Managing Digital Photos
By Cate Eales
Appeared April 17, 2008 on castanet.net
How do you organize your digital photos? How do you even
get them from the camera to the computer? I have a couple of ideas.
So long, XP; it's been good to know ya!
Managing Digital Photos
Digital cameras now outsell regular cameras. Sometimes I think that just
means that instead of having shoe boxes full of negatives, prints, and
slides in a closet, we have a bazillion files named can12054873240.jpg in
"My Pictures." Yikes! Where IS that picture of Uncle John's band?
There are plenty of programs that you can use to organize your pictures
into albums, make slide shows, screen savers, CD's and so on.
Picasa is a good, free
one, available here. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a good one, but on
the expensive side. You can
read about that here. But before you even worry about that, how about
naming those photos something informative, like "unclejohn1.jpg" and
"unclejohn2.jpg" so you can find the ones you want?
"That's a good idea," I hear you say, "but I already have about a
bazillion pictures. Renaming each one is going to be pretty tedious."
Absolutely true. It's a good thing
the weather is
crummy. OK, seriously. You can easily rename a batch of pictures
without any extra programs.
This article will show you how.
But even before you start on that, take just a moment and think about how
you get the pictures from the camera to the computer in the first place. I
have been to clients and seen two or sometimes three different programs,
all starting up with Windows, for transferring images. If you have a
digital camera, you probably got some software with it that wants to be
the boss of your photos. If you have an HP printer, scanner, computer, or
all-in-one device, you probably have an HP program that wants to take
charge.
You don't need all that. Pick one program. Picasa will do it. So will
Photoshop Elements. Stay with the HP version if you like that one better.
But just pick one. Plug your camera in, and Windows will ask what program
you want to use. Tell it to use that one all the time. Next time you plug
in, your program will open and start managing the pictures.
If you are taking pictures while you're travelling, it's not a bad idea to
take a few minutes at the end of each day, review the pictures while they
are still in the camera, and delete the ones you don't want. If you don't
get around to that, you can simply elect not to transfer them to the PC
when you come home. And if you space THAT out, delete them from the PC
right away so you don't confuse yourself or make a lot of extra work for
yourself.
And because we all sometimes delete a photo by accident,
here is a link to "Smart Recovery", a good, free program that will
recover pictures from your hard drive or your media card. I've had to use
it more than once!
So long, XP
Microsoft made it official. Despite much speculation to the contrary,
Microsoft says there will be no more sales of shrink-wrapped Windows XP or
computers with XP preinstalled after June 30. The only new sales will be
on the so-called "Ultra Low Cost PCs". Microsoft will continue to provide
"mainstream support" for XP until 2009, and that might be extended again.
You can still find new computers with XP installed if you look hard.
Dell.ca has several laptop and several desktop models. Local shops may be
able to build an XP system for you. If you don't want to, or can't,
upgrade to Vista right now and you need a computer, you'll want to get
that done before June 30.
Meanwhile, we are all still waiting for Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. The
latest rumour has it being released April 29. Fasten your seat belts
Thank you everyone who wrote in with questions, comments, suggestions, and
requests for the Dropbox beta
invitation. I appreciate all your efforts. Please send me yours! My
email is
cate@rlis.com.
You can also
browse the column archives at any time by pointing your browser here.
If you'd like to subscribe to this column by email,
please visit this link. It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the
RSS Feed, click here.
Links
Picasa
http://picasa.google.com/
Adobe Photoshop Elements
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/
Rename a batch of photos all at once:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/morefun/renamephotos.mspx
Smart Recovery
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/smart_recovery/info.htm?language=1
Dropbox Beta invitation
http://rlis.com/columns/column141.htm
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives
http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
RSS Feed:
http://rlis.com/rlis.xml
---
Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible
and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric,
and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions,
helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware
eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image
management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management.
Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your
comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit
the Real Life Internet Solutions website at
www.rlis.com.
©
Cate Eales 2008 – All Rights Reserved
-30-
