Preclick Tutorial #2: Order Prints & Share Your Photos

You’ve started using Preclick to manage your collection of digital photos, and now you want to order prints over the Internet and email pictures to your friends. Read this tutorial to learn how.

Table of Contents:

1. Find and organize your photos with Preclick
2. How printing and emailing works in Preclick
3. Select photos to print or email
4. Upload your photos to dotPhoto
5. Email your photo

1. Find and organize your photographs

This tutorial assumes that you are already up-and-running with Preclick Lifetime Organizer. If you would like to learn how to find and organize your photos with Preclick, please read Preclick Tutorial #1 first.

2. How printing and emailing works in Preclick

Print. Preclick lets you upload your digital photographs to dotPhoto.com, an online photo-finisher. You can then order prints on Kodak paper, delivered to your door, for as little as 29 cents a piece. Preclick automates the process of transferring your image files to dotPhoto and then launches your web browser so that you can complete the checkout process on the dotPhoto site. You get 20 free prints when you open a new account at dotPhoto.com*.

Share. It is also possible to upload photos into an online album stored on dotPhoto’s site. This is a free service that makes it easy for your friends and family to see your photographs. You or a guest can then order prints later if you wish.

Email. Preclick makes it easy to email photos to your friends, co-workers and family. Preclick automatically reduces the size of your pictures (so that they will take less time for you to upload and for your friends to download) and attaches them to a new email in your default email program.

Preclick allows you to select the photos that you would like to print or email offline, meaning that you do not need to be connected to the Internet until you actually upload your pictures or send your email.

The photos that you select for printing or emailing are stored in their respective tabs until you upload or send them. Along the top of the application there are four tabs. The leftmost of these tabs shows you your currently selected photo. The next three tabs let you view the selected photos for printing, sharing and organizing. The next section of this tutorial explains how to select pictures and add them to these tabs.

3. Select photos to print, share or organize

Browse through your photographs and pick the ones that you want to print or email. There are three ways to select photographs:

A. Beneath the currently viewed photograph is a row of icons:

Click the leftmost of these icons (the printer) to select the current photo for printing. Click the second icon in the row (representing the people) to select the current photo for sharing or click the folder icon for organizing. Click these icons a second time to deselect the current photograph.

B. You can also select photos for printing, sharing or organizing from the filmstrip. Beneath each thumbnail photo in the filmstrip are three small icons. Click the printer icon to select that photo for printing. Click the people icon to select it for emailing. Click the folder icon to select that photo for organizing. Click a second time to deselect it.

C. On both the Print and Share tabs there is an Add Recent button. Clicking this button will add the latest roll to the tab. (A "roll" is a group of photos added to Preclick at the same time. If you moved ten photos into My Pictures before you last opened Preclick, those pictures would be your latest roll.) Continuing to click the button will add subsequent rolls to the tab.

4. Uploading your photos to dotPhoto

When you have selected all of the pictures that you want to upload for printing, click on the Print tab at the top of the application. Thumbnails of all the photos in your uploading queue will now be displayed. You may remove individual photos from the queue by clicking their thumbnails and then selecting Clear One from the row of buttons at the bottom of the screen. You can remove all the thumbnails from the tab by selecting the Clear All button.

To order prints, click the Order Prints icon at the bottom of the screen. At this point, you must be connected to the Internet in order to proceed. If you use a dial-up connection, you should dial in now.

You will be prompted to enter your dotPhoto username and password. If this is your first time using the dotPhoto service, you can create an account from this dialog box. Click the Join button. Your web browser will automatically open to a page on the dotPhoto site that will allow you to create an account. (You can also click here to join dotPhoto.) This is free and there is no need to provide a credit card number at this time.

If you have an account, enter your username and password now and click Login to continue. Preclick will now connect to the dotPhoto server and transfer all of your photos. Especially if you are using a dial-up connection or if you are printing a large number of photos, this process make a long time.

When Preclick has finished transferring your photos, it will automatically open your web browser to a page on the dotPhoto site that will allow you to finalize your order. (You might want to hit refresh on the web page to ensure you are viewing the most recent photos uploaded.) You can then specify what number of prints you would like to order, what size you would like them to be, and enter payment and shipping information. For help completing this stage of your ordering, please look at the dotPhoto help file.

5. Email your photos

When you have selected all of the pictures that you would like to email, click on the Share tab at the top of the application. Thumbnails of all the photos in your emailing queue will now be displayed. You may remove individual photos from the queue by clicking their thumbnails and then selecting Clear One from the row of icons at the bottom of the screen.

To email your photos, simply click the Send Photos button at the bottom of the screen. This will automatically launch your email program. Preclick then shrinks your picture files to a size convenient for emailing and attaches them to a new outgoing email. All you have to do is address it, enter a subject, write a note, and hit send!

IP = 38.107.191.104

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