Number 277 - June 2006
Digital Camera Tip
excerpt from Herb Goldstein's Computer Buffet,
March 2006 , Sarasota PC User Group


   Here's a handy tip for digital camera owners from Scott Johnson, The Computer Tutor. "Any digital camera that you buy will come with its own software that is supposed to help you with downloading your pictures from the camera to the computer. Some of these programs are Camedia, Corel PhotoAlbum, Kodak EasyShare, etc. Here's my advice: don't use any of them. In fact, if you use Windows XP, you don't need to use any separate program to get your pictures to your computer--XP has that function already built in. Here's how you do it:
   
  • Connect your camera to your computer, via the cable that goes to the USB port, and turn on the camera.

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  • Double-click My Computer so that you see the various drive letters displayed.

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  • Double-click the drive letter for your digital camera (it will probably say "removable disk" followed by the drive letter).

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  • Double click the next folder shown (probably labeled DCIM), and then double click the folder containing your photos.

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  • Hold the Ctrl key, and hit the letter "A" (this highlights all of the photos).

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  • Do a right-click on one of the highlighted images, and choose "Copy" (this copies all of the images to the Windows Clipboard).

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  • Now, close this window completely and go to the My Pictures folder (you can find that by clicking on the Start button).

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  • In a blank area in that folder, do a right-click and choose "Paste" (this copies all of the images to this folder).


    •    Now, your images are on the hard drive. You are able to move them around to the proper folder(s), or you can edit them, or you can delete them. Once you know that the pictures are on the computer, you can delete them from the camera, thereby freeing up space on the memory card for more photos. If you really want to use a separate program for moving pictures from the camera to the computer, I highly recommend Picasa--just use the Import button found in the top left corner, and choose your camera as the device from which to import."
      Number 277 - June 2006