Though not quite as popular as Thumbnails view, Tiles view is helpful when you need to know the resolution of your photos, but nothing else. Notice the summary that is directly below the title of each photo.
This is helpful if you have lower resolution photos mixed in with higher resolution photos, and you are trying to identify them based on size. You’ll also notice that everything is organized from left to right in this view mode, not top to bottom:
The Thumbnails view is a photographers best friend. Select “Thumbnails” from the View menu and you will see previews of your photos (JPG files), organized from left to right. This makes organizing your photos a breeze because you don’t have to open each photo to identify it, and left to right is usually a logical representation of a series of photos.
Thumbnails View also works when you are viewing folders that contain pictures in them. It will show you a preview of the photos that are inside that folder:
How to Change Views in Windows Explorer: Introduction
Windows has a built-in file manager called “Windows Explorer” that shows you the files and folders that are on your computer. Windows Explorer works great, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always display your files and folders the same way. This can be really confusing when you are learning how to use Windows.
Windows Explorer has 6 total “view modes” you can choose from (you might only see 5 right now) that simply change the way your files are displayed. All of your files stay in the same place, they are just presented differently. You select the different view modes by clicking the View menu in an Explorer window.
There is also an easy button for changing your views. It is usually located at the top of your Windows Explorer window, but below your file menu, and it looks like the picture below. Just click on it, and it will pop up a menu of the same view mode choices:
No matter which way you select your view mode, it will be a bulleted list, so you’ll only use one view mode at a time. (I’ll be going to the View Menu at the top of the screen through the remainder of this tutorial – like in the first photo)
You can set all of your folders to use the same view mode. For example, you might like Thumbnail View mode and want every folder you open to use Thumbnail View mode. But I don’t recommend using the same view mode all the time. That’s because each view mode is designed for a specific job. It would be kind of like mowing your lawn with scissors. 
Plus, you’d be missing out on one of the great parts of having a computer: it allows you to do tedious work quickly and have fun while you’re doing it! Let’s take a look at some examples. Click on number 2: How to Change Views – Thumbnails View
How to Send To a Compressed (Zipped) Folder, or How to Create a Zip File
If you are looking for one handy trick in Windows that you can use over and over again for millions of different things, look no further than the “Zip” file. A zip file (.zip extension) is quite simply a single file that contains other files. Think of it like a folder that you “zip up”. I try to explain this in my classes as a manila filing folder that you fill with paperwork, then staple shut (or Zip shut). All of the files are there, and they can’t fall out or be used until you “unzip” the folder.
Another aspect to Zip files is that they can sometimes be compressed. Think of this like deflating all of the air out of a beach ball before putting it in the trunk. It will still arrive and be able to be inflated to the same size, but it takes up less space getting to the beach.
When you compress a zip file, you remove all of the extra space that exists. So you have a second advantage. Not only can you carry multiple files inside just one file, but they also take up less space and get around much faster.
The most common use for this tool is sending e-mails that contain pictures. And the great news is: Windows has a built-in utility for zipping files. First, locate the photos that you want to zip. In this case, I’m zipping photos that are on the desktop:
Select the images by either Control-clicking them, or drawing a selection rectangle around them:
Now right click on one of the blue, selected images. A pop-up menu comes up. One of the choices is called “Send To”. When you hover over this choice on the menu, another menu pops out that have the option “Compress (zipped) folder”. Click Compress (zipped) folder:
Your zip file will be instantly created in the same place as your photos. It is typically given the name of the last file in the selection, though it can be named after other files in the selection. So in this case, the last file was “Violet Joy Birth Announcement.jpg” so my zip file is automatically called “Violet Joy Birth Announcement.zip”:
And you’re done. Now you can attach this in an e-mail or upload it to the web for photo printing! Want to see what it is like to receive a zip file in an e-mail? Click the zip file below to download a zip file of all of the photos used in this tutorial:
Zip File of Tutorial Pictures 92kb
How to Batch Resize Photos in Picasa
If you want to resize your photos using Picasa, there is an easy way to do it. The tool you will use is called “Export” and it is located at the bottom of the Picasa screen. Export will make a copy of your photos, and will give you the option of what size you want the new copies to be, and where you want to save them. Don’t worry, your original photos will stay right where they are.
To get started, we will need to choose the photos that we want to resize (or Export). We do this one of two ways. The first way is by Control-Clicking your photos (by holding down the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard while you click photos). Control-clicking will put a blue border around your photos that will be exported (remember, the original will stay there, but it will export a small copy). Here is what the blue border looks like when you have your photos selected:
Once you have them properly selected, they will appear in the Picasa Tray in the lower left corner of the Picasa window. The tray works just like a printer queue and holds files there until you are ready to perform an action or do something with them:
If you want to hold photos in the tray, simply click the Green Tack, and it will hold them there until you are ready to Export. When you have selected all of the images you want to Export, click the Export button at the lower center section of the Picasa window:
This pops up the Export dialog box and asks you where you want to save the small copies of your photos. It also gives you a convenient slider to choose how large you want your photos. The default is 800 (which means the longest edge of your photos will be 800 pixels long). 800 or 640 would be good sizes to choose if you are going to e-mail your photos. The more photos you plan on e-mailing at a time, the smaller you will want this setting to be:
Picasa saves the “Exported Photos” to a folder in your My Pictures folder by default, but I don’t think this is very helpful, or easy to find, so I recommend saving to the Desktop. Click “Browse” and another box will pop up asking you where you want to save these new photos:
Click Desktop at the top, then click OK. This takes you back to the Export window. Click OK and it will save your photos to their new location. When it is done, it will pop open an Explorer window showing the location of your new photos:
