across the country in a motor home, teaching RVers to manage their computers, GPS equipment, wifi connections and use of Picasa to handle the zillions of digital photographs they’re all taking.

Babette makes a few nice comments about our website, then starts discussing the book itself:

And the book? It’s a delightful, invaluable guide to using Picasa. It’s small—5½”x11”, with 59 pages of clear instructions that take you from an overview of Picasa’s features and capabilities, through details of each step to use the program, to sharing and backing up the finished products after you download photos from your camera and work on them.  Chris Guld makes her points in a few succinct words. Nothing is overwritten, and nothing seems to be missing technically.  The author’s style is conversational and understandable.

…

The real bonus is the DVD with its 25 “Show Me”videos demonstrating what is described in this book. As you read the book, boxes appear on some pages with words such as, “Show-Me Video: Tree Structure.” This means that at this point you can use the book’s DVD to view a video on the subject at hand; in this case “Tree Structure.” (Editor’s note: there are now 28 videos and they are accessible with a link to a webpage – no DVD)

The videos are outstanding and narrated by Chris Guld, who shows every stroke of the process at hand and goes slowly enough so you can follow and take notes, but not so slow as to be boring.  The 25 videos each run from a little over five minutes up to 22 minutes.

This review is actually a small part of the GGCS monthly newsletter, but Babette sent me a .pdf file of just the newsletter pages with the review and you can read it in its entirety here:  Beginner’s Guide to Picasa 3: A Review by Babette Bloch of the Golden Gate Computer Society

Amazon Verified Purchase

I was anxiously awaiting delivery of this guide. When I opened the package and saw an unimpressive little paperback guide I was very disappointed and thought I had way overpaid. Then I sat down and read a few chapters. I discovered answers to questions about Picasa which were perplexing to me. The text is simple and straightforward and does the job. I began to value the guide despite its humble appearance. And then I started playing the lessons on te DVD. WOW! Clear and consise explanations. Everything is well organized and demontrated, Definitely for the beginner and yet I feel I am progressing daily toward mastery. This has been a wonderful boost for me in my photography class where most participants are far more experienced than I am. Now I feel this set of small handbook and DVD is a bargain.

Amazon Verified Purchase

Don’t let the size of this book fool you. It’s huge on information,easy to understand and very well layed out.The videos included are an added bonus and worth the cost of the book alone. For anyone who is new to Picasa,this is the ultimate guide.
MrsGeek
Latest posts by MrsGeek (see all)

12 replies on “Review of our Picasa Book”

  1. Can I buy your book in sterling for my kindle? Please tell me what it costsin £££s.
    I appreciate what you do. So helpful

    Ann Perry

  2. I just purchased the ebook version. Am a prior geek member. I handled the transaction thru Pay Pal but did it from my Ipad where I wanted it downloaded. I am unable to find how it downloaded or if it did. I hate to buy the ebook for my windows PC because I don’t have it with me most of the time. Help

  3. I wish to have the electroic form of the Piccasa Version 3 (revised) on my computer, but what is the amount equilivent to in India Currency? and how can I send this amount?
    BHALLA!

  4. I tried to order the Picasa Book and Disk but the final page never cleared and just sat there. Please let me know whether it went through as I will have to cancel through Visa if there is a problem.

    Max

  6. Morning Chris , You mention clicking on a link below the vid you are making 2xs but as far as i can tell there’s no link to click on . Can you tell me where . By the way my wife bought me your dvd called Show Me How for my birthday last week and i can’t get any sound from it . So i got an engineer coming out on thursday to check if it’s my laptop or the disk . But i think youtwo do a wonderful job and i’ve recomended your program to 3 other of my contacts as i’m so pleased with it

    Best Regards Mick Hester . Spain .

  7. I bought and have an old version of Beginner’s Guide to Picasa 3.
    How can I upgrade it to the 3.9 or just buy the new version?
    Thanks

    • My question also. How can I upgrade from 3 to 3.9 and is there a reason to upgrade.

  8. Hi Chris/Jim & Odie
    I have been trying to eliminate duplicate photos in Picasa that got in there before I knew what I was doing with Picasa.
    When I go to delete a selected photo, a box comes up and informs me that if you delete this photo that that particular photo will be deleted in all other albums 🙁 Is there anyway around this???
    Hugs to y’all
    Byron & Linda Landry

    • Byron
      It’s important to understand the difference between folders and albums. Folders are where the pictures are actually stored, Albums are just listings/categories/pointers. Think of music playlists – that’s what albums are. The message is telling you that if you delete a picture from the folder where it’s stored, it will, of necessity, be removed from any Album where it is listed. Make sense?
      Please follow up by posting any further questions in the forum: http://www.geeksontour.tv/forum

  9. I do not have a kindle but I do have a kindle app on my IPad. How do I go about getting the Picasa book on my kindle app.

    • The Kindle App on your iPad is just as good as having the Kindle. Just go to the Amazon Kindle store and purchase it. Configure your Kindle app with your account login and password, and you can read whatever books you purchased.

Comments are closed.