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Getting Better Prints from Digital Photos

One of the disadvantages to digital photography (if you can call it that) is that you don't get prints as often. Photos tend to sit on disk or on your computer's hard drive and never get shared. The photo album is sadly becoming extinct.

If you would like to start printing out some of those digital photos, here are some pointers.

Install Picasa:

We talk about it a lot, but not often enough. Picasa will make selecting, organizing and printing your digital photos easy. In fact, there is little or no need for any other software for most people.

Would you rather have your TV or your computer?

Lately I have had a lot of clients call me in a panic because they are having a computer emergency. These calls are getting more frequent every year.

Is there a such thing as a computer emergency? Yes. In fact, I would be willing to wager that most people I work for, if given the choice, would choose to live 24 hours without running water or a fridge than they would without their computer.

Having a good computer guy is as important to most people as having a good mechanic or doctor. Computers are more complex than any other device in most people's homes (there are still a few people with old fashioned pinball machines).

Does anyone remember easy printer installs?

One trend happening in technology over the past three years or so is bloated printer software. By bloated, I mean printer installations that require nearly one gigabyte (yes almost 1000 megabytes) of hard drive space! Call me old or nostalgic, but I miss the days where printers could be installed from a floppy disk and took less than three minutes ton install. The worst offender today seems to be HP. Their popular all-in-one printers can take up to thirty minutes to install on a NEW computer and even longer on old computers. And after spending all that time, it may still not work correctly! 

Quickly get to the file or folder in a cluttered window

Today I helped a client organize his photos for a project he was working on. I moved all of the photos for the project into a folder in My Pictures. He had dozens of folders in his My Pictures folder all full of pictures from other projects.

He called me about an hour later to tell me that the folder I had created had suddenly disappeared.

"What have you done since I left," I asked. I wasn't accusing him of anything, but if he had done anything it would help me figure out what had happened to the folder.

"Nothing," he explained, "I took a break after you left and when I came back the folder was gone."

A sure fire way to learn your computer this year!

When I am doing private tutoring on a computer I typically write step-by-step notes while the learner sits in the driver's seat. I think that people learn more by doing than by hearing.

However, my method is really only about 60 percent as effective as it could be. The best way to learn is by learning. In other words, having someone sit next to you and walk you through the steps will stick in your memory as well as if you teach yourself.

So, if learning your computer is one of your New Year's resolutions, here are a few tips that will help you teach yourself.

1. Teaching yourself doesn't mean doing it all on your own. You may want a tutor, relative or neighbor to show you how to do it a couple times before you start experimenting.

Picasa Picture Manager Video Tip – Part 2

In Part 1 of our Picasa Video tip , we discussed how to use many of the editing and organizing tools available in Picasa. In this tip, you will learn about:

  • Transferring your digital camera photos to your computer with Picasa
  • Selecting photos from multiple folders
  • Creating a web album
  • Printing your photos
  • Ordering prints from your photos
  • and more!

Click the Read More option below to start the video if it has not already started, and be patient as the video loads.

How to send an email attachment

We have a few program specific tips on our website about how to send email attachments. Each step is broken down step-by-step.

 I am writing this more as a general guide for emailing attachments. I have seen a few mistakes lately that have caused problems for first-time attachment senders. Here are a few tips to help you avoid problems.

1. If you are emailing photos and you use Outlook, Outlook Express or gmail, download and install Picasa – selecting, resizing and sending photos is a one step process.

2. Don't ever scan a document as "text" when scanning. Sometimes this will open the scanner software's OCR feature which converts it to a text document rather than an image. This sounds good, but it will cost you a lot more time and it probably will just frustrate you.

A word for our Dial-up readers (and our high speed Internet emailers)

Lately, I have helped many dial-up computer users get their email unclogged. It became clogged because their friends and family who have high speed Internet sent them messages that were way too big for email. Usually these messages contained either large digital photos or video jokes or messages that bring dial-up users email to screeching halt. 

DIAL-UP USERS:

  • You absolutely need to know how to check your email using your web browser (this tip explains how ).
  • When email stops coming in or you see messages repeating themselves, it is time to check your email as above and then delete any messages that are larger than 500 kilobytes (kb). This will allow your email to flow again into your email program
  • Inform the offending parties that send these overly large messages that your system can't handle the volume and to please remove you from their forward lists.

HIGH SPEED USERS:

We need a new Internet Appliance

i-openerAt one of the first, now defunct, Comdex computer shows that I attended in the late 90's, I attended a round table discussion on Internet Appliances. This was a huge buzz word at the time, but unfortunately it was ahead of its time. An Internet Appliance did only two things…browse the Internet and email. The picture I'm showing in this story was known as the Netpliance from a company called I-Opener. The idea was great, but at the time Internet connections were dial-up only and the Internet had not attained a true critical mass of users.

Digital Camera Burst or Continuous modes

Burst ModeIt's fun for me to share my limited knowledge with people to help them get just a little more out of technology. I had the opportunity today to help a basketball mom learn how to use the continuous mode (burst mode) with her new digital camera. One of the great complaints about digital cameras is their slow shutter response. Fortunately, most digital cameras have improved that feature. One feature that many digital cameras have that can help you get the perfect shot is the continuous shooting mode or burst mode. This mode allows you to hold down the shutter of your camera and have it take a rapid fire of photos. This is known as burst or continuous shooting and it allows you to take 2-3 pictures each second!