Preclick Tutorial #2

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:

Find and organize your photos with Preclick
How printing and emailing works in Preclick
Select photos to print or email
Upload your photos to dotPhoto
Email your photo

1. Find and organize your photographs

This tutorial assumes that you are already up-and-running with Preclick Photo 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 30 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.

Note: You cannot use Preclick to email photos if you use America Online or a web-based service such as Hotmail for your email.

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 three tabs. The leftmost of these tabs shows you your currently selected photo. The next two tabs let you view and edit your selected photos for printing and emailing. The next section of this tutorial explains how to select pictures and add them to these tabs.

3. Select photos to print or email

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 (representing a stack of photographs) to select the current photo for printing. Click the second icon in the row (representing an envelope) to select the current photo for emailing. Click these icons a second time to deselect the current photograph.

B. You can also select photos for printing or emailing from the filmstrip. Beneath each thumbnail photo in the filmstrip are two small icons. Click the photo stack icon () to select that photo for printing. Click the envelope icon () to select it for emailing. Click a second time to deselect it.

C. On both the Print and Email 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.

Pro Tips:

When a picture is selected for printing, a small photo stack icon appears as an overlay on its lower right-hand corner. When a picture is selected for emailing, a small envelope icon appears as an overlay on its lower right-hand corner. When they are deselected, these icons disappear.

To select a number of pictures displayed sequentially in the filmstrip, you can select the appropriate icon under the first (furthest left) thumbnail photo and hold the Shift key and then select the icon under the last (furthest right) thumbnail photo. This will add all selected photographs to the appropriate 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 Printing 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 icons 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 Email 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 icon 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!

Note: You might have to manually launch your email program as some email problems might not launch automatically.

Remember: This feature is not compatible with America Online or with web-based email services such as Hotmail.

Create Online Albums:

You can also upload your photos to an online album stored on the dotPhoto site. This service is free and your albums can be shared with your friends. Every time you upload photos for printing, an album is automatically created. If you would like to create an album without ordering prints, though, follow these steps:

Select photos for printing as you did in section 3.
Open the printing tab.
Click the Upload Photos icon at the bottom of the screen.
Enter your username and password to connect to dotPhoto.
Preclick will upload your photos.
Your web browser will automatically open to the dotPhoto website.
Follow further instructions in your browser.

*To qualify for 30 free prints, customers must open a new account at dotPhoto. One offer per family.
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