Graphics programs have quirks

Regarding some graphics programs I recently mentioned, Marie Anne Lorenzini wrote to say she couldn't find a way to lighten a photo's background in Irfanview, and Al Roller said the "red-eye correction" feature in Picasa2 doesn't work properly. Well, all graphics programs have certain strengths and weaknesses. Irfanview, as its name suggests, is mainly an image "viewer," while Picasa2 is mainly an "image organization tool."

Neither program has extensive bitmap-editing features, such as those found in, say, PhotoShop Elements, a very full-featured image-editing program. In PSE the "red-eye correction" tool does its job with extreme precision, while its "dodge" and "burn" tools allow you to lighten and darken selected areas of a photo.

There is no way I can give a detailed tutorial on PSE, but I can offer some tips to get you going. Let's start with the "clone" tool, which copies one area of an image onto a different area. Here's an example:

Let's say you have a snapshot of two children wrestling on a park's lawn.

However, a third child appears behind them, and you just want to see your two in the picture. Let's further assume that grass is the main background seen in the shot.

With your clone tool you simply press ALT and click on an open area of grass. Next, "clone" some of the grassy area over the third person until he disappears. If this sounds complicated, you will be surprised to learn how easy it actually is. All comprehensive image-editors, such as Adobe PhotoShop, Corel PhotoPaint, and Paint Shop Pro, have a clone tool. I'll give more photo-editing tips in the future.

Last month I explained how to copy Outlook Express files onto a separate disc for backing-up and/or moving to a new PC. However, the fact that all OE files and folders are compressed into ".DBX" files seems to confuse a lot of folks. Here's another method that may be less confusing:

Right-click your Desktop, choose New>Folder and name it "Inbox." Repeat this procedure for each of the folders in Outlook Express. Now get into your main "Outlook Express" folder, whereupon you can drag all your messages from their individual folders into the new ones you just created. Finally, just drag these folders onto your other media (with a flash memory "thumb" drive being the quickest and easiest device to use).

The individual messages can then be dragged from the disc into the corresponding folders on a new computer.

If you can't locate your Outlook Express folder, go to Run>Search/Find>Files & Folders and type in: Outlook Express. You'll see that it's nested deep within a collection of folders with very cryptic names. If you would like quicker access to it in the future, right-click it and choose Send To>Desktop (Create Shortcut).

You can also choose a new location for this folder from within OE by going to Tools>Options>Maintenance and clicking on "Store Folder." In the dialogue box that appears, type in a new location, such as, say, c:\Outlook Express.



