How to manage, upload, crop, caption, and watermark your images for free

Google has a way of quietly working away on their products and without a big fuss they release a mature, user friendly application that is a million miles from the half baked application they started with. Picasa is one of these applications, it's always had some good features but with the release of version 3.1.0 most of the omissions have been addressed.I'm please to see that you can now add text, that makes it possible to add plant names, locations and watermarks easily to your images.........remember Picasa is non destructive so your original images will not be changed in any way.Most images need some sharpening and Picasa has been able to do this for ages, however it was harsh and uncontrollable, now you have a simple slider and the degree of sharpening is in your control.....this is a biggie and I'm so pleased to see itSync to webalbums is a new feature that keeps any edits you do on your local PC updated if those images are in your Google webalbumsThis one you'll love............in the experimental menu there's an option to search by colour!........and it works. Picasa will look through your albums and show the images that match your colour request - could be very handy for designers.The Collage option has also been enhanced giving far more options, a great way to make a composite print for customers.There's a shed load of other new features but the ones above should be enough to tempt you to try it. As a professional I use Photoshop when I need to get the very best from an image but for quick and dirty results, including Flickr uploads and making slide shows I always go to Picasa first.

Evening what products are people using for black spot on roses, I'm about to run out of my current product which isn't available any more. many thanks

"I just use a couple of pieces of paper for the gap and then just rotate the flywheel to ensure its not rubbing anywhere. I set it up when the magnets are pulling the coil onto it with the paper as a sandwich between the two..................holds…"

"Thank you for your replies. As it happens, i just re-alligned the ignition coil slightly just to get it slightly closer to the fly wheel as i noticed one side had a bigger gap than the other, and fingers crossed it's been ok today so far. It does…"