Answer:
That would depend on what format you used to save you photos. (aka .jpg; .bmp; .gif, etc.) I you remember the format:
1. Create a folder where you want your photos to be stored.
2. Click START then click on SEARCH.
3. Select ALL FILES AND FOLDERS.
4. If your photos are, for example, .jpg format, enter *.jpg in "All or part of the file name.
5. Select View on the toolbar and click on THUMBNAIL.
6. Click on Search.
7. All of the photos in .jpg will come up in a thumbnail view.
8. Select your photos, go to the toolbar and click on EDIT.
9. Select COPY TO FOLDER, locate and select the folder you want your photos stored in and click on COPY. (if you have MOVE TO FOLDER in you edit toolbar, click on MOVE.)
10. Use this method for all of the different photo formats you might have saved on your computer, and you will then have all of your photos in one location. Thereafter, save all of your future photos in this folder.
This worked great for me and it should for you. Have fun.
Submitted by: Forrest M.
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Hey Dusty, good question. Lucky for you, Windows XP has a built-in search function that includes many filtering options that are perfect for your situation.
First, make sure you are in an administrator account on your pc, and then run search, either by Start-Search, or just clicking search at the top of any explorer window (any folder). Then, click pictures, music and video and check mark Pictures and Photos. Now, there are several options. Is there something in each filename of your pictures, such as Kodak or "camera1". If so, enter that into the search bar. Otherwise, just enter a "*" (without quotes). You can also filter your results by size. If the pictures are high res or in a lossless format (bmp), then you might want to filter out all the small pictures that could be just icons and the like. I'd recommend filtering using the custom at least button and setting it at 100kb. Check the "search subfolders" and "search hidden files and folders" boxes. Now press search.
Now, look at the results. If you notice a lot of pictures that aren't what you wanted, refine the search to filter them out. If you think some pictures you want aren't shown, widen the search parameters. Now you can manually comb through them and cut and paste into a single folder.
(Note, you might have to do this for other user accounts if they are other administrators or they made their files private.)
There is also a free utility that is extremely useful that could be used in this situation. It is simply called Scanner, and it does just that, it scans your hard drive and shows a pie chart of how the space is being used. You can visually scan and look for large folders that could contain picture files. This is much more difficult if the files are really scattered however. It does help you keep organised. It can be found here http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/ .
That is all. There are third party search utilities, namely, Google Desktop http://desktop.google.com/, however, the windows version works great in most cases.
Good luck,
Submitted by: Nathan S.
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Dusty, You mentioned you are on a XP based system but I am sure others may be in the same shoes you are with and using a different OS. My tips will cover XP, ME and 98. The first thing you ought to think about is your hard drive space. Is it getting more than 80% full? The reason I start off with this is if your hard drive is more than 80% full it is difficult for it to function and look for anything on there. If not your doing OK. If you are getting full I recommend investing in a second hard drive for file storage. I use an external drive that allows me to take it with me. I have partitioned this drive to several drive sizes making a large drive to several smaller ones. The smaller the drive the faster it can search.
If you do not want to go that route then a great FREE solution is use your My Pictures folder found in your My Documents folder. If your using an operating system other than Windows XP or ME you would have to add this folder. If using XP or ME it should be there already and you can enable thumbnail view on these folders for easy navigation to see what's there. Filmstrip view is available here as well to allow for larger viewing of your pictures. To enable different views on these folders <click View, then on the different view option that you want. If you are using Windows 98 you can enable thumbnail view by following this link as provided by Microsoft.
To get organized with your pictures or any files for that matter try this:
1) Start with getting a main folder to start with, that's why I mentioned the My Pictures folder, it gives you a common starting point.
2) Search your hard drive by using the search feature in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) for picture files. What to look for will depend on what file type you have saved your pictures as. The most common file types are .jpg, .gif, and .bmp. In the search bar enter " *.jpg " or " *.gif ". This will find all files on your computer of that file type you have searched for and will display them on the right side of the window.
3) At this point, type Ctrl+A, this will select all files, then type Ctrl+X, this will cut all of these files (this will cause the selected files to have a lightened icon, this is normal and tells you they are on the clipboard).
4) Now navigate to your main folder you are going to place all these files, i.e. My Pictures.
5) Now type Ctrl+V, this will paste all files into this folder. Depending on how many files you have will depend on the time this may take.
6) Now you need to decide based on the pictures content, into folders. I name mine by the event happening and the month and year they occurred. Example, Christmas 2003, or Disney Trip 8-04. I also have a folder called Assorted, for pictures that do not warrant a separate folder. Naming your folders allow for easy viewing of the pictures that your interested in. In each of the folders you will need to apply the same view settings, Thumbnail or Filmstrip. This can be done all at once by clicking on the main folder and setting how you want them all to look, then click on Tools, then on Folder Options. Next click on the View tab and the button that says " Apply to All Folders", then OK. All folders should now look and feel the same. Make sure that when you transfer new pictures to your hard drive place them in a folder in your main Pictures folder. Using XP's transfer wizard is a great tool to help with the organization all of your future pictures.
You asked about a software solution to help with your organization as well. I have personally used Google's Picasa 2.0 and Microsoft's Picture It!. Both are good programs and can automate a lot of what I have listed above and more. Microsoft also offers a very interesting looking program called Digital Imaging 2006 in a Standard and Suite versions. Click here to get an overview of the different features that both offer.
If your wanting to take your photos online there is a large variety of sites that offer Free and fee based online photo libraries. Check out http://www.myphotoalbum.com/, they offer unlimited photo storage and even allow visitors to your site to order prints of your pictures to have professionally printed and mailed to them.
I hope that this has helped you to get organized with your pictures and beyond.
Submitted by: David S. of Phoenix, AZ
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Answer:
HI DUSTY,
O.K., so you want to collect all your digital photo files which are scattered all over your hard disk and place them in one accessible location for easy viewing.
First of all, prepare a place for them. I made a directory (folder) on my G; partition called just PIX. You may only have a single partition, so make it where ever you wish. If you want, you could also make subdirectories (sub folders) for organization purposes, but for now, a single directory (folder) will do. To make life easy for now, make a shortcut down in the lower right hand corner of the desktop that points to the C:\PIX directory or wherever you made the PIX directory.
Now, Search for the files. Depending upon your digital photo files, search for the file types they are saved in. The most common will be JPEG format, having a file extension of .JPG, Execute the Windows Find/Search function (hold the Windows key down and tap the F key). For the object to search for, type in "*.JPG" (without the quotes) and tell it to search. (Note that if you are mainly interested in images downloaded from your camera, and you have not renamed them, they might have a common file name, such as ATTX.......JPG You might want to search for ATTX*.JPG.)
Chances are you will have many files listed, go to VIEW and ask it to list the files in Details form. Click on Folder at the top and it will display the files in order of the directory (folder) they are in. This helps you skip over the picture files that are in clipart files, or other locations that are not the images you want to collect.
Select the files. Now you are ready to start moving files, but first you will have to select which files you want to collect. You will need to highlight/select a number of files, skipping over unwanted ones. I would suggest doing a directory (folder) or two at a time, rather than going through the entire listing.
Move selected files. Adjust the size of the listing of found files so you can see the PIX icon in the lower right hand corner of the desktop. Now place the cursor over one of the highlighted files and right click and hold. Drag down to the PIX shortcut icon and release. You will be asked what you want to do with the selected files, so chose Move. These files will be moved from their current location to the PIX directory (folder).
Keep selecting and moving files until you have worked your way through the list. Note that when you come to files that are in the PIX directory (folder), skip over these, as they are the ones you have just moved!
Viewing the files. Now you are ready to view your collected files. I highly recommend the program named IRFANVIEW, which is available at:
http://www.irfanview.com/
In my opinion, this is the best graphics viewers available. Download and install this program and choose the common graphic formats to associate IrfanView with as you install it. Be sure to download both the main program as well as the plugins.
Execute IrfanView and select the PIX directory (folder) select one file and it will display it on the screen, At the top of the page there are left pointing and right pointing arrows. You can use these to step through the files one at a time, going up or down. Should the picture be larger than the screen, double click the picture and it will adjust to the size of the screen. You can left click or right click the mouse to proceed up the list of files or down the list.
Space does not permit a detailed discussion of the configuration parameters, so I will hopefully have whetted your appetite. You will be amazed at the speed, power , and versatility of IrfanView.
How would you like to have the computer show you all the pictures, one at a time, at your desired speed, while you just sit and enjoy? Click on the slideshow icon (the picture at the top tools icons). Up at the top right, change the directory to look in to PIX, set up to time interval to 1 second or 10 (whatever you want). Now toward the left click on ADD ALL then PLAY, and away you go.
Note that when you are in single picture at a time mode, pressing T will cause thumbnails to be displayed of all files. While you are viewing a specific file, you can delete it, rename it, or rotate it. You can copy or move it at will. Search around and learn the details of this program.
Remember I earlier stated that you will likely wish to organize the photo files by making new subdirectories (subfolders) with appropriate titles and move the files into the appropriate bins. I do think this is a necessity when you have lots of files. You could make your subdirectories before you move the files, and just classify the photos as you move them, or you could do this as a separate step.
Submitted by: Carl T.
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Answer:
Hi Dusty,
You've described the predicament that virtually all digital photographers run into over time. One I face with nearly 12000 photos on 3 different computers.
Here is what I did to keep myself organized and to cope with the clutter.
1. I put All of my pictures into the My Pictures folder in my documents. That at least serves as a starting point for me when I am searching for them.
2 then I subcategorize them by interest group:
Vacation (folders for each)
Family
Pets
Etc.
I did this from the beginning and it has helped a great deal.
The other suggestion I would give is to download Picasa from Google. It is free and super quick and if you let it spend a few minutes at the beginning it will find all of the pictures and images you have on your hard drive. I was surprised that it even finds Bitmaps and GIF files. Then it displays them in thumbnails that you can search thru and organize visually.
There are so many ways of organizing images, but Picasa does a great job of doing it visually. Then if you want to crop or change the look of the image Picasa gives a great deal of editing tools as well.
Have fun getting those pictures organized!
Submitted by: Ashok G. of Toronto, Canada
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Answer:
You can use Windows XP's Search feature to find just picture files on your hard drive, and then move them all to one folder. Go to the Start menu and select "Search". You'll be prompted for what type of files you wish to search for; click "Pictures, music, or video". Once you've done that, keep only "Pictures and Photos" checked under the "Which type of file?" question. Use the advanced search options and under the "More advanced options" section, uncheck all of the options except for "Search subfolders".
You'll probably want to leave the "When was it modified?" and "What size is it?" options as "Don't remember". Next, select "Local Hard Drives" under "Look in".
Your final step is to specify "All or part of the file name". Many cameras use a consistent naming system; if your camera names all images starting with "IMG_" or "DSC", type that in.
If you've renamed some of your images (e.g. from "IMG_0192" to "boats"), then just type in ".jpg" into that field. You're ready to begin your search now; just hit the Search button, and a list of all the picture files which meet your search criteria will be displayed.
Depending on how many picture files you have on your computer, the search process may take a few seconds to several minutes.
Most of the photos displayed in your search results should be the digital photos that you took. Select only those photos (CTRL+A, then deselect the photos that you don't want by holding down the CTRL key and clicking individual thumbnails). You should "cut" this selection
(CTRL+X) and then paste them into a new folder (CTRL+V).
Now that all of your digital pictures have been moved to one place, they should be easy to find and browse through. If you have thousands of pictures and wish to organize them further, you can use a free program like Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition or Picasa to "tag"
photos so that you can browse through photos of a certain category which you specify.
Good luck with organizing! In the future, stick with an organization system so that you'll always be able to find your pictures easily.
Submitted by: Jason H.e of Champaign, Illinois, United States
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Answer:
Hello Dusty,
The first thing I would do for your mom, is to drag a shortcut to your desktop for the "My Pictures" folder. This would make it very easy for her to find you pictures if your not around to help her. The second thing that I like to do is, once you have the "My Pictures' folder open, go to View on the tool bar, and choose "Thumb Nails". Depending on the size of your icons, and the quality of your mom's eyesight, she could browse thru the pictures that way, and decide which ones she wants to look at. If you don't have all your pictures in the same place, you can always do a search for them. In XP go to Start, Search, and then choose pictures, music, or video. Here you can choose just pictures. If you don't put a file name in, this will give you every image type on your computer. The resulting list will be quite large, and a daunting task ahead if you're going to sort thru them. If you know what format most of your pictures are in, you can just type *.jpg, *.gif, or *.bmp, in the file name box. This will find pictures that are only of that particular format, and make it much easier to wade thru the files. Once you have done this you can go to your "My Pictures folder and create sub folders to store them in, assuming that you want to organize them for your Mom. Then all you have to do is drag them into the new folders. Again, in these new folders you will want to go to the tool bar and set up thumb nail view for her.
I hope this has been helpful.
Submitted by: Dennis S.
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Answer:
ey Dusty,
Finding scattered images on your pc is actually easier than you think, no matter the scatter, no matter the hard drive. You dont need any additional software since XP is designed for the new wave of multimedia literate pc users.
First find out what format your pictures are saved as. It's probably .jpg or .jpeg. All you need to do is go to "My Computer", Click "Search", select "All Files and Folders". You get a small form to fill out. Just put .jpg (or whatever) in the "All or Part of a File Name" field, and select your hard drive, then click search and your computer does all the work, scanning for any images. You may pick up the odd clipart image along the way, but you will know they're not holiday snaps when you see them!
Make sure to go to "View" and select "Thumbnails" when you have your results, that way you get to preview all the pics on one screen, with no extra software needed. Bravo XP!
Hope this helps,
Cheers, Scott.
Submitted by: Scott F.
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Answer:
A simple way to organize your pictures so that your mother can click and view them.
You have to make your computer show the file extensions that you will be looking for. Open "My Computer" from the desktop, Lclick "view" in win9x or "tools" in XP moving the arrow over "files or folders" and drag the arrow down to "folder options" then Lclick and choose the "view tab."
In the view tab you will see the advanced settings. The entry "Do not show hidden files and folders" or "Do not show hidden or system files"
should BE ticked.
"Hide extensions for known file types" should NOT be ticked Close these windows.
Now to find them
1 Find the pictures: L click on START, move the arrow to over the "find"
or "search" word.
2.In the search window enter in the space to name the file, type *.jpg I assume that most of your pictures will have this extension.
3.Expand the results window by placing the curser over the Left side and dragging to the far left and the right side the same extent to the right.
4 Examine the results, there will be several hundred including the ones you will have to select. Lclick on the "(date)modified" column.
5 You will either have the latest or oldest date at the top. By using the drag bar on the right side you can see where the files are located.
6 Many .jpg files will be found in the C:\Windows\Temporary Internet folder, these will not be yours so ignore them.
7 Most likely your pictures will be in "My Documents" or My pictures. If you use a program supplied by your camera maker some pictures will be in the C:\Program files\"canon-kodak or whatever.
8 In the search window you can Lclick on the folder column to put the list in alphabetical order, this might be better than the date order.
Do NOT close the search window.
9 Somewhere to keep your found files. Place the arrow in a blank part of the desktop screen Rclick and select new then folder.
Now on the desktop go slowly and one Lclick on the new folder icon, once done do one more Rclick on the name"newfolder"
Then type Digital Photos.note the space between digital and space.
Your folder should now be named Digital Photos with Photos appearing under the Digital.
10 Moving your chosen files to the Digital Photos folder.
Back to the search results folder. Make sure you can see the Digital Photos folder on the desktop as well as the search results. If not
Lclick the "show desktop" button (to the right of START) drag the Digital Photos icon to below the extent of the search results window.
Lclick on the search icon in the task bar (the one with the magnifying glass)
11 Now you can start getting your photos into one folder. You can drag
and drop individual files or copy and paste into the Digital
Photosfolder.
12 You can select several files to move at one time. If they are touching then select one end file and while pressing the shifr key select the other end of the group. One Rclick held and dragged to the Digital Photos folder will move the group. Lclick on the selected group will give you the choice to copy or cut the files. Then Rclick the Icon Digital Photos and you will select the paste command.
To select files which are not togerher hold down the Ctrl key while selecting photos with the Lclick
13 Organize the files in Digital Photos Open the folder Digital Photos Lclick on views, Lclick on Details. You may have to expand the window or Rclick on the column headings to see them all. You need to see the date modified column.
Rclick on it to arrange the files in date order. From your question I would expect to see at least three years indicated.
14 Make three new folders within the Digital Photos folder. Lclick on the file menu and select new folder, name it 2005.
Repeat for as many Year folders you need.
15 Move your photos into their respective years. Drag and drop either groups or singly.
16 When your mother visits she can Lclick on your desktop icon of Digital Photos and Lclick on the year of choice to view the photos by double clicking on the first one chosen.
17 Once a viewing window is open the next photo can be dragged from the Digital photo folder to the viewing window
18 In Win ME and XP the folders can show thumbnails from the view menu.
Submitted by: Bernard S.
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Answer:
I had the same problem except it was my wife and not my mother.
This is what I did...and now even my mother-in-law loves me.
First I created a new folder on my desktop and named it 'all pix'.
Then I did a search on my computer....(start>search)..for all image files...(.img,jpg,bmp, ec..) and then copied and pasted them to the new folder. I didnt delete any that I found in the search in case I did something wrong....this let me keep the originals...for now.
After copying them to the new folder, I went to http://www.irfanview.com
and downloaded their free irfanview program.
I love their program because you can open a folder and it thumbnails every picture you have in your folder. Then I opened the 'all pix' folder in irfanview....and went through all of them and deleted the ones I didnt want. Then...you can select all the pictures you have left in the folder...and resized them all to 4x6. I was shocked to see how much hardrive space I was able to gain. I had 6000 pictures at around a meg each...and after resizing them to 4x6...I gained back around gig of hd.
Then after running the batch for resizing....I copied alll the resized to another folder I named 'resized pix'....and deleted the original 'all pix' folder...(make sure you empty your recycle bin after that).
Now....if want to look for a picture...I open the folder...and they all pop up in thumbnail format. With irfanview...you can then run a slide show...or select any number of pictures to save to a specific folder...etc etc....
(presuming you use irfanview as your default viewer)
or just view them.
This may take a bit of time to do...but once you get used to it...it is wonderful.
You can zip a folder for emailing....resize....rename all the pictures..eg:...0001,0002,0003...or name them by date.....etc..
Try it... you WILL like it...
hope this helps..
Submitted by: Rick O.
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