Working with Pictures
By Dick Evans
Each of us has many opportunities to work with picture= s. When doing a school report, creating a poster for a project we are involved= in, making a scrapbook, or just adding some life to a letter we are writing or = a newsletter we are publishing for the local garden club. Sure, we can insert a picture = or some clip art into our Word document using the insert menu option. But, wha= t do we do with the latest digital picture we took at the family outing or the g= reat picture we found on the Internet?
Windows XP comes with many tools to work with pictures= and we may not be aware of them. Insert that digital picture into a Word docume= nt and it may be adding a megabyte or more to the file size. Try to email it to someone else and it takes forever. In addition, what about the great pictur= es from the Internet? Copy and Paste does not seem to work all the time.
Pictures from=
the
Internet
We search the Internet and find a great picture for a = report we are writing. How do we get it into the report? Some pictures are easy but others seem impossible. Let’s look at the easy and then see how the impossible is actually possible.
Open a web page containing= a picture. This one has the flower pictures from above: http://www.ric.edu/reva= ns/evans_flower.htm
Right-click on the top picture
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image048.jpg")
There are two options we can use. The first available = one is Save Picture As… This al= lows us to take the picture and save a copy of it. The Save Picture dialog box o= pens allowing us to save it to a folder on our hard disk or elsewhere. We can th= en insert the picture into a Word document, print it out, or email it to someo= ne else.
The second option is Copy. When we select Copy, a copy of the image is placed into the Windows clipboa= rd. Anything copied to the clipboard may be pasted into any application having a paste option. Let’s try both of these options and place the results i= nto a Word document.
Open an empty Word document.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image049.jpg")
Using the Save Picture As… option, place a copy = of the flower on your desktop. In Word, on the menu bar, click the Insert menu option. From the pull= down list, select Insert Picture from f= ile. Locate the file on the desktop, and then click Insert. The file is placed at the insertion point in the Word document window.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image050.gif")
Press the Enter key a couple of times to bring the ins= ertion point below the picture.
Using the Copy option, copy and paste the same picture= from the web page to your document. Rig= ht-click on the picture, then select Copy. Go back to the Word document and righ= t-click then select paste. (An alterna= tive method is to press Ctrl+V on the keyboard or to select Edit > Paste from= the menu bar.) The picture is copied to the document.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image008.gif")
Now let’s try the other picture. It looks the sa= me on the web site. Right-click and a different menu pops up
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image010.jpg")
This picture is actually a flash movie file. It cannot= be copied using the conventional methods discussed above. Instead we have to resort to the Print Screen key on the keyboard. Print Screen has been around since the old DOS computers. It used to cause the words on the screen to be sent to the printer. Now it takes a snapshot of the image on the screen and places it in the clipboard just like the Copy function did for the other pi= cture. However, it copies the entire screen, not just the image you want to save.<= /p>
Print Screen snapshots the entire screen. Alt+Print Sc= reen snapshots only the active window. Either approach will work for copying our picture.
With the web page active, press Alt+Print Screen to capture the image to the clipboard. Next, o=
pen
the Paint program by clicking
Start > All Programs > Acces=
sories
> Paint.
On the Paint window, click Edit > Paste (or press Ctrl+V) to paste the snapshot image of the web page window into Paint.
Click off the image to deselect the image, and then cl= ick the select tool (rectangle with dotted lines in upper right of tools). Select the picture by moving the crosshair mouse pointer to the upper left corner of the picture of the flow= er, then hold the left mouse button down and drag to the lower right corner of = the picture, and then release the left button. A dotted box surrounds the pictu= re indicating it has been selected.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image051.jpg")
Click Edit &g= t; Copy or Ctrl+C to copy the selected image to the clipboard.
Return to your Word document and paste. The image is copied to your document.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image052.gif")
Using one of the three methods described above, you ca= n copy any image visible on your screen to any program that accepts an image such = as Word.
If you want an easier method, there are many programs available that allow you to capture an image and either insert into a docum= ent or save it as a graphics file for future use. One I like to use is called MWsnap by Mirek Wojtowicz. It is freeware and easy to install and use. If a picture is on your screen you can capture it, copy it to the clipboard, and save it as a graphic file.
Here is what www= .snapfiles.com has to say about it. “MWSnap is a small yet powerful program for taki= ng screen captures of a desktop, an active window, menu, or a specified part of the screen. The program supports BMP, JPG, TIFF,PNG and GIF formats, with u= ser selected color depth and quality settings. It also includes a zooming tool,= a screen ruler and a color picker as well as system wide hotkeys and preset selection sizes. A very nice program, one of the best - if not the best, you can currently find for free”
There are many features in this tool. We are only goin= g to use one of them. Download and install the software, then open it.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image016.jpg")
Minimize this window, and = then open the web page containing the flowers found at http://www.ric.edu/reva= ns/evans_flower.htm
Recall the second picture cannot be copied using the E= dit > Copy function or with Ctrl+C.
Press Ctrl+Sh= ift+A, then draw a box around the picture to be captured.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image017.jpg")
Once you have drawn the box, release and click the left mouse button once to capture the image. Focus moves to the MWsnap window.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image019.jpg")
Ctrl+C to= copy it to the clipboard so you can paste it into another application or File > Save as to keep the ima= ge as a graphics file of your choice such as JPEG or GIF or PNG and more
Resizing Digi=
tal
Pictures
With the price of digital camera around one hundred do= llars, everyone seems to have one. And everyone is sending pictures by email to all their and friends. One big issue is the size of the pictures they attach. M= ost email carriers have a limit on the size of a picture or at least the size o= f attachments. The cameras create great, high-density images we can use to print almost professional quality prints.
However, the picture file is huge. The typical size is anywhere from 500kb to 1mb! Attaching it to an email is easy, but sending t= he email is slow especially when connected with a telephone modem at 56kb. Cab= le or DSL connections mask the problem by allowing rapid transmission. When the recipient receives the picture, it is so large it does not fit on the scree= n.
Solving the problem is easy. After uploading the pictu= re from your camera to your computer, resize it. Windows does include Picture Manager which will allow you to resize your picture.
Find one of those LARGE picture files in Explorer. For= an example, I will use the following picture I took of a flower in front of my house. It was saved by the camera as an 881kb .jpg file. You may download t= his picture by right-clicking on the picture below and choosing Save picture as= . (I suggest saving it on the desktop so you may follow the steps below.)
![](3D"http://www.ric.edu/revans/evans_flower.jpg"=)
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image022.gif")
The program we will use is Picture Manager, but this m= ight not be the default on your computer. Right-click on the file you saved to the desktop, the select Open With > Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image024.jpg")
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image053.gif")
On the menu bar, select Picture > Resize
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image054.jpg")
The Resize task pane opens.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image055.gif")
Under Resize settings, pull down the scroll list under Predefined width x height
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image031.gif")
Listed are the typical picture sizes for viewing on a screen. Since the majority seem to use 800x600, let’s choose it. The picture will be large enough to fit full screen on an 800x600 sized display. Click OK to resize the picture, then save it using File > Save As. It will default to overwriting your original picture. If you copied the picture from your camera, the original still res= ides on the camera. If this is your original, you may want to give it a different name or file it in a different folder. Once you have made a picture smaller, you cannot make it larger.
My picture was reduced to 176kb which is less than 25%= of the original.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image032.gif")
Picture manager work great, but there is an easier way= to do this. Microsoft has a number of free tools you can download and an Image Resizer is part of the package.
You can find it at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.ms= px
Scroll down the right column and click the link to dow=
nload
and install the tool.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image033.gif")
Find one of those LARGE picture files in Explorer. For= an example I will use the following picture I took of a flower in front of my house. Notice it was saved by the camera as an 881kb .jpg file. You may download this picture by right-clicking on the picture below and choosing S= ave picture as. (I suggest saving it on the desktop so you may follow the steps below.)
Locate the file on your desktop, then right-click to open the shortcut menu.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image034.gif")
Notice the new option “Resize Pictures”, then mouse over it, then click once to = open the Resize Pictures dialog box.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image036.jpg")
There are four size options available. (I will leave i= t you to explore the Advanced button at another time.) Most users today seem to h= ave screens between Medium and Large. The Small option would generate a full sc= reen display on an old fourteen inch monitor with a limited graphics card. I sug= gest Medium for sending pictures by email.
Click OK<= /p>
A second picture is created with the same name as the original, with (Medium) added.
![](3D"http://www.ric.edu/revans/evans_flower%20(Medium).jpg")
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image039.gif")
Double-click to open the picture noticing the quality.= It looks just as good as the original; it cannot be made as large as the origi= nal. 90kb transfers much faster then 881kb – a 90% reduction in size. (You= may click the medium icon above to open the resulting file if you did not downl= oad the resizer as yet.) Small reduces the picture to 62.5kb and handheld to 15.5kb.
Recall the size when we reduced it using Picture Manag= er – 176kb. Not only does the resizer create a more compact file, it wil= l do more than one file at a time. Simply select all the files to be resized in a folder, then right-click on one of them. The size selected will be applied = to all.
Renaming Pictures
Cameras have their own naming conventions. Each pictur= e we take is named with some sequential number that is meaningless to us at a la= ter date. We took a number of pictures at the wedding the other day, and then we resized them and placed them in a folder named Wedding.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image056.jpg")
The names are sequential but cryptic. Windows XP can f= ix it.
Select the pi= ctures to be renamed. I like to use the shift+click method. Click the first file to select it, then hold down the Ctrl key, move the mouse to the last file in = the list, then click it once. All the files are selected.
With the files selected, right-click on the first file= , and then choose Rename.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image043.jpg")
The dark blue background of the selection disappears f= rom the other files and the first file is ready to be renamed. Notice the icons associated with each file. They still show as selected.
Type the name desired adding (1).jpg after it. The (1) indicates the starting sequence number and the .jpg is the extension of the original file.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image045.jpg")
Press Enter and watch the magic.
![](3D"WorkingwithPictures_files/image047.jpg")
All files were renamed and sequence number added to re= tain the original sequence.
There are many good picture-editing applications avail= able. However, for the casual home user, what comes with Windows XP and Office 20= 03 can do the job. With the help of a couple of free programs, the job is even easier.
Dick Evans is on the faculty at
Posted 9-20-2005