Computer Info – March 29, 2000

This Week’s Program

        Creating a directory structure for your photos and ACDSee

Creating a directory structure for your photos

        If you are planning on placing family photos on a CD – the place to start is to create a directory structure on your hard drive or rewriteable CD first. Develop a master plan of what you want – are you going to divide the photos into certain family members (example: your children, grandparents, wife’s family) – or do you wish to do it by the year and the activity. If we were to do it by year and activity, our folders might be labeled -----
        1953
            Bettys Birthday
            Trip to Montana
        1955
            Trip to Washington DC
            Walters Graduation
or maybe we would have them grouped like this -------
        Houses
        Mike and Betty
        Travels
            Central Florida
            Montana 1953
            Washington DC 1955
        Walter
Whatever your choice, it gives you someplace to start.
        Once you start placing your photos into these folders, you are sure to find that you do not have a category for every photo. You can add a folder (directory) at anytime.
        An important part of doing a photo CD is to create a master index of your photos. One of the easiest ways to do this, is to create a simple text document using WordPad, Word or any word processor that you might be using. To create this index, start with the first photo that you add to your folders and type the name of the photo (the filename that you gave the picture when you saved it) – the folder that you placed in it – and a description of the photo.
        For example ----
                    Betty blowing out candles (1953-Betty Birthday)
                        Betty blowing out the candles on her 11th birthday – May 15, 1953
                        Her friends, John, Marge and Carolyn are standing behind her.
        or ---
                    Fireplace in Deltona 1982 (Houses)
                        Our fireplace at our house in Deltona, Florida in October, 1982
                        The picture above the fireplace was bought during our trip to Key West in 1979
        Because word processors have the ability to easily insert lines, you can alphabetize your listing as you go along. And because word processors have the ability to find words within the document, if you were looking for a picture of Betty’s birthday (but don’t remember what you named the picture), then you could search the document for the word birthday.
        Most of all, don’t keep postponing your start of this project because you haven’t quite decided what you are going to do with the pictures. Once the pictures have been scanned, saved and indexed – then that part of your job is done. Now you can use these pictures to create another type of folder structure if you wish.

ACDSee

Create a list of folders where photos are stored
        Under VIEW – CONTROLS -- place a checkmark next to FAVORITES. This will allow you to place a list of folders where you typically store your photos that you might wish to view.
        To add a new FAVORITES folder, first locate the folder and open it to view the pictures. Then from the top menu, choose FILE – ADD TO FAVORITIES – you will be allowed to enter a name for this shortcut – then click OK.
        To remove one of the Favorites that is already listed or you have added that you are not using, right-click on it and choose DELETE from the menu. This will only delete the shortcut to the folder – not the folder.
        By double clicking on one of the favorites, it will quickly open up that folder.
Print out a list of all files in a directory
        We have been ask numerous times how can we print out a list of the files in a directory. It turns out that you can do this with ACDSee.
        Just choose TOOLS – GENERATE FILE LISTING. This will open NotePad and give you the name of the file – the size of the file – the size of the picture – and a description. You can then save the file as a text document – print it or open it in your spreadsheet to create a listing that you can sort.
        Normally, you would just be creating a listing of picture files (since that is what ACDSee is for) – but if you wish to create a listing of all files in a directory – under TOOLS – OPTIONS – and then under the tab labeled THUMBNAILS – in the lower right corner you will see ITEMS SHOWN. Place a checkmark next to ALL FILES (NOT JUST IMAGES).
Create Wallpaper
        You can easily create wallpaper (the picture on your desktop) by highlighting the picture that you want, then choose TOOLS – SET WALLPAPER – choose CENTERED or TILED – and your wallpaper is created.
Move between the Browser view and the Picture view
        When in the Browser view, double-click on one of the thumbnails and you will be in the Picture view. When in the Picture view, double-click on the picture and you will be back in the Browser view.
Description of Picture
        When you are in the Browser view, you can right-click on one of the thumbnails and choose DESCRIBE. Here you can place a short description of the picture. The description will be displayed in the status line. You can also sort your photos by this field.

Two-Tone Effect to the Active Window Title Bar

        Did you know that you can have the Title Bar of the Active Window have a two-tone effect? The default is to use the same color for both color 1 and color 2, but you can vary that.
        To try this out, right-click on an empty area of the desktop and choose PROPERTIES from the menu. Now click on the APPEARANCE tab. Click on the words that say Active Window in the middle of that screen and then look in the box labeled Item: -- it now says Active Title Bar. And to the right of that is where you make your choices of color 1 and color 2.
        You can do the same thing to the Inactive Title Bar.
        Remember, to put everything back to the Windows default, in the box labeled, Scheme: -- look at the bottom of the list and choose Windows Standard.

Advertisement on the web

        The internet has brought many new ways for advertisers to reach as many people as possible. They are becoming so creative in how they can do this. We recently was given a web address for getting the results from the lottery in any state.
                 http://www.alllotto.com
        That part works fine. But when you leave that page by clicking on the back button – in Netscape, you are immediately taken to a web page for Gambling and Gaming Search Engine – in Internet Explorer, you are presented with a message window asking you if you would like to go to the Gambling and Gaming Search Engine.