Is your PC awash with photographs somewhat haphazardly stuck in dozens of different folders?  There is a smart way to manage your photo collection – Picasa!

Picasa is easy to use and it's cheap - in fact it is free!

Once you have downloaded and installed Picasa the program searches your computer for photos, puts them in date order, and then allows you to organise them in albums of your choosing by simply clicking and dragging.

Picasa creates a new album with a date for new photos downloaded from your digital camera.
 
The timeline option is very user friendly. It chronologically displays all your images in a kind of spinning animated ring that makes it easy and fun to find what you’re looking for.

Another great function is the slideshow with music option. No more boring silent slideshows! You can jazz them up with mp3s that go with the photographs. To add an mp3 track to your slideshow: -

• click on Tools/ Options,
  
• select the “Slideshow” tab
  
• select “Loop slideshow”
  
• select “Play mp3 tracks during slideshow”
  
• click ”browse” then select the folder containing your mp3s.

You cannot export the slideshow but you can use Picasa to quickly optimise your shots for emailing. You can use either Microsoft Outlook or Picasa's own Express E-mail service (click the Tools menu and select Options to tweak your settings).

Clicking on an image allows you to make some basic editing tasks: eliminating red eye, cropping, and perfoming what Picasa call 'enhancements.' The enhancement function is relatively useless, making the exposure slighter brighter or darker.  Another note on the editing tools: if you have mucked up your last edit, you can't undo just the last edit, you're stuck with the 'Undo all Edits' button.

The Search function is very useful, fast and accurate if you have added keywords to the photos.  Keywords are easy to add - highlight the picture and click on the 'Keywords' button.  You can use as many terms as you like to describe the photo.