A Gift For You

Folks,
To help celebrate this special weekend, I have a nice surprise.

PearlMountain Image Converter is a photo converter as well as batch image converter, which helps you convert images to other formats, resize, rotate, crop, add watermark, apply effects and add border to thousands of images at a time.

Some of the features include:

•    Convert thousands of files at once in batch mode.
•    Supports the most popular image formats: BMP, JPEG, TIFF, RAW, PNG, GIF, TGA, and PSD, and almost all image formats.
•    Save operations that you usually use as profiles and bring convenience to you in the future.
•    Convert between many different image file formats.
•    Resize image for any different use, such as for web, e-mail, photo printing, Facebook, MySpace, mobile phone, ipod/ipad/iphone, etc., with optimum quality.
•    Add image and text watermark for Image Copyright Protection
•    Adjust image brightness, contrast and saturation in batch to make your images look more special.
•    Apply borders to your images.
•    Crop photos, removing unwanted areas.

Product info page: http://www.batchimageconverter.com/image-converter/

Due to time constraints, I only had time to play with test this utility a little bit. So I can only tell you it worked, and that I enjoyed the animated GIFF feature (aka “no product review here.”) And for me, there was zero “learning curve”, as I have used this type of graphics program before. But even if you have not, learning how to make optimum use of this photo/image tool should not take long.. maybe, mere minutes. (The link above has a illustrated How To. Take a peek, and see for yourself.)

PearlMountain has generously donated ten licenses to me, and I have  had the pleasure to give them away – to the first ten people to leave who left a comment with a valid (not Facebook) email (so I can send you the license keycode). This software retails for $29.90.

Happy Mother’s Day! (And thank you, PearlMountain!)

*** Update: Sorry Folks, but that’s all the licenses I have to give away — for now. ***

You can download a full-featured “trial” version, here, if you’d like. It will put a watermark on any output files, but otherwise performs just like the paid version.

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

 

Quick Tip: Digitally Document Your Possessions

Photographic Proof For Insurance (Included: a good “general tip”)

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say; but if you had a catastrophe and your insurance company refuted, or undervalued, your claim – a picture could be worth thousands of dollars.

If your house burned to the ground, and your insurance company disagreed with you about the contents of your home, or severely undervalued them, or both, how would you respond? I would open my email.

What did he say?

Step 1) (Takes an hour, or two, or so) Get a hold of a digital camera, or use your cell phone’s camera if you have no other option, and photograph all your rooms in a “panorama” type perspective. Also be sure to take good pictures of all your key (valuable) possessions – furniture, electronics, appliances, jewelry, artwork, vehicles, power tools, silverware, etc. Open your closets and snap some pics of their contents (your wardrobe); and also your cabinets with all your pots and pans and popcorn poppers. Create a “visual tour” of your home/garage/tool shed.

Step 2) Transfer the images to your PC into a folder you create named “Insurance” (or.. something similar). Then apply a “batch resizer” to the JPEGs (the pictures) you just took. Digital images from cameras usually are quite large (file size, I mean) and to complete the next step, you need to ‘shrink’ them down to a smaller (file) size — say, under 500 KB each. It is easy, don’t worry; scroll down for my reco on a “resizer” tool.

Step 3) Now import (or attach) the (smaller) images to an email and send the email to yourself.
This may be easiest if you use a “zip” utility (such as Windows’ Send to compressed folder).
Now, no matter what happens to your camera or computer, a copy of those photos will be stored on your email server – ready to show to your insurance claims adjuster should you ever need them. It may take more than one email to send yourself them all..
(And naturally, I hope we never do need them..!)

And let’s face it; if we had to sit down and write out a list from memory.. how many things would we forget without that visual reminder?

(Optional Step 4) “Burn” a copy of the original “Insurance” folder to a CD/DVD (the large size images) and put the disc in your safety deposit box (or give it to a friend to keep for you.)

Walking through with a video camera is a great thing to do too. But be sure to store the ‘tape’ somewhere else.

And YES, folks: you have to do this before the tornado (or hurricane, or earthquake, or..) strikes.

Today’s free download: Batch Image resizing made easy. Fotosizer is a free batch photo/image resizer tool. It lets you resize hundreds of photos in a matter of minutes in a quick and easy way.

(The tip here can be good to know just for “GP”. You never know when you might want to email a large number of photos..)

Related: Home Inventory: How to Document Your Personal Property (there is also a link to two videos at the bottom..)

Not directly related: Back to School 2011: ‘What to buy your kid for college’ guide

“Back to School 2011: College is an investment, not just for those who go, but for parents too. Give your kid a helping hand with these tech essentials.” Read more…

Today’s quote: “My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit.”  ~ Phyllis Diller

Yes. I'd say so.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Quick Tip: How To Change Window Size

Changing the size of a window

Adjusting the size and shape of a window (or windows) allows for greater flexibility when working on a computer, as well as making it easier to “drag and drop” something from one location to another. I frequently adjust my windows so that they are side-by-side.

To get started, look to the upper right corner of any open window. There you’ll see three familiar buttons – minimize (to the Taskbar), Maximize (sometimes confused with “open”), and Close and Exit (red X).

• To make a window fill the entire screen, click its Maximize button or double-click the window’s title bar.

• To return a maximized window to its former size, click its Restore button  (this appears in place of the Maximize button). Or, double-click the window’s title bar.

• To resize a window (make it smaller or bigger), move your cursor to point to any of the window’s borders or corners. When the mouse pointer changes to a two-headed arrow (see picture below), drag the border or corner to shrink or enlarge the window.

Drag a window’s border or corner to resize it

A window that is maximized cannot be resized. You must restore it to its previous size first.

Note: Although most windows can be maximized and resized, there are some windows that are fixed in size, such as dialog boxes.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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