January 01, 2001|By Mike Himowitz
The image will reappear in a size that will fit your screen. If you don't like the resized image, click on the Edit menu and choose Undo. That way, you can experiment with different reductions. To save the edited photo in its new size, click on File/Save As and save the photo under a different name.
If you receive a lot of photos and want a program that will let you view them with no hassle, Ulead offers a freeware version of its excellent Photo Explorer software. It will scan your disk for photo images, display thumbnail images and call any photo you select to the screen at just the right size. You can download it by surfing to www.ulead.com/pex/freeware.htm.
Old wives' tales
After the holidays, the mail brings in the usual assortment of questions from new computer owners who have been getting the same old bad advice. Herewith are the answers to two of the most frequent queries.
1. No, it is not a good idea to leave your computer on all the time - unless you own stock in your electric company, and it pays a really good dividend.
Obviously you don't want to flip the power switch every time you walk away from the screen - frequent heating and cooling can help wear out chips and other components. But when you quit work for the night, your computer should, too.
In fact, it's a good idea to turn your machine off, wait a few minutes and turn it on again once a day even if you use the computer constantly. Operating systems suffer from memory leaks and other weird problems when you leave them running too long that make them more prone to crash. Restarting cleans out the cobwebs.
2. Screen savers do NOT save your screen. In fact, they may wear it out faster. Years ago, you could "burn" a static image onto your monitor screen by leaving it on. Screen savers were supposed to prevent that from happening. Burn-in is rarely a problem today. But a screen saver can wear out your screen faster if you leave it running 24 hours a day.
The best "screen saver" is the one that turns your screen dark and restores it when you press a key or click the mouse.
