Grandma and Grandpa- Hard time viewing pictures we send

[Jen in Chicago]

They have AOL. When I send pictures they can only view a block at a time. I have to admit I am a pretty low-tech gal, so I don't know what to tell them. Is there a setting they need to adjust? Do they need software? Is there a free software that would help them view pictures?

They don't need anything fancy, they just want to be able to view what we send.

The workaround was to send them to Grandpa at work. He can view them just fine, but can't print more than a small block of the picture.

Other Grandparents (AOL), Aunts and Uncle can see the pictures no problem.

Thank you for your help!

Don't you think Grandma needs to see this?

[August Mom]

I don't have a solution for directly e-mailing photos to an AOL account. I do know some people with AOL who often have problems opening attachments, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by a block at a time. Are you reducing the size of your file before sending it? Sometimes large files can be a problem.

What I would suggest is using one of the photo-sharing services where you merely send a link instead of an attachment. A lot of people here use www.shutterfly.com. Other options are www.snapfish.com, www.ofoto.com, www.clubphoto.com, www.webphotos.com and I'm sure there are others. You upload your photos to one of these sites, add captions/titles and e-mail a link to those with whom you want to share. The recipient clicks on the link and is taken to your album of photos. Then the recipients can buy the ones they want from the site. Shutterfly is very user friendly.

[Zansu]

Well, the attachment to your post was huge! So it's no wonder AOL is having problems. Are your parents using the latest version of AOL? IIRC, we're up to version 9.0, and the photo/file handling has improved with every release.

Try using your photo software to save the photo as a small .jpg file. Then you can actually copy and paste it into the body of an AOL email, rather than sending it as an attachment. I've found this is a much better way to send photos to my parents, since I always have to walk them through the detach and locate process otherwise.

HTH

[egoldber]

This is also what I do to share photos with my low tech parents and in-laws. It works really well for us. I also like it because I don't have to bother with re-sizing pictures before I upload, so it saves me time too.

HTH,

[houseof3boys]

Great picture of Jude but it was a huge picture. As everyone has said, shutterfly or another photo service would be soooo much easier for you and they would just click on a link and be able to see all the pictures at a website and wouldn't have to download pictures or save attachments.

He is printing a small block of the picture because they are sized huge. Example: the pic might be sized 18 " x 20" so when he goes to print it, it will automatically format to a letter (8.5 x 11) sheet of paper so only part of the picture is printing. This happened to my parents too before I realized that the pictures were huge that I was sending. Does that make sense?

[LD92599]

We have trouble sending attachments to AOL users on PCs. We use a cable modem on a Mac. It's fine sending to other Mac users, AOL or otherwise, or PC users w/o AOL.

We've had decent luck if we paste the picture (as others have said..resize first!) into a Word document and then save it as .doc. Otherwise, we post the pictures on our website and everyone can view them there.

HTH.

Laura
mom to William
3.5.2003

[starrynight]

When I had aol other people w/o aol that I sent pics too sometimes had trouble veiwing them. Do your parents have winzip on their computer? They can download it free, from what I heard is if you email an attatchment through aol and the recepient doesn't have winzip it won't open but I'm not positive.

[new_mommy25]

What program are you using? Although my camera came with its own software, I generally use Microsoft Picture It! Publishing, or Photosuite. When I email pictures I can specify what size I want them to be.