How To - Picasa Slideshow

Did you know that if you upload your photos directly to blogger (instead of to photobucket or flickr) they are being hosted in a Picasa Web Album? Well, that's where they are. Google just offered a new service - a slideshow. You will see this option when you go into layout and select "Add Page Element" - it's on the top right. I haven't found this to be very user friendly because Blogger assumes you know the name of your album or it assumes that the pics for the slideshow are already uploaded.

But - never fear - I really do like the Picasa Slide Show. I like that you can get it BIG. I've used www.slide.com before, but they aren't as big and after a while they all start looking way cheesy or all the same. So I'll tell you the Picasa way that was easiest for me.

First - Go to Google Homepage (www.google.com) and from the drop down menu select PHOTOS.



Then sign into your Picasa Web Albums with your Google Account. This is the same user name and password you use to sign into your blog. If you are using Blogger and have already posted photos, it will bring up your albums - probably using the title of your blog for the album name.



Next - select the album you'd like to use or create a new album and upload the photos you want for your slideshow. Continue to edit/crop/add captions etc. When you are finished select EMBED SLIDESHOW from the bottom left.



A new window will pop up. You can then select the size of your slide show in the drop down menu. It will depend on what blog template you are using to determine what size will fit just right on your blog. I've altered my blog margins in the HTML (a process and tip for another day) and I find that the 600 px size fits quite nicely for mine.



After you have select the size you need to copy the code in the yellow box. Select all of the code a press CTRL and "C" at the same time to copy.

Now go to your blog post. I prefer to be in the HTML setting, so I can see where to type around the slide show code that you will paste. You can paste it in the COMPOSE mode, but after I've clicked on PREVIEW the code is invisible. How do you paste? You put your cursor in the box where you want to paste the slide show and press CTRL and "V" at the same time.



Okay. Now you are going to have to try it out and see what part of this goofy explanation does make sense. Once you've got your slide show on display, drop me a note so I can come check it out.