Screen saver as we know it was used to save screen when people work on CRT or Plasma devices. It prevents phosphorus burning by displaying random moving images on the screen. Nowadays the world has switched to LCD and LED screens and we don’t need screensavers for the same purpose. But, if I told you that you can use it with digital photo frames, display photos from folders on your PC or from a website you like, whenever you are not working on your computer that sounds interesting right?
There are many online services from which you can download screensavers, but they always have a special appeal when we make things with our own creativity. We can easily create screensavers containing beautiful landscape images or pictures of our loved ones.
Google Picasa provides a very useful and handy solution for this purpose. Just a few clicks and selections and there we have a beautiful screensaver to greet us every time our system is idle.
To set up and run a custom image screensaver, you first need to launch Picasa and select the photos you want to add to the screensaver folder. The screensaver folder is a pre-made folder in Picasa, and any photos added to that folder will be displayed in your custom screensaver.
Once the photos are successfully added to the folder, click Tools and then select Configure Screensaver.
When you get the following window, click install. Now it’s time to configure your screensaver image source along with effects and time delay.
First, we’ll start with configuring the image source in your screensaver. You can currently choose from four available sources.
Source 1: Picasa
If you choose Picasa, click the corresponding configuration button to decide whether only pictures from the screensaver folder will be displayed or if you want to select starred pictures in Picasa. Finally click the Ok button and you can see a preview of your screensaver on the small screen!
Source 2: Web Album
The second option is to choose a photo from Picasa Web Album.
Select Web Album and click configure to provide your Picasa Web Album login credentials. You can also import other users’ shared folders. Click the Add button and the albums will be fetched. Now you can choose all of them for your screensaver or pick some favorites.
Click OK to reflect the changes in your screensaver.
Source 3: Specific folders on the computer
The third option is to display photos from specific folders on your computer. To configure the option, click the corresponding button.
Click Add folder and choose the location of the folder you want. Click Ok, the images in that folder will be displayed.
If you want to delete an existing folder, select the specific folder and then click delete folder.
Source 4: Photos from Public Sites
The fourth option allows you to have photos from public websites as your screensaver. Just get the valid RSS link from a photo site and add it to the source. Picasa will then check if the web page contains images and display them in the screensaver.
Further improvement
You can always modify the settings of the screensaver. You can try various available visual effects you want to give your screensaver from the drop-down list.
In addition, you can increase or decrease the image conversion speed. In the area marked in Red, sliding the cursor to the left will make the transition fast, and sliding the pointer to the right will make the transition slow.
Choose your own or choose all the options available and create an attractive screensaver from all the lovely images contained in your web album or desktop folder. And as they say –Learning never stopsso you can always experiment with settings and find something unique!
My judgment
As you have seen, Google Picasa offers more options than the default Windows screensaver when it comes to creating visual screensavers. So if you love screensavers, this is a great tool to try out!
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
