Web Albums App

Overview

Thank you for purchasing Web Albums App! Web Albums App lets you view, upload, and manage your online Google Picasa photos and videos. Our App requires that you have an existing Google Picasa account. If you don't have one, please set one up.

Now, let's get started!

Login

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to log in:

1. From the App, tap Picasa Web Account.
2. Type in your Google Picasa username and password.
3. Tap Sign In.

If you're having issues with the login, please take a look at our FAQ.

Home

Here's what you'll find from Web Albums App's Home button and popover:

• All My Albums - A list or stack of all the albums you have in your account. You can also set up multiple accounts, in which case, all the albums from all of your accounts will be listed.
• Friends - A list or stack of all your Picasa Favorites and albums from your Facebook Friends. Your Picasa Favorites will automatically appear in the list, but you'll have to add your Facebook Friends by pressing the "+" button.
• Accounts - A list or stack of your albums by account
• Uploads - Uploads from your device to Picasa web

The settings for the app is available from the top level of the app from the Settings button in the toolbar to the right.

Viewing Your Albums

You can switch albums from the Home popover. Tap on All Albums or a specific account and your albums will be listed by date, newest first. By the way, you can change the order of the albums from Settings > Viewing > Album Sort. Each of your albums are represented by stacks of photos. You can pinch out on the stacks to preview the album photos.

Or you can tap on any album and you'll see thumbnails of all the photos in an album.

Tapping on any thumbnail will show the photo in full screen.

Just swipe the screen or use the arrows in the bottom toolbar to move between photos. Tap the screen to make the toolbars appear or disappear. Double tap or pinch to zoom in and out of the picture.

In the thumbnails screen, videos are labeled as so on the thumbnails. As you are swiping through the items in your album, videos are marked with a Play arrow icon in the middle of the screen. To play, tap on the video. It may take a moment for the video to load depending on your Internet connection speed.

To refresh or update any of your albums, just use the "Pull-to-Refresh" feature by pulling down on the screen until you see the "Pull down to refresh..." text at the top, and then letting go.

A slideshow is ideal if you want to show all the photos in an album to your family or friends. Just tap the Play button in the bottom toolbar from the Full Photo screen. You can adjust the speed from the Settings tab > Slideshow > Play Each Slide.

Caching Photos

This is the best hidden feature that happens automatically in the background. As you browse your photos, the thumbnails of your photos and high-resolution images are automatically saved inside the App. This lets you view your photos offline or see them more quickly, even when you're on a slow connection.

Here's a shortcut. You can even set entire albums for caching from the Settings > Caching > Album Cache Settings.

And you can always adjust the number of photos you want to keep cached on your device by using the slider under Settings > Caching.

Saving Photos

Sometimes, you just want to have your Picasa photos saved to your iPad's Saved Photos album. There's two ways to do this.

If you're already browsing the full size photo, then you can tap on the Action Sheet button > Save Photo.

If you're in the thumbnails screen, you can tap on the Action Sheet button, which is the button with the folder with an arrow, and save multiple photos at once.

Moving Photos and Videos

There are two ways to move your photos and videos. You can move a single item to a different album from the Photo Info button on the bottom toolbar, and tapping on the Album.

You can move multiple items at once from the album's Action Sheet button.

Deleting Photos and Videos

You can delete a photo from its Photo Info popover.

Adding Captions

You can add a caption to a photo or video from its Photo Info popover.

Sharing

Here's how to share your photos, videos, and albums from Web Albums App:

• Emailing as Attachment - The image file is attached to an email using the Mail App. Videos and albums are not supported at this time. This feature is available from the Action Sheet button, the one with the arrow coming out of a box.
• Emailing as Link - Links to the photo, video, or album are attached to an email using the Mail App. This feature is available from the Action Sheet button and only works for "Public" and "Anyone With Link" photos, videos, and albums.
• Posting to Facebook - You can post the photo or video with a caption to your Facebook News Feed. Just add your Facebook account by going to the Settings tab > Accounts > Add Account....

Uploading

The quickest way to get your photos on your iPad to Picasa web is using the Uploads from the Home button.

Tap on the blue Library button to choose your photos and videos you want to upload. The uploads will appear in the list in the Uploads tab. If you want to cancel an upload, swipe across the screen and tap on the cancel button.

Note: On the first upload, you'll be asked to allow access to Your Current Location (Location Services). Make sure to tap Allow. By doing this, you'll be able to upload videos and multiple pictures at once. Please see the FAQ for details.

If you're already inside an album, you can upload from there without going to the Uploads tab. Just tap the Up arrow button, pick the photos and videos for upload, and you're done.

You can monitor the progress of the uploads from the Uploads popover but the App also supports background upload, so you can use other apps while you're uploading. A numerical badge representing the number of uploads you have left will appear over the Web Albums App icon in the device's Home screen. If you're uploading videos or a lot of high-resolution photos, we recommend you keep the App open, because your Apple device will stop background uploads if they're taking too long.

Viewing Your Friends' Albums

To view your friends' albums, including the private ones they have shared with you, go to the Friends tab from the tab navigation. Your Picasa Favorites should automatically appear in the list. Facebook Friends will need to be added using the "+" button.

There are three ways you can add a friend's Picasa albums, all done by tapping the "+" button.

• Picasa Favorites - Your Favorites will automatically appear in the Friends list. If you removed someone and want to add them back, you can do it from here.
• Your Contacts - You can add anyone from your contacts. When you tap on a contact, the App will check whether they have a Picasa account and if they do, will add them to your Friends list.
• Add Manually - If you know the person's Picasa username, you can access their public albums by typing their username and the optional display name.

Using Camera Connection Kit

Quickly upload the photos on your digital camera (including your iPhone!) using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit.

1. Connect your camera to you iPad via the Kit.
2. Import the photos you want to upload to Picasa using the native Photos app.
3. Open Web Albums App, choose an album, and tap the Upload button.
4. Choose "Last Imported" from the image picker and upload.

And you're done!