Saving Photos From Elements3

Question

How do I save Photos for viewing on a CD without reloading PSE 3 for each picture... would like to have photo's on a CD and be able to both save them for future editing as well as easy viewing... I would hope I can do this using the PSE 3 program without having to save pictures to another editing program I/E Microsoft Picture It..

Answer 1

Can I weigh in on this topic?
First of all, you are dealing with several issues:
1. digital scrapbooking - lots of info on the net about this topic. You DO NOT need to have your photos downloaded via PSE to use them in layouts. I don't use PSE 3 or 4 on my PC, so I am not familiar with the organizer function, but I have lots of digital photos and I digiscrap with them. I know it is possible to download photos via PSE, but I use the software that cam with my camera. It has a photo browser that will show me several pictures at once and gives me the ability to edit titles and descriptions. Also, the software doenloads and sorts by date which is very helpful for me since most important events are date-specific. Believe me, when you don't download by date, you end up with a lot of photos in one folder, and it does get overwhelming to deal with them. And, to complicate this issue further, there are other photo browsers out there that are probably better than the one that came with my camera - faster, more efficient, etc.
2. Archiving of layouts and folders - I have to agree with all other posts about getting an external hard drive or an additional internal drive if your computer supports that option. They are relatively cheap for the immense storage space you get. Many digiscrappers organize photos and layouts by year, then by month, then by date or event. That gives you three levels of folders: top folder is year (for example "Layouts 2005"). The second level of folders would be labeled as each month of the year (for example, "Layouts January"). Finally, you can use event names like "Joe's 15th birthday" or "Jan132005" or a combination of the two depending on how long you like your folder names. Photos can be organized the same way.
3. Backing up - If you organize your stuff as described above, making backups is much easier because you now have managible-sized folders. I don't usually compress files for back-up of Layouts and important photos due to data loss potential, but that is my preference. I don't use a DVD burner because the industry hasn't really standardized the technology yet. I will probably switch from CDs to DVDs once the technology is more standardized. I also use a disc catalog program to create an index of what is on each CD. This is where descriptive titles are very helpful. If you have the time, changing photo names to actual titles is a good idea if you will be referring back to them with any frequency. Also, I make TWO copies of each CD and I store one set in a different location (in this case, my husband's office at work) just to be on the safe side. I know folks who store their second copies in their safe deposit boxes. Do what works best for you.
I'd like to add one more thing. I had an external hard drive with a lot of data files on it. I hadn't been backing up regularly, and before I got around to it, the drive failed. So, even if you have your photos on an external drive, back them up regularly. You never know when something will go wrong and you could lose everything. If you don't trust optical media, get another external drive and back up to that. I wish that I had done that.
Good luck, and happy scrapping!