In the computer world, the terms picture, photo, image, graphic image, and digital image all refer to the same thing—a still picture. Windows Vista offers lots of great tools for organizing, editing, printing, and e-mailing pictures. Today’s hard disks have room to store thousands of photos. The new Windows Photo Gallery provides an easy way to organize and find photos based on keywords called tags. The Fix pane in Photo Gallery makes common tasks like cropping and red-eye removal a breeze.

Getting Pictures into Your Computer

There are several ways you can acquire pictures to use in your computer. You can store pictures in any folder you like. If you don’t have a preference, use the Pictures folder for your user account. You can always move or copy the pictures to another location later, should the need arise.

Getting pictures from a digital camera

Before I tell you how to get pictures from a digital camera, let me say that I’m talking about the digital cameras that connect through a USB cable and appear as a USB mass storage device. If the method described doesn’t work for your camera, see the manual that came with that camera for details. You may have to install and use the software that came with your camera to get pictures from it. But the following steps will work with most modern digital cameras:

1. Use a USB cable to connect your camera to your computer and turn the camera on.

2. Wait a few seconds, then:

- If you see an AutoPlay dialog box, click Import. Then skip to step 4.

- If nothing happens within a minute or so of connecting and turning on your camera, open Windows Photo Gallery (click the Start button and choose All Programs  ->  Windows Photo Gallery). Then click File in its toolbar and choose Import from Camera or Scanner. Then click the icon for your camera and click Import.

3. In the dialog box, enter a tag (keyword) that will later help you identify pictures. For example, enter the event, location, or subject of the photos. Entering a tag is optional, but very useful. Try to think of a single word that describes the pictures you’re importing. You can add, change, or delete tags at any time. So don’t knock yourself out trying to find a word that applies to every picture.

4. Click Import.

5. The next dialog box keeps you apprised of progress. If you want to delete pictures from the camera after copying, select the Erase after importing checkbox. If you miss the opportunity to erase pictures after importing, you can still erase them using buttons on your camera. Or, open the camera from your Computer folder and delete the pictures using standard techniques. When copying is finished, turn off and disconnect the camera.

Depending on your camera and the types of pictures (and videos) you imported, Windows Photo Gallery might open and display thumbnails of your pictures. However, the pictures aren’t actually stored in Photo Gallery, so don’t worry if you don’t see them in Photo Gallery. The pictures are actually in your Pictures folder described under “Using Your Pictures Folder” later in this article.

Getting pictures from a memory card

If you have pictures on a memory card, and your computer has slots for those cards, you can copy pictures directly from the card. Once you’ve inserted a memory card into a slot, the card is basically the same as any external disk drive. So you can use all the standard techniques discussed in Article 29 to move, copy, and delete files as you see fit. Exactly what happens on your screen after you insert a memory card depends on your AutoPlay settings for cards. Here’s how:

1. Click the Start button and choose Computer.

2. If necessary, scroll down through your removable drives. If you have multiple card slots, look for the one that shows a specific name.

3. Open the card’s icon. Then navigate through folders on the card until you find the icons that represent pictures.

4. Select the icons for the pictures you want to copy, or click Organize  ->  Select All (or press Ctrl+A) to select them all.

5. Drag or copy-and-paste the selected icons to your Pictures folder and ignore the following steps. Optionally, use the following steps to copy without dragging or copy-and-paste.

6. If the menu bar isn’t visible, tap the Alt key. Choose Edit  ->  Copy to Folder from the menu (or Move to Folder if you want to delete the pictures from the memory card).

7. In the Copy Items dialog box that opens, click the Pictures folder under your user name (unless you prefer to put the pictures in some other folder).

8. Click Copy. The pictures are copied to your Pictures folder. You can close the folder that’s open and remove the memory card. Open your Pictures folder to see the copied pictures.

No Memory Card Slots?

If your computer doesn’t have slots for memory cards, you can easily add those slots by purchasing and connecting a card reader. Go to any online site that sells computer stuff. Try www.tigerdirect.com or www.newegg.com if you don’t have a preference. Then search for memory card reader. If you’re not into installing hardware inside your computer, choose a product that connects through a USB port. Make sure you know what size card you need to read and get an appropriate reader. Or choose a reader that works with all types of memory cards.

Getting pictures from a scanner

To get photographs on paper into your computer, you use a scanner. Optionally you can use a film scanner or slide scanner to get pictures from film or slides. But those are a bit more expensive than traditional paper scanners. The first step is, of course, to install the scanner and any required software as per the instructions that came with the scanner. The second step is to read the instructions on how to work your scanner. There are differences among products. The steps I’m about to give you work with most, but not all scanners. And there may be differences among different products. So if all else fails here, read the instructions that came with your scanner to best understand the product you own.

The standard operating procedure for more modern scanners goes like this:

1. Turn the scanner on and put in the picture you want to copy.

2. Click the Start button and choose All Programs  ->  Windows Photo Gallery.

3. Click the File toolbar button and choose Import from Scanner or Camera.

4. In the Device Selection window that opens, click the scanner’s icon and then click Import. 5

. Select the scan settings from the options provided as summarized in the following list: If you previously saved settings in a scan profile, click Select Profile and then click the profile you want to use.

- Paper source: Select the type of scanner you have (flatbed, feeder, or film scanner).

- Paper size: If you’re using an automatic document feeder to scan multiple items, select the size of the paper you’re scanning. Otherwise leave this empty.

- Color format: Choose Color, Grayscale, or Black and White.

For a black and white photo, choose Grayscale. The Black and White option provides only black and white with no shades of gray. Black and White, in this context, is best used only for typewritten documents (blank ink on white paper).

- File Type: Choose a file format. Bitmap Image offers the highest quality at the cost of a large file size. Also, bitmap is an older format that doesn’t support tagging and metadata as well as newer formats. Better to use JPEG or PNG for a photo. Use Microsoft Document Imaging File only for typewritten documents, not photos. - Resolution (DPI): Select your resolution dots per inch (DPI). The larger the DPI the better the quality of the scanned image, but the larger the file will be. Your best bet for color photos is 300 DPI. Use 75 DPI only for black-and-white text documents. The 150 DPI setting is okay for photos you don’t intend to print.

- Brightness and Contrast: Use these, if necessary, to enhance the picture’s brightness and contrast. You’ll need to do a Preview scan to see the effects of any changes you make. - Optionally, if you plan to scan more pictures at the current settings, click Save Profile and give your profile a name.

6. Click Scan. When the scan is complete, the picture will appear in the Photo Gallery. The actual picture file is in your Pictures folder.

Using pictures you get by e-mail

Pictures that are embedded in, or attached to, e-mail messages you receive won’t show up in Photo Gallery at first. You need to save the picture(s) to your Pictures folder if you want to access and edit them using techniques described in this article. Exactly how you save attachments and embedded pictures depends on how you do e-mail. If you use Windows Mail, see “Saving attachments as files” and “Saving embedded pictures as files” in Article 18. For most other e-mail clients, it’s usually a simple matter of right-clicking the attachment’s icon and choosing Save As. Or in the case of a picture that’s visible in the body of the message, right-click the picture and choose Save Picture As. However, do keep in mind that all e-mail clients and systems are different. If you

can’t figure out how to save attachments or pictures in your e-mail, search your ISP or e-mail provider’s e-mail support for attachment, or contact their technical support.

Copying pictures from Web sites

Needless to say, there are billions of pictures on the Internet. You can often find just the picture you’re looking for by going to a site like images.google.com and searching for an appropriate word or phrase. If you find a picture you can use (and you’re not infringing on anyone’s copyright in the process), you can store a copy of the picture in any folder of your choosing. If the picture you see on the screen is a link to a larger copy of the image, click to get to the larger copy of the picture. Then use whatever options your Web browser provides to save a copy of the picture. Here are the steps for Internet Explorer, the Web browser that comes with Windows Vista:

1. In Internet Explorer, right-click anywhere on the picture you want and choose Save Picture As.

2. Click Pictures in the navigation pane. Of course, you can choose some other folder if you prefer. For example, double-click any subfolder icon in the main pane to store the picture in that subfolder.

- Optionally, to put the picture in a subfolder of the folder you just opened, double-click that subfolder’s icon.

- Optionally, change the File name of the picture to a filename of your own choosing.

- Optionally, click to the right of the Save as type label and choose a format. (JPEG works best if you plan to use Windows Photo Gallery.)

3. Click Save. A copy of the picture is saved in whatever folder you specified in step 2.

Copy and paste pictures

You can copy an open picture from just about any document to any document that accepts pictures. For example, you can copy and paste a picture from a Web page to a Microsoft Word document. You just have to make sure the picture is open (not just an icon or thumbnail). To copy-and-paste an open picture:

1. Right-click the picture and choose Copy.

2. Right-click where you want to put the picture and choose Paste. You can use the same technique to make a copy of a picture within a folder or Windows Photo Gallery. Right-click the icon or thumbnail of the picture you want to copy and choose Copy. Then right-click some empty place within the folder (perhaps after the last icon) and choose Paste. The copy will have the same filename as the original followed by Copy. Taking screenshots The new Snipping Tool lets you take a screenshot and also annotate it with your own text. A screenshot is like a photo of something you see on your screen. Most of the pictures in this article are screenshots. There are two ways to create screenshots in Windows Vista. One is to use the new Snipping Tool. The other is to use the Print Screen key.

Using the Snipping Tool

To use the Snipping Tool, first get the screen looking the way you want the screenshot to look. Then use either of the following techniques to open the Snipping Tool: - Click the Start button and choose All Programs  ->  Accessories  ->  Snipping Tool. - Tap the Windows key, type sni, and choose Snipping Tool. The first time you do these steps you’ll be given the option to add the Snipping Tool to your Quick Launch toolbar. If you plan on using it often, choose Yes to make it easily accessible from your desktop. Whether or not you add the Snipping Tool to your Quick Launch toolbar when first prompted isn’t important. As with any program, you can add or remove it at any time.In the small Snipping Tool window that opens, click the arrow on the New button and choose what you want to capture:

- Free-Form Snip: If you choose this option, the screen goes dim. Lasso the area you want to capture by dragging a circle or any other shape around it.

- Rectangle Snip: If you choose this option, the screen goes dim. Drag a rectangle around the portion of the screen you want to capture.

- Window Snip: If you choose this option, you can then click anywhere in the window you want to capture.

- Full Screen Snip: Choosing this option captures the whole screen without further intervention on your part. The Snipping Tool enlarges to full screen and displays your screenshot. Now you have two choices. If you’re not happy with your capture, click the New button and try again. If you are happy with your screen capture, you can save it as a file in your Pictures folder. Click the Save Snip toolbar button (the one that looks like a floppy disk). Navigate to the folder in which you want to put the picture. If you don’t have a preference, use your Pictures folder. Then give the snip a filename, and choose a type from the Save As Type button. If you don’t have a preference, choose PNG or JPEG because either will give you good quality and excellent compatibility with other programs. Optionally, you can copy-and-paste the snip into another open document or program. Click the Copy toolbar button (two sheets of paper button). Then open the program into which you want to paste the picture and paste (press Ctrl+V).

Using the Print Screen key

The Print Screen key gets its name from the olden days of computers where pressing it actually printed whatever was on your screen at the moment to paper. It hasn’t worked that way in a long time. Nowadays the Print Screen key takes a snapshot of the screen and puts it in the Windows Clipboard where it just sits until you paste the Clipboard contents. There are two ways to use the Print Screen key:

- Print Screen: Takes a snapshot of the entire screen.

- Alt+Print Screen: Takes a snapshot of the active window only. The Print Screen key may be labeled Prnt Scrn, PrtScn, or something like that on your keyboard. To make a screenshot, get the screen looking the way you want. Then follow these steps:

1. Press Print Screen or Alt+Print Screen.

2. Open your favorite graphics program. If you don’t have one, click the Start button and choose All Programs  ->  Accessories  ->  Paint to open Paint (which comes with Windows Vista). You can paste the snapshot into a document (like a Microsoft Word document). But if you do, you won’t be able to treat it like a normal editable picture. Better to paste it into Paint or some other graphics program and save it as a JPEG or PNG file. You cannot paste the snapshot into a folder or Windows Photo Gallery.

3. Choose Edit  ->  Paste from the menu, or press Ctrl+V. The screenshot is pasted into the program.

4. Exit Paint or your graphics program by clicking its Close (X) button.

5. When you see a message asking if you want to save your changes, click Yes. The Save As dialog box opens.

6. In the Save As dialog box, type a File name of your own choosing.

7. The Save in location should already be your Pictures folder (e.g., C:\Users\Your User Name\Pictures). If it’s not, navigate to your Pictures folder (or the folder in which you want to store screenshots).