Above: Example of a photo collage. Friends & me hanging out in NYC.

The Basic How-To
Take a screenshot during expose’s “show all windows” when all of your pictures are opened. If that didn’t make sense, read more below for a full “tutorial”. This all takes about 10 seconds, especially if you already have all of your pictures opened.

Why?
My biggest disappointment when I first switched from PC to Mac was the absence of Picasa. One of my favorite features on Picasa was creating easy photo collages. Also, I refuse to use iPhoto (because I’m stubbornly waiting for Picasa to be developed for Macs and don’t want to get too emeshed in another program in the meantime!).

So, when I first received my brand new Mac, I created my own picture collage technique. I’m sure there are other ways to do this, but I usually open all of my photos in Photoshop anyway to do a little editing before posting them to Facebook and whatnot, so this is a really simple way to create a fast collage.

The Long How-To

  1. Open all of the pictures you want to collage. I opened mine in Photoshop, because I am usually already editing them in there. But the program is up to you. Make sure all other windows are minimized or else they’ll be in your screenshot!
  2. Once all of the photos are opened, use your Mac’s awesome Expose tool to “show all windows.” If you don’t have a handle on Expose, you should get to know this tool because it increases proctivity greatly! Click the little apple in the corner of your screen and choose “System Preferences.” Next, choose “Expose” or “Expose & Spaces” and make sure you are on the “Expose” tab. Find out which key equals “Show All Windows.” On my computer I have to press Fn+F9 or F3, but on many macs it’s just the F10 key.
  3. Now, take a screen shot (Cmd+Shift+4). This is another very useful tool. Press all of these keys at once: comand (also known as the “apple” key) + Shift + 4. Now put your mouse (which is now a little crosshair rather than an arrow) in a corner of your screen. Click your left mouse button (keep it clicked) button and drag your mouse all the way to the otherside of the screen. Let go of the mouse button.
  4. Ta-Da! A .png image of your screen with all of your pictures is now sitting on your desktop!

It takes about ten seconds!

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