So Why Aren’t More Americans Doing It? (NAPSA)—Arecent Imation survey showed that 89 percent of adults say file sharing is easy and 62 percent say that makingdigital photo albums, scrapbooks, movies and slide showsis easy as well. But only 30 percent have created home movies and only 24 percent have created digital photo albums. Half the fun of making digital memories is sharing them. So dust off the digital shoeboxes and make digital files everyone can enjoy. The experts at Imation have some tips for turning memories into messages. Do Anything with Digital Photos—Amazing memories can be preserved with photo editing and graphic arts software. 1. DVD “Stories”—Probably the most underrated use of the combination of digital photos and DVDsis the slide show. If a DVD burner is accessible, the software is affordable, easy to use and typically lets the user add backgrounds and frames, resize photos and play music. DVDslide shows are becoming the standard for creative keepsakes for graduating classes, clubs and sports teams—from preschool to high school—that can be watched on almost any home DVD player or computer. And they’re a great way to follow up on a family reunion, wedding or anniversary. 2. Real Photos, Real Scrapbooks—It’s easy to make “real” photos from digital cameras— burn photos to a CD andbring it to a local developer or choose from a number of online services to upload photos using a high-speed Internet service. Use a retail kiosk or editing software on a computer to lighten up dark pho- tos, crop, resize or remove red-eye. Then continue scrapbooking the traditional way. 3. Digital Scrapbooking— Make andprint a scrapbook page without cutting and pasting using popular photo editing and graphics software to create scrapbook pages with digital photos. The ability to create visual stories using virtually limitless type fonts, colors and backgrounds unleashes creativity for growing legions of scrapbookers. From Home Movie to Video Clip—tThegoalis not only to preserve home movies, but for others to want to watch them, too. 1. Make DVD home movie archives. Use the best-quality DVDs, like Imation dises with ForceField” “memory protection” coating that defends them from damage such as scratches, dust and smudges. 2. Use a simple video editing software package to create “shorts” of the best footage. These programs makeit very easy to collect snippets and save them onto a CD or DVD. Moretips on preserving digital memories can be found at www.imation.com/digital-lifestyle.
