# Picture manager suggestions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 27, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284 "2010-09-27T23:16:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284/1 "2010-09-27T23:16:12Z")

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I have used Microsoft Office Picture Manager but with Windows 7 I can’t seem to get it to do certain things. What I liked about it was the ability, within the manager itself, and in desktop folders, was the to group pictures in different categories within a single folder like dogs, cats, rats, etc.

Can’t get it to do that anymore so I want a very simple manager like Picasa (which I tried but didn’t like). Any recommendations as to a good, **simple** and free one?

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284/2 "2010-09-28T08:11:54Z")

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I really like [DigiKam](http://www.digikam.org/) - you will need to use the [KDE for Windows](http://windows.kde.org/) installer, but it works (for me) just as well on Windows as on Linux. You can easily tag photos and filter your collections on tags. It also writes the tags into the the photo metadata so your tags are permanent and can be read by standards compliant photo software. Even my non-technical wife can happily use it to create special collections (arranged into different photo sizes) for scrapbooking purposes.

If you try DigiKam, the _Recent Tags_ button is your rapid tagging friend.

Si

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**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284/3 "2010-09-28T14:34:22Z")

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I know you’ve already tried Picasa and didn’t like it; but I didn’t like it at first either. Now that I’m used to it I like it. Plus their facial recognition is nothing short of amazing. You start tagging peoples faces and it suggests other people who might match that face. It’s weird when you don’t recognize where a picture was taken; then when you open the picture it’s identifying someone in a reflection or in a photo that’s in the photo.

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284/4 "2010-09-28T14:54:05Z")

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Try Picasa again. It’s worth the effort. You can tag (like Google) as well as folderise. And geotag. And the aforementioned facial recognition. It really is an amazing program.

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picture-manager-suggestions/555284/5 "2010-09-28T15:20:57Z")

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Does Picasa still make it impossible to move your collection database off the C: drive? Because that was the kicker for me.