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You may or may not realise that Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista piece of Ultimate includes Windows DVD Maker.  Windows DVD Maker is a software which enables you to create DVD’s which are not just personalised but look professional too!

You can add a variety of media, such as; pictures, music and movies.  However….the DVD Maker doesn’t support some media format, for example: it doesn’t support music file formats which itunes use.  A way to over come this problem is on itunes make a playlist of the tracks you would like on the DVD, make a copy of the playlist on a CD.  Then import the CD using Windows Media Player ensuring that you don’t protect the files because that would prevent from being used in the DVD Maker.  Then insert the tracks that you imported through Windows Media Player.  (Make sure you don’t break any copyright laws when doing this!)

The thing I found most fustrating in the DVD Maker was that your ability to modify the actual movie/slideshow was very limited.  You don’t have much influence on the chapter/scene organisation and the transition between features.  I suggest that if want to produce a detailed and very personalised DVD then produce the actual movie on Windows Movie Maker and then import it into Windows DVD Maker to produce the menu’s and the physical DVD.  I’ll take this moment to remind you that if you don’t have a DVD burner you won’t be able to put the movie onto the disc.

You can download Windows Movie Maker for free for Vista or for XP.

Some ideas for using DVD Maker:

• Make a holiday DVD
• Birthday presents
• Birthday DVD
• Wedding DVD
• Baby Photos

We think using DVD Maker is a great way of bringing the nation to the 21st century, why not watch a DVD of your holiday snaps instead of everyone crowding round the pack of photos!  It’ll probably work out cheaper too!

How do you make your DVD’s?  Would you like a tutorial?

Windows Live SkyDrive is an online storage device. You can use it for:

• Storing Private/Password Protected files,
• Storing files to share with friends all round the globe
• Sharing files with anyone and everyone.

You can upload and store pretty much any file, however you have a limit of of 5GB of storage space. You can have all your files organised and ordered into online folders. One slightly annoying thing is that you cannot upload entire folders at one time from your PC to SkyDrive, you can only upload 5 individual files at one time.

It’s up to you how you use it!  Some ideas we came up with were:

• Sharing files when working as a group
• Backing up your important files!
• Securely sharing photos with family and loved ones throughout the world!

To be able to use this tool you need to have a Windows Live ID. If you don’t just sign up for one, its free!

Summer holidays are coming up and if you are anything like me you’ll end up with hundreds of photos, so what do we do with them? Printing them would cost a fortune but for those running Windows Vista (either the Home Premium or Ultimate Edition) how about making a DVD of your photos to show your friends?

Windows DVD Maker is a quick and easy way to make a slideshow of your holiday photos to put on a DVD and take round to friends and family to show them your photos on their telly!

For more info check out the Microsoft Windows DVD Maker site!

Google has created an incredibly easy way to share photos with people on the web. It’s called Picasa. Picasa is a great free download which helps you to organise photos on your computer, share photos via email and the web etc and to edit/add effect to your photos with just a couple of clicks. In this review we will tell you a little bit about Picasa and show you some basic features of the program.

Before you download Picasa for free you must you need to create a Google and Picasa account which will allow you to share your photos on the internet. Both Google and Picasa accounts are compltely free. If you already have a googlemail or gmail account then you don’t need to create a new Google account, just a Picasa one. Click here for a Google account. Then for a Picasa account click here. You need a Google account to use Picasa Web Album.

Once this is done you need to download Picasa for free and then install it.

Then you need to upload your pictures to Picasa by selecting where you wish for them to be uploaded from. If you have some pictures on a digital camera that you wish to upload to your computer follow the instructions on the pctoolbox.co.uk tutorial named ‘Downloading Pictures from Your Digital Camera On An XP Machine‘.

Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s digital age it is vital to have a backup of your important stuff, whether that be photos, letters, databases, emails, spreadsheets, etc it needs to be stored elsewhere. This isn’t about normal backup though, want that then check here. This is about storing data online. Not quite so easy but it means you can access it anywhere with a internet connection and you can also share relevant bits with your friends.

I am talking about 123-Drive here, part of the Pipex network and named much like 123-Reg. 123-Drive allows you to upload 25GB of multimedia data like photos, music and videos and another 5GB for documents like letters and spreadsheets. That is the free allowance anyway, need more then you can if you pay for it

This is a quick tip, so I am stopping there, take a look at 123-Drive for yourself and sign up for free. A nice alternative to traditional backing up methods.

Store, Access, Share and Publish — All with 123-Drive

This weeks Quick Tip is about resizing images, before uploading mass photos to my website or facebook I resize them. Yes I know facebook can do it for you but it is much quicker to resize them yourself and upload smaller files!

So, two quick ways:

1) VSO Image Resizer – using Windows 2000, XP & Vista

This one is as simple as select all the photos you want to resize, right click on the selection and choose VSO Image Resizer and then just select the size you want and the location of the files, then off it goes.

2) XP PowerToys Image Resizer – Windows XP Only

This one is just as simple, select the images, right click and choose Resize Images. Set your preferred options and off it goes.

One thing to note is that I would never overwrite the originals, always make copies!

Enjoy

What is Facebook?

On their website, www.facebook.com, Facebook describes itself as ‘a social utility that connects you with the people around you,’ which pretty much sums it up, Facebook is a website for socializing and browsing. By socializing I mean commenting and playing games with friends, and by browsing I mean looking at pictures and friends profiles. Although Facebook is advertised as a socializing website it of course is only a social networking site, designed to keep in contact with mates and family, sharing photos and organising events, so not quite as social as actually meeting up with mates and family!

What is Facebook used for?

Profiles

A profile is the part of the site which you are in-charge of. You can upload photos, contact friends, comment friends, add applications, your interests, email, contact details, education history and much much more! For more info check out the info on profiles on the Facebook site!

Photos

Originally Facebook was designed for sharing photos and then over time it expanded. Facebook is ideal for uploading photos and sharing them with friends, however to upload the photos and view them you must be a member and logged into Facebook. It is quick and easy to upload photos and view your friends photos. You can also ‘tag’ the photos, so that when you browse over the faces in a photo it tells you who they are. All photos are organised into albums for easy use. For more information on photos on Facebook visit the photos part of the Facebook site tour, on their website.

Messaging

Facebook has a very good messaging service, you can either message using the mailing system (similar to emails) or write on people’s facebook wall. The mailing system works very simply, all you do is select a friend you wish to mail, type in your message and click send. This is a very good way to contact people when you want your message to be private or if you want to have a group discussion about something. On their profile everybody has a wall, this is simply a place to leave messages for your friends. All messages are visible to anyone who is a friend of either person.

Event Organising

It is extremely easy to organise an event on Facebook, (by organising an event I mean inviting people, not booking a table or cinema tickets etc). All you do is click events, create an event, fill in the details and invite your friends. You can make the event with the option of your friends inviting their friends along, so they can add themselves or so that the event is secret and only those who are invited know about it through Facebook.

Groups

You can create groups on Facebook, which is basically getting people together to support something, some more serious than others, for example, ‘Jeremy Clarkson should be Prime Minister,’ ‘Stop the Traffik,’ ‘It Was Try,’ ‘It isn’t Christmas until the Coke advert is shown on TV,’ and ”Harold Bishop – Legend’.

Who uses Facebook?

Facebook is used by thousands of people of all ages all over the world but originally Facebook was used by the younger generation of people to keep in contact with mates etc. Although people of all ages use Facebook, it is prominently used by those of the younger generation.

Why is it popular?

Facebook is so popular because it is so easy to use and also a simple way to keep in touch with friends from work, school, college, university etc, and of course the beloved family. It is also a great place to keep in touch with friends and family from other parts of the world, sharing photos and seeing what they are up keeps you in touch! Also compared to its competitors Facebook is far easier to use and get to grips with.

Why Facebook?

Like most companies there are competitors, the main to competitors for Facebook are ‘Bebo‘ and ‘MySpace‘. I am registered to all three and am fairly experienced on all of them. I personally consider Facebook to be far better than Bebo and MySpace for many reasons. Firstly the layout on Facebook is far simpler to use, and recently MySpace and Bebo have realised this and re-arranged their layout along with copying many of the features from Facebook. Also the general running of the site is much quicker, for example on Bebo you can only upload 5 photos at a time and it will take a minute or so to load those 5 photos, and on MySpace it takes a few minutes to upload up to 5MB of photos, where as on Facebook it will take about one minute to upload 60 photos!

Security Advice

Here are 3 tips that I use to help make sure my details I put on Facebook are secure:

• Don’t add anyone you don’t know.
• Be careful with what information you share.
• Be careful what photos you add- perspective employers have been known to check social networking sites before they interview someone, as are universities.

For more suggestions about security on Facebook check out their Site Tour Privacy Section!

To borrow the words of a well known telecomms company “It’s good to Facebook!”