Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org.
QUESTION: When I make a change to a photo using Picasa, where is the original saved? If Picasa is uninstalled can I get the originals back?
PC CLUB: Picasa is a little unusual in the way it saves pictures. First of all, if you double click a photo in Picasa and make a change in the Editor, you have several choices. You can export the photo with the changes and then undo the changes you made to the original. The other choice is to click File, Save. With this choice a message pops up informing you that “A backup of the file will be made”. It’s not obvious where the original is saved but the location is a hidden folder named .picasaoriginals. If you click Undo Save. The original in that location will be deleted and the only way to restore the original is to undo the last edit you performed.
Should you ever want to uninstall Picasa you need to remember where the originals are located. The backed up photo have the same filename as the originals but the modified photos will have a more recent date associated with them and are located in a special place.
You can also click File, Revert to restore your photo to the original state. This opens a warning message that the action cannot be undone and the original backup is deleted also.
After you modify a photo and choose to export it, you can select a folder of your choice or create a new one. You have a choice of reducing the size of the photo or using the original size.
For more information on this see http://bit.ly/picasasave and for more information on exporting see http://bit.ly/picasaexport. For information on other topics see http://bit.ly/picasatopics.
My favorite method is to make a change and then export it to my Pictures folder or external hard drive. I can also email or print it. I then follow up with an Undo to keep my originals intact and the modified ones somewhere else. In my case I created a folder named Exports and this folder is now in Picasa. This allows me to quickly view my modified photos.
Ed Schwartz is a member of the North Orange County Computer Club. To send in a question, go to edwardns.com and click the Contact Me menu. Archives of previous columns are also on the website.