Getting organized:

The best way to get your photos organized is to start with a system that works for you.

My system is to create a single folder for all my digital photos on my hard drive. Inside that folder, called "Digital Pictures," I place a sub-folder for each month of the year. In each month's folder I may place more folders for each activity held during that month.

For example: Digital Photos --> April --> Easter --> Grandmas

I then place the digital pictures into their respective folders.

TIPS:

Creating a folder:

Right click anywhere and choose NEW -->FOLDER in the menu that pops up.

Renaming a folder:

Right click on a folder and go to RENAME or...
Select the folder (left click once) and then press F2.

Creating a shortcut, Copying or Moving a file:

Click and hold on your RIGHT mouse button and drag the file to the location where you want it to go.
Let go of your mouse button and you will be given an options menu asking which of the three options you want to do. Copy, shortcut or move.

Backing up:

Once you have created this file system or one similar - backing up is easy. All you need to do is create a CD with all of the files for the months you haven't previously backed up. Label the CD with something like "January-March '04 Pictures."

Using this file system will make finding your photos much easier later.

A word about CD-R and DVD-R media and drives:

We spend a long time on this topic at the meeting. I thought I should break it down here in a simple manner.

CD-R (also called a CD Burner) - Write or read CD media or music.
DVD-R (also called a DVD Burner) - Write or read DVD or CD media.
DVD-ROM - reads DVDs and CDs but does not write to either
CD-ROM - reads CD media only. Does not write to CD or DVD and won't read DVDs.

Popular CD burning programs:

Roxio EZ CD Creator, Nero, NTI RecordNOW!, HP Record Now.