Folder Manager

Picasa works by monitoring folders and files on your hard drive and updating its library as changes are made. The Folder Manager is how Picasa knows which folders to watch, and which ones to ignore. To make changes to the files and folders that appear in Picasa, use the Folder Manager, under the Tools menu.

Folder Manager 101

When Picasa scans your computer for pictures, it monitors the following three folders for changes:

The Desktop

My Documents

My Pictures

If you don't keep pictures in these folders, for instance if your pictures are a network drive, use the Folder Manager to change which folders are monitored.

Open the Folder Manager by choosing Folder Manager from the Tools menu. On the left side of the Folder Manager window, Picasa displays a Folder List of all folders on your computer, including network drives. (Removable media devices are not shown.) On the right, there is a panel displaying the current list of Watched Folders (Watched Folders: Folders that are monitored for changes by Picasa), and a panel showing the current setting for the each folder highlighted in the Folder List.

In Picasa, each folder has one of three settings. Click on each setting below for an example of how it could be used.

Scan Once: Find all pictures in a folder, but don't keep scanning.

Remove from Picasa: Prevent Picasa from scanning in a certain location

Watch for Changes: Select folders to be monitored for new files and changes

Changing a folder's status

You can change a watched folder to "Scan Once" if you think Picasa's spending too much time scanning your hard drive. Similarly, you can exclude a watched folder, and its contents will be removed from Picasa.

In most cases, you don't have to add files to Picasa unless they're from a camera or other external device, since it will automatically detect any files you add to one of its Watched Folders. Picasa does not scan devices automatically like it scans your hard drive. To get pictures from a camera, scanner, or CD, use Picasa's Import feature.