Dear Computer Lady,

A friend of mine gave me as a gift, a cd full of wonderful photos she had taken of a very special occasion I was involved in. I finally managed to download a program so that I could see them, but when I try to send the photos to anyone, (even 1 photo) the email comes back to me saying it was too large. 

I have friends who send me pictures of their grandkids etc. all the time in a small snapshot type of way. How can I do that? 

These pictures that I have on cd are huge and even though I resize them, they arrive at the other end really big. 

Thanks so much for all your help, A regular reader, Marilyn 

Dear Marilyn,

The short answer to your question is that you need to save the picture after you resize it. If you original picture was named grandkids.jpg, you would open your image software program, resize the picture, save it as something like grandkidssm.jpg so you will keep a copy of the full size image and then send the smaller image.

You don’t say what program you are using to view and resize your pictures, so I will give a more detailed example using a great free image viewer called Irfanview at http://www.irfanview.com .

1. Open the picture in Irfanview.

2. To resize the picture, click on “Image” on the menu bar and then on “Resize/resample”.

3. Using the options in the Resample window, you can quickly reduce the image by half one or more times, or enter the size you want the picture to be. Click “OK” when you are done.

4. Now, save your new, smaller image using the “File” and “Save As” commands. Make sure you change the name slightly to avoid deleting the original picture.

5. Now, send your e-mail message using the smaller image you created. 

Elizabeth 

I have enjoyed your service for a long time and often find your answers useful.  However, I have never seen you answer this one (although I’m sure you must have answered it at some time).  I would like to print the screen in one of my e-mail folders in Outlook Express.  I remember there was a way to do it in Outlook, but even though I’ve looked everywhere, I can’t figure a way to do it in Outlook Express.  Incidentally, I thought the “Print Screen” button would work, but it doesn’t.  I have XP.
Thanks so much for your help. Ruth

Dear Ruth,

In the days of DOS (before Windows) when you pressed the “Print Screen” key, you would instantly send a copy of what was on your screen to the printer.

With the advent of Windows, Microsoft changed the way the “Print Screen” key works. In any version of Windows, pressing the “Print Screen” key sends a picture of your screen to the clipboard. Since you cannot see the clipboard, it really looks like nothing has happened, and so you think that the button no longer works.

All you need to do, is a couple of extra steps and you will soon be sending a printout of your screen to the printer.

After you press the “Print Screen” button to copy the image of your screen to the clipboard, you need to open an image program. My favorite is Irfanview which is available at Irfanview.com  or, you can use Paint which is included on all computers running Windows.

To open Paint, click on “Start”, then “Programs” or “All Programs” point to “Accessories” and then click on “Paint”.

Once you are in the Paint program, click on “Edit” in the menu bar and then click on “Paste”. This will put your image in the Paint window.

If “Paste” was not highlighted, then you forgot to press the “Print Screen” button to copy the image.

Once you have pasted the image into Paint, click on “File” and then “Print…” to print the image.

Elizabeth

A friend introduced me to your site…I love it and I thank you. 

How would I reduce a JPG photo that was taken by some else and downloaded on a CD for me? I have reduced it but I can not download the reduce one that I copied to my document folder.

Arax in Boca Raton, FL USA

How you reduce a jpg photo in size depends on the software program you are using to work with your pictures. Since my favorite photo program Irfanview, is free, I will give you directions using that program.

If you don’t have Irfanview installed on your computer, you can read about it, and download it on their website at Irfanview.com

When you have Irfanview installed on your computer, open your picture in Irfanview. You can do this using the “File” and “Open” commands in the menu bar.

When you have the picture open, click on “Image” in the menu bar, and then click on “Resize/Resample”. This will bring up a small window with some options to chose from.

In the Resize/Resample image window, you will be able to chose from several options. You can set a new size by typing in the pixel size, make the new picture a percentage of the original, or select some standard sizes.

I usually like to use the button on the upper right hand side of the window that says “Half” You can click on that button once or twice and get the picture as small as you would like. Once done, click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window and you will see your image in its new size.

If you like the size of your new image, you can save it. Don’t forget this step, because if you close the image without saving, you will revert back to the original large size image. Just click on “File” and “Save”.

I always give the smaller image a new file name so that I don’t lose the original.
Elizabeth