I was wondering about scanning old pics

[OnieRN]

Hello, I still have boxes of old pictures that I want to do something with. I really would like to do them digitally but have no clue on scanning, scanning options, etc. Any suggestions?

[srussell]

Scanning

Scanners have gotten really inexpensive and much easier to use... Most come with software for cropping and adjusting the scans... Try some of these links...

http://beginnersguide.com/computer-hardware/computer-peripherals/scanners.php

http://www.scantips.com/begin.html

[Scrapbook MAX!]

Once you scan your photos, you can easily add them to your Scrapbook MAX! page layouts. Scrapbook MAX! can read in pretty much any image format, including the popular JPG format.

[OnieRN]

I will give these a try

I have a flatbed Brother (All In One) and I'm real happy with the photo quality prints I am getting. I will explore scanning some of my stuff but first I need to keep working on my digitals on hand. I am so happy with my pages so far and I don't even have my CD's yet......lol. I think the current problem I am having is being able to save my scrapbooks so I can take my copy to the other computer and print. This is hard to explain but my laptop is so convient for me to work on my pages but my printer is hooked to my desktop. I got to figure a SIMPLE way to carry my LO to the other computer for printing. Right now I can not even figure out how to save them to my D drive (disk),

[srussell]

One idea you could try is using a removable USB flash drive... You could plug it into a USB port on your laptop, copy your files, then take the drive and plug it into your other computer to print

[Corey]

Yep, Steve's right, they're very convenient things to have for all sorts of things. If you have a portable MP3 player some of them do that, i.e. I can use my little iPOD shuffle as a thumb drive to move stuff around. They range from small and inexpensive such as this one for $10:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006I5FQ/sr=1-3/qid=1147843576/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-7482472-2491016?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=electronics

To larger and more expensive, such as:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007TC38G/sr=1-18/qid=1147843576/ref=sr_1_18/103-7482472-2491016?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=electronics

And in between:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FV364/sr=1-4/qid=1147843576/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-7482472-2491016?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=electronics

But even the $10 one will work great for moving data, i.e. LOs, around from computer to computer (over and over again), the only difference is that the smaller ones hold less LOs at a time. They're truly great things to have. If I were buying one I'd just grab an MP3 player which can double as a USB drive, it's awesome to have a compact player for travelling, etc. For example for a mere $50 this one is an MP3 player, a 1 GB (enough room to hold tons of LOs) USB thumb drive, and a portable voice recorder-- plus it comes with headphones and USB cable included. I can't speak to the audio quality but that seems like a decent value. Looks snazzy too:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B5SLSM/sr=1-11/qid=1147843860/ref=sr_1_11/103-7482472-2491016?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=electronics

Snazzy!

As for the scanner, again Steve is right on the money. You can get awesome scanners these days for peanuts. I think you can have photos scanned quite cheaply also if you don't want to learn how to scan. But I'd say go for it, if you research the purchase in advance you can get a very decent scanner quite cheaply which will last for years. And they're very easy to operate these days to get great results. A lot of the new scanners have decent scanning software included which really simplifies the process. All scanners will be capable of creating digital copies of your photos which will be fully compatible with Scrapbook MAX!. You could literally pull an old photo out of a shoebox and have it ready to drag 'n drop into Scrapbook MAX! within seconds using a scanner.

[srussell]

Storage & Moving Files

One of the things I like to do is create a "work" drive... portable storage that I can move from computer to computer without any hassles... One product I've been very happy with that you can buy right off the shelf @ Walmart is an ION external 80GB disk drive... Also a great way to back up everything... Fast, cheap, and dependable...

http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product_category&category=usb&PHPSESSID=240e29a88bae1f5563c740d14f89ec04

And thanks for the scanner links, Corey... I'm in the market for a new scanner... I've got one of those older parallel port models... It works fine, it's just SLOW!

[OnieRN]

More about saving, backups, etc

Okay All,

Please bare with me on all this!


Okay, I have a flash drive and have even considered getting a portable hard drive for backing up but what I do not understand is how do you tell the save your stuff to those drives. I have not seen anything that asked "where" to save at i.e. the d:drive or e:drive. I have used portable means of transporting from computer to computer in the past but again, you will have to select where to save it. I have not seen any such possibility here. Besides, surely you want to backup your LO somewhere, in the event the computer crashes. I was trying to back them up on the same disc as the pics were stored for that scrapbook. I was able to get a file over to the CD-R and the CD-RW but when I went to open it...... no pics or emblishments were there. Also, when I was attempting to backup etc, 3 files would appear 1) Resources 2) The Project 3) Thumbnail. Now I do not understand all those different files. Do you need all three to work? I have no working knowledge of use of thumbnails either! I'm also sure their will be some type of user guide with the software, when it comes but for now, I am doing this on my own......

As for the Scanner, I have an All In One Printer (Brother 420 CN) I have been afraid to try it out because years ago I had a flatbed scanner that I never figured out. I would scann images and would end up with a lot of white blank areas around it. When I tried to cropt the white areas away, the pic would look like grain. Also, the words didn't scan and you had to use some time of word recognition software. I ended up giving the scanner away! I'm sure their much better now so I need to just be brave and try it out.

You guys are the greatest! I share the desktop/printer with my son so I spend most of my time working wireless on the laptop. I worry about the safety of my LO, pics etc! I had my other computer crash and I lost pics of my grandchildren that were never able to be replaced. Right now I have about 30 LO sitting on the laptop that I want to print and and back up but I have not been able to figures things out.

well, I will try a flash disc but that still wont allow me to store all my LO anywhere separate from the computer.

[kode]

The way I saved mine to external harddrive was I went to the shortcut on my desktop for Scrapbbok Max! and I right clicked on it and went to the send this to and I click my external harddrive and it goes. I then go check my external hardrive and it is there even though when I send it to there it acts like it didn't do anything but it did. Hope that helps I make it sound more complicated than it was.

[OnieRN]

It's me again

Kodie, by right clicking on the desk top icon, you are saving all your scrapbooks at one time. So does this mean that you over ride the old one each time? Also, I again tried to select the d drive and got a message that I have files ready to be written to the CD. Obviously, I do not know how to do that because I keep getting message that there was an error and unable to be copied.

I have to say, the program is SO EASY to use and make LO's. I'm so happy with the software regarding the finished product. It's just the mechanical part of saving and backup that I am having so much trouble with. I have been trying to locate my old flash disc to see how that works......... LOL

[Scrapbook MAX!]

All of your project files are stored in \My Documents\Scrapbook MAX!\Projects

Simply copy whichever scrapbook projects you want onto your other computer!

[Corey]

Yes for me when I connect my MP3 player to the computer, it shows up as a normal drive, and I can drag and drop project folders onto it. Then I just go to the other computer, plug it in, and just drag and drop them onto the desktop.

Steve, let us know what you end up with and how it works out, I bet your experience (as usual) will be quite valuable to the others. It's a great time to buy stuff like scanners, lots of choice, low prices, and lots of features available. Some of those rebates are getting incredible...

[OnieRN]

Oh My........... I Got It!!!!!

The Administrator came to my rescue...... I know know where all my downloads are and also my projects..... I am finally able to copy them to a flash disc and take them to the other computer. I can also save them safely from the hard drive. I am thrilled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also printed out 20 pages..... Oh this is wonderful!!!!!

[Corey]

Eggsellent!

[srussell]

Whew! Glad we got that one figured out...