What's the best way to scan old slides and store the results? There are plenty of opinions! Read them here. Also, check the status of your anti-virus software.

Digitize old slides

A recent column asked for your help. A reader has hundreds of slides, and wants to know the best way to digitize and store them. Several people suggested outsourcing the project, but at an average cost of over $1.00 per slide, that may not be the best way to go for hundreds of slides!

Thank you everyone for suggesting how to scan them yourself:

For a small number of slides, I've used an Epson 2480 which scans two at a time. There is a larger model which scans fours at a time. - Rick

My Canon Canoscan LIDE 600F flatbed scanner ($120) comes with an attachment for scanning slides and film strips. Positive or negative. - Ray

I had 2700 slides in slide carousels in order of years. I bought an HP scanner that had the slide tray in the lid. There were many kinds but most of them you had to put the slide part onto the glass. I didn't want parts laying around so I bought the one that is permanent in the lid. I scanned each slide in individually. When I had one hundred scanned then I went and numbered then 1-100 and cropped and lightened etc. - Betty

HP Scanjet G4050 does up to 16 slides at a time. You do have to take the time to load the 16 to the scanner then unload and reload. It also does strips of negatives of pics is great with scanning picture prints and a great color/BW "photo copier". I found the Scanjet G4050 at Staples about a year ago for under $200. It did need some downloads from HP for Vista compatibility. - Monty

An incredibly interesting alternative to using a scanner is:

I have an SLR camera that I made a slide holder for and with a telephoto lens and macro attachment I took photos of my old slides. It is not perfect but does a reasonable job. I saved them into folders sorted by the year on the slide. - Bill

To store the images, get the biggest external hard drive you can afford, connect it up to a USB port, and save the digitized slides there. Hard drives will be around for years to come. DVD's and CD's will not.

A good, free basic photo editor is Picasa. Photoshop Elements is more powerful, but not free. I let Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/) organize my images. I am also impressed with Adobe Photoshop Elements' (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/) organizer function, but that is not a free program. Vista has a really powerful and beautiful photo album built in. Even the built in "My Pictures" folder in Windows XP is better than a shoe box full of slides!

AVG Free Anti-Virus needs your attention

AVG Free 7.5 Anti Virus is a great, free product. I have used it, recommended it in this column, and installed it for my clients for several years. Sadly, it is fast approaching the end of it's life. Grisoft, the maker of AVG, will retire 7.5 and stop issuing updates for it at the end of this month. They recommend their updated product, AVG Free 8.0.

AVG Free 8.0 also includes some anti-spyware capabilities, a Link Scanner, and a Safe Search component. For the average user, this is either good news or at least not bad news. For power users, this can be infuriating. There are ways to disable those components. And, if you want to install the program without the Link Scanner component, check the instructions and comments in this article:

Link Scanner instructions

AVG 8.0 is available here:

AVG 8.0

If you want to try another product, AVIRA Personal Free comes highly recommended. That is available here:

AVIRA Personal Free

Another free product which is often recommended is Avast!, available here:

Avast

Whatever you do, do something! Whatever you install, be sure to uninstall your AVG 7.5 before you install a new anti-virus product!

Thank you so much to everyone who emailed suggestions on scanning slides! And of course thanks to everyone who emailed questions on other topics, too! Please keep them coming. My email is cate@rlis.com. You can also read the old columns at any time by pointing your browser to:

Cate's archives

This week we have the latest on Windows XP SP3, a progress report on slide scanning, and a tip for XP and Vista users.

Update on XP

Did XP SP3 show up in your Microsoft Updates last week? It did for me, although I had a heck of a time downloading it. But, once the updates were all on the hard drive, it was only about a 45 minute job to install the whole thing. I had no idea I could hold my breath that long, but it all turned out fine.

Not everyone was as lucky. Even if you're not experiencing the continuous reboot problem (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2302371,00.asp), you might need a little help sorting things out. As they did with Vista SP1 (http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=11274), Microsoft is making free technical support available for XP SP3 related problems. Visit this link for help:

XP SP3 support

Microsoft has another bunch of updates for us this week. Make sure your Automatic Updates are turned on (http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/updates/automatic.mspx), or point your browser to Microsoft Update (http://www.update.microsoft.com/).

Update on scanning slides

Last week I asked for advice on scanning old slides. (http://rlis.com/columns/column145.htm) Thank you to everyone who wrote I got a ton of advice. I've passed along your suggestions to the reader who asked for help, and I'll sum the whole thing up in an upcoming column. It's not too late to offer your advice.

Stop Windows from copying for no reason!

When you have more than one file to move, delete, cut, drag & drop, or what have you, doing the same action over and over can be tedious. Why not select all the files, and just do the action one time?

To select more than one file, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the files you want. Then, you can drag and drop them, or right-click and select from that menu, or delete them. As long as you want to do the same thing to all the selected files, you're in good shape.

You SHOULD be in good shape, that is. But sometimes when I select a big whack of files to move, Windows just starts copying them. What the heck? I never told Windows to copy! Well, it turns out I probably did, and never knew it. When you select files and end up dragging them more than four pixels in any direction, Windows assumes you mean to copy them.

To fix this in Windows XP, download TweakUI, available here:

TweakUI

Install TweakUI, open it, and:

Select "Mouse" from the left menu

In the "Drag" box, change the number to something higher than four
Drag the "Test icon" on the right to get a feel for what number works best for you

OK your way out

TweakUI won't work in Windows Vista, but there is an interesting feature in Vista that comes in handy here. Instead of using Ctrl + Click, we can use check boxes. But first we have to turn them on.

In the Search box, type "Folder and Search Options"

Click on "View"

In the Advanced settings box, place a check in the box for "Use check boxes to select items"

OK your way out

Thank you everyone who wrote with questions, comments, and suggestions. Please keep them coming, to cate@rlis.com. Also, you can look through the column archives at any time by pointing your browser to

Cate archives

This week's column answers readers' questions: Can I print from my wireless PC? Can I scan old slides? Can I trust anyone over 30?

Printing from a wireless PC

Recently I helped a client set up her laptop so that she can use the wireless connection. When she's at her desk, she can plug in the cable and connect "normally." When she wants to use the computer in another room, she turns on the wireless connection, unplugs the cable, and she's good to go. She can do anything in all the other rooms of her home that she can do at her desk...except print.

Yes, you do have to have a printer connected to something in order to print to it. Usually, we have a printer connected directly to our computer with a cable. When you take your PC to another room, remember to unplug the printer! That prevents loud crashes and broken toes, but it also prevents printing. How can we print from a wireless computer?

There are plenty of complicated solutions, but I am going to talk about the easier ones here. The first three suggestions work if you have a home network.

If you have another computer, connect the printer to that computer, establish a home network, and share the printer. The printer and the computer it's connected to have to be on in order to print.

Some printers can connect directly to a network. If you have a printer that will do that, and you have a home network, you can connect the printer, share it, and print to it from any computer on the network.

You can also buy a "print server" and connect it to your home network. Then you connect your printer(s) to the print server, and you can print from any computer on your network.

If you don't have a home network and don't want to be bothered with one, try these workarounds:

Printers are cheap. Buy an extra printer and plug it into the laptop when you need it.

Finally, there is the "sneaker net" solution. Take the laptop back to the printer and print to your heart's content! Don't forget to check GreenPrint! (http://www.printgreener.com/)


Help with scanning old slides

A reader has hundreds of slides accumulated over many years and is looking for a way to digitize them and store them.

I can help with the storage: Forget about CD's and DVD's. Get the biggest external hard drive you can afford, connect it up to a USB or 1394 port, and save the digitized slides there. Hard drives will be around for years to come. DVD's and CD's will deteriorate.

What I can't help with is recommendations for a good way to scan them. What about you folks? Do you have a recommendation for a scanner? For a method? How do you organize the slides after you've scanned them? Any lessons learned?

Send your suggestions/comments/dire warnings to cate@rlis.com, and I will pass them along in future columns.

Oh, drat. I forgot to send a card.

What else could be in my In Box but spam? Happy 30th birthday, spam. I'm afraid I can't wish you many happy returns. Read about it here:

Birthday spam

The original spam is here:

Original spam

As always, thank you to everyone who emailed comments, questions and suggestions. I appreciate all of that please keep them coming! Remember, you can browse the column archives at

Cate's archives

Happy Mother's Day!

Need some paper? Need some electronics? Need to fix a munged up Word document? I've got just the thing. What I haven't got, is XP Service Pack 3...but no one does!

Print Your Own Paper

I know you're asking yourself, "Why would I want to print my own paper?" Well, if you need graph paper, lined paper, financial paper, music paper, or another specialty paper, and the store is closed, this is the site for you. Check out Printable Paper at

Printable Paper

I grant you this is not going to be the least expensive paper you will ever get, but it's there right when you need it.

Fans of the Cornell note taking system will want to have a look at the PDF Cornell notes generator, here:

Cornell notes

or the template for MS Word here:

Word Templates

Get All The Reviews From One Site

Recently we had to shop for a digital TV, and I thought my head was going to explode. I wish I'd known about ReviewGist. They say, "ReviewGist is an easy-to-use tool that makes it much easier for you to decide what to buy when it comes to consumer electronics." No kidding. They gather up the online reviews and specs for electronic products from camcorders to wireless routers, and present that information in a way that is easy to search and digest. If you're shopping for something electronic, give it a try. The website is here:

ReviewGist

Repair Damaged Word Files

If you have a MS Word file that won't open, Repair My Word will probably allow you to rescue it. It will repair Microsoft Word 6.0, Word 95, 97, 2000, XP, and 2003 for Windows. (Sorry, not Office 2007 versions of Word.)

You just have to open the corrupt file in Repair My Word, preview the recoverable text, and save this text to a new Word file. This handy utility is free, and available here:

Repair My Word

Microsoft Puts The Brakes on XP Service Pack 3

The announced release date for the long-awaited XP SP3 was April 29. It didn't show up in MY Windows Updates either! It turns out that at the last minute, Microsoft pulled it back because of an incompatibility with another Microsoft program. They'll make some adjustments, and release it...er...soon. Yeah, soon. That's the ticket.

Now is a good time to visit the Secunia Software Inspector (http://secunia.com/software_inspector/) and make sure everything else is up to date. Recently there have been security updates to Flash, QuickTime, Java, and Adobe Reader. Be sure to uninstall the older versions of Flash and Java after you install the updates.

Thank you everyone who emailed with questions, comments and words of encouragement. You can reach me at cate@rlis.com if you have anything to ask or tell about your computer. Don't forget, you can browse the column archives at any time, at

Cate's Archives