If you have double of every pictures, this is normal if they are listed as
in the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\My Documents\My Slide
shows\filanename\images
Just leave them there.
If they are listed in different folders, then they "may" be duplicates.
"May" means that two exact same file names can exist on your hard drive, if
they are in different folders. But having the same file name does not mean
they are duplicates. You may have edited one.
So "possible" duplicates would be:
C:\DSC00005.jpg
D:\DSC00005.jpg
They would have the same name, but in different folders or different drive
partitions.
If you are just getting started with photos, adopt a simple system to avoid
duplicates and at the same time find your photos quickly and make a backup
copy.
It is very tempting to accept the default of saving your pictures into My
Pictures. It does get you started, but a better system is to create a folder
before you download your pictures and if you have partitions such as C:\,
D:\. etc. use any partition except C:\
So on C:\ or D:\, adopt a system that is easy to remember. Make a new folder
and name it year, month, and event using underline in between. Something
like:
2004_01_New Year
2004_04_April Vacation
2004_06_John's Birthday
Since XP lists folders and files by numerical order first and alphabetical
order second, the above listing order makes it easy to find your photos. You
can also do something slightly different. Instead of making these new folder
on your C or D drive, make one new folder on your drive and name it My
Photos. Then make the folders as given above under your new folder My
Photos. Either way will work.
Now you download your photos in the folder you made.
After you download, look at all the pictures.
If everything is OK the next step is to copy them to a CD-R. You can use XP
to do this or you can use something like Roxio 7. Either way will work.
Once the copying is done, open the CD and make sure all the pictures on it
open properly.
Once done, it is up to you. You may want to edit some photos, make a slide
show, combine pictures etc.
Although you now have the original files on a CD, it is not a good idea to
play with the original files on your hard drive. An easy thing to do it to
make a copy of them and edit the copy if you want to play with them.
Easy to do.
You open the folder. Hold Ctrl key down and press the letter A. This selects
(highlight in blue) all the files in the folder. Hold the Ctrl key down and
press the letter C. This copies all the files to your clipboard . Hold the
Ctrl key down and press the letter V. This copies (pastes) all the files
back in your folder. The words "Copy of" will be in front of your original
file names. Now, when you want to edit a file with a photo editing software,
you edit "Copy of" not the original. If you make a mistake, the original is
still there on your hard drive.
Finally, having file names like DSC000123.jpg is not very good. You can
rename your files to something easier to remember. Easy to do with XP, after
a little practice. You can check below on how to do this an d get what you
want. As always, this is a friendly site. If you have more questions, don't
hesitate to post again. Somebody will answer kindly to someone getting
started.
Here a way to rename your files and do all kinds of things with them.
If you need to batch rename and number, you can do this easily with XP.
Copy the photos to a new folder.
Open the new folder. Hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter A. This
will select (highlight in blue) all the files in the folder.
Right click on the first file (important to right click on the first file
because renaming will start from there).
Click on Rename on the opening menu.
Type in the name you want, to replace the current name. Any system will
work, such as year, month, event. For example type in:
2003_09_Virginia Beach Vacation (1).jpg
and press Enter.
XP will automatically rename all the files (1), (2), (3), etc. and they will
open in the order (1), (2), (3), etc. If you copy them to a CD, this order
will be maintained.
Two important things when renaming using the above method.
1. Look at the name of the above file, you must include a space between the
last character of the file name and (1)
2. When you rename, don't forget to add .jpg after (1). If you forget, XP
will warn you, so enter .jpg after this warning. If you don't, you will not
be able to open the file. If you still do not enter .jpg after the warning,
don't worry. Rename again and enter .jpg
You can rename any time and as many times as you want. You are not dependent
on the camera wizard to rename.
You can rename portions of files in a folder, just select the group you want
and right click on the first one and rename from there.
You can do even better than this. Suppose you want a slide show and you want
the last three pictures taken to be the first three or in between some other
photos. Easy to do. Open the folder in thumbnail view, use your mouse to
place them in the order you want. Select all the photos and rename. The (1),
(2), (3), etc will be added in the order you placed the thumbnails. They
will stay in this order if you copy to a CD.
Convenient if you want to make a slide show of pictures from different
folders. Just make a new folder, copy the photos you want in the new folder,
place the thumbnails in the order you want and rename.
You are not restricted to only one name and you can control the order in
which each group will open, by placing a number up front of the file name
for each group. You may have photos of Christmas, Easter, New Year etc. and
of different years. Once you have the thumbnails in the order you want,
select the first group, right click on the first thumbnail in the group and
rename:
1_2002 Easter (1).jpg
Then select the second group and rename
2_2002 Christmas (1).jpg
Placing 1_, 2_, etc in front will control the order of each group and (1)
controls the order within each group.
If you want to add another group later and you want these photos to be, say
between 1_ and 2_, use 1a_ in front of the file name.
You may also want to add some more photos in a particular group, say your
Christmas group. No problem. Copy the files in the folder, move the
thumbnails in the group you want to add them to. Select all the thumbnails
in the group, right click on the first one and rename. When you rename, you
must change the name in order for rename to take place. Add something like
XYZ after Christmas. Once renaming is done, select the same files again and
rename again. Remove the XYZ and you will be back to the original name.
Note: There is a disadvantage to changing the original name of files. This
is why I recommend at the start to make a new folder and copy your original
files in the new folder before renaming. The disadvantage is this. Many have
the option of video out from the camera to display the pictures from the
memory card to a TV for a slide show. If you change the file names and copy
the files back to your memory card to display on your TV (or even to just
look at them on the LCD of the camera) your camera will not be able to read
the files. You can always rename, using the same format (8 characters) that
your camera uses, but now you have to rename each file. So, be careful what
you do with your original files.
Note: Although I recommend making a new folder and copying your files there
before renaming, there is also another way to do this and you may prefer
this once you are comfortable with renaming. Here is how to do it.
Open the folder to see your files. Hold the Ctrl key down and press the
letter A to select (highlight in blue) all the files. Hold the Ctrl key down
and press the letter C. This makes a copy of all the files to your
clipboard. Hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter V. This copies
(pastes) all the files back in your folder. The file names will be the same,
but the words "Copy of" will be in front of the file names. You then rename
Copy of files.
This way your original files and renamed files are in the same folder.
This is also very useful when you want to edit a photo with software. You
always edit "Copy of", never edit your original file.
You can also use the free Irfanview software to batch rename, available
here:
http://www.irfanview.com/
Another for free is Visere available here:
http://www.dmmd.net/products/products.htm
Or many others if you search via google. They all have their quirks.
A final note, if your head is not spinning by now.
When you use the above batch renaming system on XP, everything will work as
long as you are on XP. This means your XP hard drive, copy to CD etc.
However if you go out of XP you will encounter some problem. For example,
you made a photo CD on XP using the above system and you now play this CD in
your DVD. Your DVD player will not play the files in the same order. You
made the files:
Image (1).jpg
Image (2).jpg
Image (10).jpg
Image (20).jpg
They will be displayed in this order on XP but your DVD player will display
them this way:
Image (1).jpg
Image (10).jpg
Image (2).jpg
Image (20).jpg
If you want to upload these files to a Web site, some server will refuse
files with ( ) in the file name while others will accept them but will
display them the same way as your DVD player will as shown above.
So, what are you supposed to do with this conflict between XP and everything
else.
This is what I do.
1. Rename with XP with the system given above.
2. If I want to copy to a CD to play to a DVD or upload to a Web site, I
then use Irfanview. With Irfanview I rename my XP files using the default in
Irfanview:
001.image
002.image
etc.
Since Irfanview does not actually rename your original XP file names, it
only adds new file names in the same folder, I now have two sets of names
for the same files. I simply copy the Irfanview set of file names to a CD to
play on a DVD or to upload to a Web site and once done just delete them.
I know your head may be spinning about all this renaming but you can really
manipulate things very well by just sitting down and understanding the
system. With a little practice you can get what you want.
However, before renaming, make sure you make a new folder and copy some
photo files there so you can practice with no danger to your original files.
)