Organizing and Storing Your Pictures

In the age of the digital camera, photographers are now faced with the problem of how to organize and store their photos.

My favorite method of organizing my pictures is to create sub-folders in my My Pictures. The first sub-folder is the year (2007). Then I create sub-folders for each month. So, January would be '01-January'. I put the '01' in front of the month to ensure that when my computer sorts my folders in sequential order that they are sorted January - December. If you just named the folders the name of the month (January), your computer would sort them in the following order: 'February, January, March' instead of '01-January, 02-February, 03-March'. When I upload my pictures I simply plug them into the month they were taken in.

Now what do you do with all of these pictures?

Too many times they are simply stored on cameras or only on computers. If you are one of these people (and I have to admit that I am but am working on becoming a 'was') you have to ask yourself this question: What would happen if your computer suddenly crashed? That happened to me! I was so grateful that our IT Guru neighbor knew how to retrieve our old documents, photos included! Next time I may not be so lucky. So here are a few tips to keep your photos safe:

Burn every month's photos to 2 CDs. If you know how to do this yourself, great! If not, you can upload your pictures to online photo printers like Wal-Mart, Meijer, Walgreens, Snapfish, etc. and then just purchase 2 CDs for around $2-3.

Keep one CD for yourself and send one to a relative. Not only will they have copies of your pictures then for their own use but GOD FORBID you were to lose everything in a fire you will still have your pictures.

Another option, which in my opinion is not as safe, is to store your pictures on an external hard drive. If your computer crashes then you still have your backup. However, this does not prevent loss due to fire.

If you have a fire safe, you could save your CDs in the fire safe as well.

You could do one or any combination of these tips. Any one of these tips will keep your pictures just a little bit safer and your mind a little less crazy (perhaps).

Stop click*click*clicking!

If you are anything like me (some people would say there aren't many people like me but I refuse to believe it) you have layers and layers of folders in your My Documents. Many times, I find that I am working on a document, close it and then want to work on it some more. It is one of my pet peeves to have to click through all of my folders to get to the document again. I always forget about this shortcut and I really should use it more:

In the program you are going to be using (let's use Word), click on 'Open'.
In the window that pops up click on the left-hand side icon that says 'Recent Documents'.
A list of compiled of the most recent documents you've opened. Many times I use the same documents frequently throughout the day so this could save me quite a bit of time! Perhaps now that I've written it down it will stick!

For more "advanced" users:

You can create an icon in your Quick Launch toolbar by dragging the file from a folder menu down to your Quick Launch toolbar.

Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions!

Renee

Certified Real Estate Support Specialist

#07-09-170112

Yes, that would be me! I took (and passed with a score of 98%) the International Virtual Assistants Association's Certified Real Estate Support Specialist test. The IVAA Real Estate Support Specialist™ Examination for Virtual Assistants assesses the Virtual Assistant's competencies in areas that are key when supporting real estate professionals, including:

• Legally Permissible Activities by Unlicensed Assistants


• Real Estate Industry Terminology


• Privacy and Confidentiality


• Business Ethics


• Conflicts of Interest.

Now clients can hire me with more confidence in my abilities to handle their real estate needs! I absolutely love this opportunity to learn more each day! Keep on learning!