1. Pictures from Camera into Computer
2. Getting Acquainted with Irfanview
3. Basic Terms: View Size vs Print Size, etc.
4. Virtually Free Photography - Naming Pics, Albums
5. When Digital Camera Photos Can't Be Found
6. Digital Photography for Not So Digital Seniors

1. How to Crop and/or Resize a Photo
2. Problem Enlarging Digital Pictures
3. Understanding CYMK & RGB Colors
4. How to Straighten (Rotate, Align) a Photo
5. Darkrooms Replaced by Computers
6. Be Your Own Photo Processing Studio

1. Adding Text to a Photo
2. Text & Picture In a Word Text Box

1. Printing Multiple Photos on a Single Page
2. Displaying Your Photos as a Slideshow
3. Printing Photo Thumbnail Sheets
4. When Multiple Photos Don't All Fit on a Print-Out
5. Print Yourself or Have Pics Processed Elsewhere?

1. Reducing a Digital Photo's File Size
2. Red X Instead of a Picture
3. Reducing the File Size of a Video
4. Print Yourself or Have Pics Processed Elsewhere?
5. Copying Images from a Web Site or an Email

1. Digital Picture Formats (JPG, BMP, GIF, TIF, etc)
2. Difference Between "Drawing" & "Painting" Programs
3. Digital Cameras & Megapixelss
4. Choosing File Associations for Picture Files
5. Understanding "Animated GIFs"
6. Comparison of JPG and GIF Photographs

Free - Picasa2 !
• A very handy free program for editing and organizing photos is Picasa2 from Google. Get it at picasa.google.com/download

Free - Irfanview !
• Another handy free program for editing and organizing photos is Irfanview. Get it at Irfanview.

Help with Email

Moving Outlook Express DBX Files to a New PC Moving Email Address Book Names from one PC to Another Using BCCs (Blind Carbon Copies) to Protect Privacy Pictures, Attachments, Senders Blocked in Outlook Express More PC Help & Other Free Programs Can Be Found Here. Some Favorite Links

How to Straighten (Rotate, Align) a Photo

Most image-editing programs have options that allows you to rotate a picture clockwise or counter-clockwise to an angle of your choice. Windows Paint, the no-frills image-editing program that comes with Windows, will only let you rotate a picture in 90 degree increments; however, most other programs offer more sophisticated alignment options. With a picture opened in Paint, the Rotate command will be found under Images.

Rotating a Picture with Irfanview

Irfanview (my favorite program for opening, cropping, and resizing photos) also has a rotation option under Image that lets you choose Rotate Left or Rotate Right. These commands will rotate a picture 90º counter-clockwise and 90º clockwise, respectively.

Clicking on Image>Custom Rotation will let you rotate a picture clockwise to any angle from 1º to 359º. If you want to rotate a picture counter-clockwise, place a minus sign (-) in front of the number you type in.

If you rotate a picture in Irfanview, but are not pleased with the result, you can click Edit>Undo (or Ctrl+Z) to return the image to its previous state.

Irfanview is a totally free program that can be downloaded from: www.irfanview.com. Picasa2 can be downloaded from: http://picasa.google.com.

Rotating a Picture with Picasa2

Picasa2 is free from Google and is an image-management program I recommend for anyone with a large collection of digital photos. However, Picasa2's command structure tends to be a little complicated, so here's a step-by-step guide on how to straighten a photo with Picasa2.

Picasa2 Needs Some Time to "Index" All Your Photos

In order to work properly, however, Picasa2 should be installed a few hours before its first use. This is because it "indexes" all your pictures, much like Google indexes files on the Internet.

Upon launching Picasa2, you should see a collection of "Thumbnails" of the images in your "My Photos" folder. The left side of your screen will list all the various folders Picasa2 has found which contain pictures, with "My Photos" normally marked as the album currently being viewed.

Use the vertical scroll bar to find your target picture. If it's not in the My Pictures folder (which is found inside your My Documents folder), place it there before launching Picassa2. Yes, you can browse to find pictures in other folders, but Picasa2 is easier to use if the target images are placed inside My Pictures.

If you right-click a Thumbnail of your target picture, Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Counter-Clockwise options will appear, with which can realign the image in 90º increments.

Left-clicking an image's thumbnail view will copy it into the "Picture Tray" in the lower left of the window. You can display a full size view of the picture by double-clicking this icon - or by right-clicking it and choosing View & Edit. Doing either will display a list of editing options to the left of the enlarged picture.

Choose Basic Fixes>Straighten and a grid will overlay the photo, which can help you realign it. A button on a sliding scale under the picture lets you realign the picture with amazing ease and accuracy.

Clicking Apply will create a straightened version of the photo, while leaving the original in place. You then need to click File>Save a Copy, whereupon the edited photo will be given the same name as the original, with a "1" added to the name (such as photo1.jpg).

Further edits and saves would create copies thus incrementally named (photo2.jpg, photo3.jpg, etc.) all of which will be stored in the folder currently in use. (Again - this is usually your My Photos folder).

Straightening a Picture with Microsoft's "Picture It!"

Picture It! has a similar tool that works in a rather unique way. Under Format, click on Straighten Picture. Then choose a line, such as the edge of a door, which you want "upright" instead of "leaning." Click one end of the line, followed by clicking its other end, and the photo will immediately realign itself.

An alternative of way doing this is to click Rotate>Custom, whereupon you can click an up-arrow which will cause the picture to rotate clockwise in one degree increments. Clicking the corresponding down-arrow will rotate the image counter-clockwise. You can also type in an estimated number of clockwise degrees, press Enter, and fine-tune the result with individual clicks.

With the photo now realigned, click on the Crop tool and draw a rectangle with your left mouse-button held down. Clicking Done will leave only the cropped area displayed, whereupon choosing "Save a Copy As" will let you name the edited image, while leaving the original intact.

When you use Picasa2's straightening tool, the picture is automatically cropped. To do your own cropping, click Crop>Manual to draw a rectangle as described above, followed by clicking Apply to remove the discarded areas. Alternatively, you can click one of three standard photo sizes (4x6, 5x7, or 8x10) for automatic resizing.

My preferred program for cropping, however, is Irfanview. When a picture is opened in Irfanview, you can immediately draw a rectangle around the area you want to save. Click the Scissors icon to Cut the cropped area, followed by clicking the Paste icon to reinstate the cropped area while discarding the unwanted material.

My reason for explaining these steps in Irfanview and Picasa2 is that the programs are totally free. MS-Picture-It! can be purchased, but often comes packaged with new computers nowadays.

With other image-editing programs you can click on Help (or press F1 on your keyboard) and then type rotate or rotation or align or alignment or straighten into a Search box for specific details.