Need help zipping photos to send email (XP-Home Edition)

[MaryL]

I have been having "nothing but problems" with numerous attempts to zip
photos and send them by email. I have a number of photos that I want to
send to a friend, but they will overwhelm her mailbox unless I find a way to
significantly reduce the size. In the past, I have used ThumbsPlus to
reduce the resolution and then sent photos in batches, but this will still
be too sizable for her box. So, I wanted to zip the photos and send them
that way (something I have never done before). First, I looked at Windows
instructions. The help file says to select "e-mail this file" under file
and folder tasks. However, I can't find a file and folder tasks! The
closest I have come is to go to "send to" under the edit menu in My
Pictures. There is an option there for a compressed (zip) folder, but that
selection indicated that the application associated with them must be
compressed. When I simply tried "send to,"
the size was going to be entirely too large. Next, I tried WinZip. That
"appeared" to work, but it was not actually sent by Eudora (trying test file
to myself), and it looked like the file was still too large.

I contacted another friend by email, and she sent an image of her "My
Pictures" content. From that, I can see that I am "missing" the left-hand
pane where "email this file" should appear. I have looked through various
settings and cannot find any way to get those functions. Can anyone help?
(I am using Classic view in Windows XP-Home Edition.)

Thanks,
MaryL

 

[David Candy]

Photos are already compressed so can't be compressed much further. If totally compressed then they are totally random so can't be compressed. Compression works on patterns - when there are no patterns, as a 100% compressed file is, then file size will normally grow as the compression utility overhead is included.

Tools - Folder Options and tick Use Common Tasks.

 

[Mike Williams]

I have been having "nothing but problems" with numerous attempts to zip
photos and send them by email. I have a number of photos that I want to
send to a friend, but they will overwhelm her mailbox unless I find a way to
significantly reduce the size. In the past, I have used ThumbsPlus to
reduce the resolution and then sent photos in batches, but this will still
be too sizable for her box.

Perhaps she should consider an alternate email box. Get a free Gmail or
Hotmail account. Or upload your pictures to a web page, or free picture
hosting site where your friend(s) can download them at their leisure.

You could also use the Image Resizer powertoy download from Microsoft,
or Google's free Picasa program, which will email images at reduced
sizes. www.picasa.com

So, I wanted to zip the photos and send them
that way (something I have never done before). First, I looked at Windows
instructions. The help file says to select "e-mail this file" under file
and folder tasks. However, I can't find a file and folder tasks! The
closest I have come is to go to "send to" under the edit menu in My
Pictures. There is an option there for a compressed (zip) folder, but that
selection indicated that the application associated with them must be
compressed. When I simply tried "send to,"
the size was going to be entirely too large. Next, I tried WinZip. That
"appeared" to work, but it was not actually sent by Eudora (trying test file
to myself), and it looked like the file was still too large.

If your files are JPEGs then ZIP compression will make almost zero
difference to the file size.

I contacted another friend by email, and she sent an image of her "My
Pictures" content. From that, I can see that I am "missing" the left-hand
pane where "email this file" should appear. I have looked through various
settings and cannot find any way to get those functions. Can anyone help?
(I am using Classic view in Windows XP-Home Edition.)

You may have it turned off here: Tools > Folder Options > Show common
tasks in folders

Or if you have Folder or Search view toggled on in your toolbar then
they will replace the task view.

 

[David Candy]

You could also use the Image Resizer powertoy download from Microsoft

There is no point telling people to install crap for no reason.

From her post.
Plus if she uses Windows it will also offer to reduce the size (unless thumbs plus screwed Windows up).

 

[MaryL]

I have been having "nothing but problems" with numerous attempts to zip
photos and send them by email.
Thanks,
MaryL

Thanks for the help, everyone. Part of the problem was that I was using
Classic view. When I selected use common tasks (as suggested) instead, the
left-hand frame opened, with the option I needed. I still don't know what
my friend meant when she said to zip the folder to reduce size, but I do
understand what you have been saying about compression. I will probably
publish them to shutterfly or some other location and ask her to grab them
that way.

ThumbsPlus is actually very flexible because I can reduce resolution, but I
think using Windows e-mail will be easier because the sum was still too
large when using T+. I haven't compared the sizes when using Windows
"reduced" size, but I suspect that is at least as good.

Does hotmail place any restrictions on size? I have Yahoo (inaddition to my
"regular" mail), which provides lots of free capacity. However, it is very
limited concerning the *number* of pictures I can e-mail at one time. By
contrast, I could use my Eudora mail to send almost any number.

MaryL

 

[PA Bear]

Yes:

<QP>
You can send a maximum of 100 messages per day.

You can send a message to a maximum of 50 e-mail addresses at the same time.
These addresses can be distributed among the To, Cc, and Bcc lines, or they
can all be on one line.

You can send a message to a maximum of 100 e-mail addresses at the same
time. These addresses can be distributed among the To, Cc, and Bcc lines, or
they can all be on one line.

Depending on your subscription level, you can send messages up to 20 MB
each, including attachments [or] You can send messages up to 10 MB each,
including attachments.
</QP>
Source:
http://help.msn.com/(ZmlsdGVyPURIX0...erytype=topic&query=PIM_CONC_AcctPolicies.htm

MaryL wrote:

 

[MaryL]

Well, that should be adequate! <g>

Thanks,
MaryL

Yes:

<QP>
You can send a maximum of 100 messages per day.

You can send a message to a maximum of 50 e-mail addresses at the same
time. These addresses can be distributed among the To, Cc, and Bcc lines,
or they can all be on one line.

You can send a message to a maximum of 100 e-mail addresses at the same
time. These addresses can be distributed among the To, Cc, and Bcc lines,
or they can all be on one line.

Depending on your subscription level, you can send messages up to 20 MB
each, including attachments [or] You can send messages up to 10 MB each,
including attachments.
</QP>
Source:
http://help.msn.com/(ZmlsdGVyPURIX0...erytype=topic&query=PIM_CONC_AcctPolicies.htm

MaryL wrote:

Does hotmail place any restrictions on size?

 

[PA Bear]

Possibly. Adding an attachment to an email also adds a markup of ~35% to
the message, so, e.g., if you attach an 8MB (zip) file to a 10KB email, you
end up with a message ~10.8MB in size. If the account was limited to
messages no larger than 10MB, the message would not send.
--
~PA Bear

Yes:

<QP>
You can send a maximum of 100 messages per day.

You can send a message to a maximum of 50 e-mail addresses at the same
time. These addresses can be distributed among the To, Cc, and Bcc
lines, or they can all be on one line.

You can send a message to a maximum of 100 e-mail addresses at the same
time. These addresses can be distributed among the To, Cc, and Bcc
lines, or they can all be on one line.

Depending on your subscription level, you can send messages up to 20 MB
each, including attachments [or] You can send messages up to 10 MB each,
including attachments.
</QP>
Source:
http://help.msn.com/(ZmlsdGVyPURIX0...erytype=topic&query=PIM_CONC_AcctPolicies.htm

MaryL wrote:

Does hotmail place any restrictions on size?

 

[MaryL]

Thanks. That really *is* helpful information. I'm still gathering lots of
information about sending photos that I should have learned long ago.

MaryL

 

[PA Bear]

Honestly, her/your best bet to send such large amounts of data at once
(e.g., all those pix) would be to burn 'em to CD or DVD and snail-mail 'em!
<w>

 

[ANONYMOUS]

You should also learn something about saving to CDs and DVDs as in the
long run this new found knowledge would be invaluable. Do you still use
post office in your country? We still do in the UK and I find it very
useful to send some information such as photos on CD!!.

 

[MaryL]

You should also learn something about saving to CDs and DVDs as in the
long run this new found knowledge would be invaluable. Do you still use
post office in your country? We still do in the UK and I find it very
useful to send some information such as photos on CD!!.

Yes, I do use CDs and DVDs. I do regular backups to external hard disks.
Then, once a year, I burn 2 sets of DVDs (one that I keep at home and one
that I keep at the office "just in case"). As a true believer in Murphy's
Law, I even burn one set of DVDs with *all* my photos and a different set
with photos categorized. However, I have only been using e-mail to send
photos to other people. I suppose I should start using DVDs for that, too,
as you and PA Bear suggested, but e-mail has been much easier -- at least,
it *was* until the current instance when I wanted to send such a large
group.

MaryL

 

[Dan Barham]

Are you just sending family photos? Does your friend need high quality
pictures? An application like PS Elements allows you to reduce the size to
640X480 (or even smaller) at 72 dpi and then compress the jpg according to
the recipient's needs, from low image quality (20 or so) to high quality (70
or 80). A family photo, just to showoff a new baby or dog or whatever,
really shouldn't be over 10 or 12 kb (not mb) for email purposes. And, but
the way, there are freeware applications that do a fine job. Try Irfanview.

Photodan

 

[MaryL]

Are you just sending family photos? Does your friend need high quality
pictures? An application like PS Elements allows you to reduce the size to
640X480 (or even smaller) at 72 dpi and then compress the jpg according to
the recipient's needs, from low image quality (20 or so) to high quality
(70 or 80). A family photo, just to showoff a new baby or dog or whatever,
really shouldn't be over 10 or 12 kb (not mb) for email purposes. And, but
the way, there are freeware applications that do a fine job. Try
Irfanview.

Photodan

Thanks! I do have a copy of PS Elements that I haven't tried yet, so that
may be the route to go. These are family pictures, as you surmised. I take
pictures in better resolution in case I may need one in the future, but I
don't need all that for the photos I am emailing. I have used ThumbsPlus in
the past to reduce the resolution, but even that seemed to be too much when
sending a group at one time (about 20 photos).

MaryL