Scanning your photographs is really easy once you get the hand of it!  Here is all you need to do!

 

First....

  1. Get Ready! Gather any interesting photographs that you will want to put on your wiki.  Include at least one family photo, and try to find individual photos if you are going to give each family member their own page.  Old photographs offer a lot of artistic value to your project and they also are a wonderful way for your entire family to see pictures they may not have seen.  You do not need many pictures to get started, but if you are interested in making a short movie later you will want to have between 50-80 images scanned.
  2. Find a Scanner!  If you have a printer at home that can also scan, you're in luck!  If not, call your local public library--or, if you are near a university--the closest academic library.  Scanners are usually free to use and the staff should be willing to help you!
  3. Learn your Scanner! While the staff can help you at a library, you may be "on your own" at home.  I have used Cannon, Hewitt Packard, and Lexmark scanners and they all seem to work pretty much the same.  I'll try to walk you through the basic steps, but see if your printer's manufacturer has help tools, too.
  4. Create a folder It helps to create a special folder for the scanned items you will be using.  Using your mouse, "right click" on your computers desktop.  Select "New" and then "Folder".  This way, you will know where to find all of your images when you need them; it will also make it easier if you decide to make a movie.  If you want to practice editing a lot of pictures, you may want to create two folders--one for originals and the other for edited versions.
  5. Start Scanning!
  • Open your printer/scanner's program on your computer.  This can usually be found by going to "start", "all programs", "your printer's manufacturer's name", and then by selecting the right option. For my Lexmark 2400 series, I can either go to "All in One Center" or "Lexmark Imaging Studio".  If you're only scanning a few pictures, you can also skip this step and scan directly from your printer.  I just like to do it this way.
  • Place the photograph face down on the glass plate, with the photo in the same spot that the little arrows point to (this shows you what area will be scanned).  It may take you a few tries to put the photo in the right spot, so just be sure to remember it when you find it!
  • Since you have the printer's programming up, you can now pick to "scan" it.  If you have a "preview" option, you should do this a few times before actually scanning just to make sure you have the hang of it.
  • Select Scan

Next...

  1. Save the image- Select file "save as" so that you can put the original photograph into the folder you made.  For image type, select jpg.  There are other types of extensions, but jpgs are pretty easy to work with later.  You can also begin editing immediately, before you save the picture.  If you do this, be sure not to "save" it until you are really happy with it; otherwise, you may have to rescan the original.
  2. Edit the image There are several editing programs you can use, but the easiest seem to be the ones that come with your computer/printer.  There are two big parts of editing that you will want to get familiar with:  cropping and resizing.   This can usually be done directly from the scanning program, but you can also do it by opening the photo with a program like Microsoft Office Picture Manager.  I'll assume you're using Picture Manager for the next lesson..
  • Cropping:  Open the picture in Picture Manager by right clicking on the jpg image and selecting "open with", then "Microsoft Office Picture Manager".  Once there, select "picture" and then "crop".  While you can enter in numbers to trim a certain ration off of the picture's corners, I prefer to to use the little black lines that edge the photo in order to cut it down.  Here's how:  just roll your mouse over the edges of the photo, right on top of the black corner markings until your mouse's placemarker on the screen looks just like the black marking it is tracing over.  Now, left click on your mouse and continue to hold your finger down while you slowly move the little black lines inward.  You will see your picture shrinking! This way, you can control exactly what you want to remain in the picture frame.  Look at this first picture!

 

Now, look at it AFTER I cropped it! Cropping is really handy for polaroids and older pictures that may be mounted to paper-it beats ripping the original trying to get it out!

 

  • Resizing is really important because you don't want to fill up your whole page with one picture.  I like to keep mine close to 200-250 pixels so that they are big enough to see, but don't take up too much space.  Again, in an editing program you can select "Resize".  You have several options on how to do this.  You can give it a "predefined height and width"--this will give you options that are appropriate for how you intend to use it (sending it in an email, putting on the web, etc).  You can select a "custom height & width".  Or, you can select "percentage of original width x height"--this one keeps the width/heigth ration locked in, so you don't have to worry about messing anything up.  In fact, you can keep selecting different options until you go to actually save it. Look at the same picture from above resized!

 

Finally...

  1. Save your image by selecting "Save As" and putting it in the folder that you created.  Remember to keep the file names simple, short, and different enough that no one else will accidentally replace it on your wiki (that will make sense later).

 

Do you have a lot of pictures you want to include?  You can check out the Creating a movie page to learn how to put all of your pictures into a video that your viewers can watch.  Or, you can upload your images to an online photo storage space and provide a link from your wiki.  That way, you can share your photos without crowding your wiki space.  A few popular online photo storage spaces are: 

There are many, many more!  They each have different pros and cons, so be sure to check out all of their information before relying on them.   If you want to know more, check out this web site from personal web .  You can link to their "Top 9"  online photo storage spaces and learn what the experts identify as their pros and cons.  There are also links to other articles that feature online photo resources!

Now, go to Step 4:

Converting Text Documents

 

Or, you can go back Home for more options!