In reading through the group, I noticed that there was some confusion
about the Picasa 3 sync feature.  So...I thought I’d take this
opportunity to explain a bit more about sync and how it all works :-)

1. What is the sync feature?

The Picasa 3 sync feature transfers edits made in Picasa 3 to your
corresponding
Picasa Web Albums. As long as you have the feature enabled, the sync
functionality will detect when changes have been made to an album in
Picasa 3 and automatically sync those changes.

For example:

I have an album with sync enabled called "My Vacation" containing 4
photos (A, B, C, D). I open Picasa 3 and retouch photo A. I crop photo
B and rotate photo C. I also add a new photo, photo E. Picasa 3 will
then sync these changes to the corresponding photo or album in Picasa
Web Albums.

2. What about the changes I make in Picasa Web Albums, do these get
synced to Picasa 3?

Yes and no (let me explain):

Sync normally works from Picasa 3 to Picasa Web Albums. There are
three features where syncing will work both ways. These are captions,
photo tags and geotags. If you add captions, photo tags and/or geotags
to your photos in PWA, they will be synced to Picasa 3.  Likewise, if
you add captions, photo tags and geotags to your photos in Picasa 3
they will be synced to PWA.

For example:

I have an album in Picasa 3 with sync enabled called "Birthday Party"
containing 4 photos (A, B, C, and D). I log on to Picasa Web Albums
and add a caption to the corresponding photo A and add a tag to the
corresponding photo B. At this stage, the sync process will not take
place.

However, I later go into the synced album in Picasa 3 and decide that
I want to fix red eye on photo C. Because I’m making this change in
Picasa 3, it will activate the sync process. Now, the synced albums in
Picasa 3 and Picasa Web Albums will reflect all of the changes made to
my photos; photo A (the caption), photo B (the tag) and photo C (the
red eye fix).

Please keep in mind that this "2 way" sync will only work for these
three features. It will not work for features such as name tags in
PWA, rotating photos in PWA or adding photos to albums in PWA. Sync
will also not work with changes to album properties.
What if I added captions, photo tags and geotags in PWA but didn't
make any changes in Picasa 3. How would I get Picasa 3 to sync these
changes?

The "Refresh Online Status" button (located in the drop-down menu to
the right of the share button) also kicks off the sync process. This
feature tells Picasa 3 to check for any changes to your Picasa Web
Albums. If so, it syncs the changes back down to Picasa 3. Also, as an
added bonus, it notices if any of the photos no longer exist online;
and if so, removes the little green arrow indicators.

So in closing:

* Syncing works 2 ways for captions, photo tags and geotags only
* Sync will not work for features such as name tags in PWA, rotating
photos in PWA or adding photos to albums in PWA.
* Changes to album properties will not sync
* Changes made to PWA will be synced next time a change is made in
Picasa 3 or when you "Refresh Online Status"

For more info on sync and other new Picasa 3 features, check out our
Picasa 3 Feature Overview page located here:
http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=93773

Have fun!

Jaysiej