You did update Windows, right? And have current drivers for all of your other hardware and software, don't you? How important is it? Well if you are experiencing a lot of crashes this may just be cure. Very few people understand what happens in Windows when you install new software and hardware. Since Bill Gates wants to be boss, obviously he put everything into Windows to make it work with Microsoft products.

Now all other companies that sell you things have to make theirs for Gates configuration. Some are not too good at it and some are just careless. For those you get Blue Screen of Death. Ever see this one?

"You have performed an ILLEGAL OPERATION, program will be shut down!"? Then a whole bunch of numbers and stuff even a Geek may not understand.

Well it is really a simple matter of shared files not getting along in your Puter. One says "I am going to decide how this operation is done" and other one says "no you're not!" So one with newest info may win but you get blamed for it because program didn't do it "Gates Way" and result is that program could not start.

Now you get a new program out of box, put it on your Puter and guess what? The program probably has a whole ton of updates available to make it get along with Windows. Windows has a whole bunch of new updates to screw with other companies but "You performed an ILLEGAL OPERATION". Feel a little insulted? I do. Then there are some companies that really don't want your Puter to cooperate with Windows. They want a piece of Giant and guess who pays for it? Yup, we do.

I won't mention any names but AOL and Netscape are 2 of biggest offenders. After that comes Real Player and a list a mile long. But let's not make problem too simple. Several companies are out to get each other and at your expense. Yeah, right. They tell you it is someone else that is cause and that company swears that it is another one. So here you are caught in middle and nobody has bothered to tell you that something as simple as downloading latest updates and drivers just might solve problems they are busy blaming each other for.

I use jpeg format for converting most big pictures, and reduce dots per inch (dpi) to 70 or below, for a web page.

To keep jpeg file sizes under 50k, I use 30 to 60 on 'compression' scale for jpegs ( a scale runs from 2 as high quality, to 255 for low quality. )

Because many users employ a 256 colour palette, gif's are still much in use, but they only handle up to 256 colours. I use gifs for icons and small pics.

I use 24 bit colour bmp's for archiving (I use 300 dpi in case I might print them later), they can be used as a source for both gif and jpeg. -------------------------------- THE FORMATS -------------------------------- 1.bmp (bitmap) This is a pixel-mapped format. I scan pics at 300 dpi -this is about maximum for a printer, but too good for web.

300 dpi 10 by 8 inch pictures, take around 20 megabytes file size. 300 dpi bitmap scans are ideal for archiving, as place to start processing.

NOTE - Netscape Browser does not appear to handle bmp's! ----------------

2.gif.

Gif's are useful for small pics like icons, and also come in 'animated' form useful for websites.

Any scanned colour pic should be processed to 256 colour FIRST, then dpi reduced to a maximum of 72dpi for screen use, then saved as gif.

The basic colour palette options are (in PhotoPaint) : 'uniform palette' - keeps to colours that a 256 colour screen uses. This is good where multiple pics are on one webpage, because browser might have only those colours to use, (someone correct me if that's wrong?)

'adaptive palette' and 'optimised palette' These both select 'best' 256 colours from picture itself -. Pics done with these options may not look well on pages with many pictures, as browser page may be limited to 256 colours in total. A picture on its own on a page will look ok.

---------------- 3. jpegs (jpg)

The jpeg compression works directly from a 24 bit colour palette if necessary, whereas gifs are 256 colours maximum.

The standard compression method is type 4:4:4 on Photopaint. There is a scale 'compression' from 2 to 255. 2 is highest quality, biggest file, 255 is lowest quality, smallest file.