Resizing Photos in Windows XP using Picture Resizer About This Page:

[LizardCop]

Windows XP users, resize your photos very easily!!!

First, download this easy to use (and easy to mess up) utility from Microsoft.

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx

Scroll down the page until you see Image Resizer on the right hand column. Just below this it says imageresizer.exe, this is a clickable link. Click on it, tell your computer where you want the file saved (and REMEMBER where this is), then click save. Go to where the file was saved and double click on it and it will install the image resizer utility.

Here’s how it works…

Go to the folder where your photos are located that you want to reduce, getting there. either using My Computer or Windows Explorer. How you view the folder is not important, some folks look at thumbnails and some look at just the details.

SUGGESTION: Back up ALL photos before starting to work on them!!! Copy them to another directory or something. If you destroy/modify the original, you may not be able to restore it and you could lose the picture…. I make it a point to never delete or edit an original (even the bad ones), and I usually burn them to CD/DVD before I do anything else…

WARNING: Resize pictures BEFORE you do any rotating/orientating, especially if you are going to do an entire folder of pictures…

If you left mouse click on a file/photo to highlight it, then right mouse click on it, a box pops up with a number of options in it. The new option is to “Resize Pictures.”




Click on Resize Pictures.

A new window pops up.



If you select one of these options, and click OK, the photo will be resized and renamed to those dimensions by the program…



Now, you don’t see the dimensions you want? Well, at the first pop-up window, click on the Advanced>> tab and you get



Now, you can click on custom and enter the pixel dimensions you want. For Passporter Boards, I use 400 by 300. Click OK and your photo will be resized and renamed.



Okay, so that’s nice but how do I resize ALL of my vacation pictures at one time. Not a problem!

Go to your directory with your pictures in it. Select ALL (either CTRL+A or Edit->Select All)



Right Click on the highlighted area and select resize Pictures. Follow the directions above and you’ll resize all the pictures you selected. When it’s done, and it might take quite a while if you have a lot of pictures in there, check to make sure it got them all. Here’s how I do that:

Make a new folder (I name it the size of the pictures I’m making, ie 400x300)

COPY all of your pictures into this folder.

Select this folder. Make sure you have selected this folder!!!!! MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU HAVE SELECTED THIS FOLDER…

What I do next is select all the pictures in the folder.

Right Mouse Click on them



As you can see, I’ve also check the blocks for “Make pictures smaller but not larger” and “Resize the original pictures (don’t create copies). What this does is make sure you don’t increase the size of any picture in the folder, and it overwrites the original files (in this folder only) so there’s only one copy. This is a quick way to make sure every picture was reduced. As with ALL Microsoft programs, occasionally they fail to perform to the “standard described by Microsoft.”

This is also why it is IMPERATIVE that you make sure you have selected the proper folder.

It will resize them, and when it’s done I check the file size to make sure they were reduced…

Once you’ve resized them, upload them to where you need them and enjoy the time saved by this little utility…

[Marv]

Thanks, Bill. You had taught me how to do this before and after reading this post I learned a few things. I'd only resized the pictures indivually before, not the whole set. Good idea, especially if wanting to post them in a TR [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/foreheadslap.gif[/img]! Mybe when I'm done teaching I can post SW pics from our trip!

[iamgrumpy]

Thanks Bill this is a great tool!

[Colexis Mom]

Thanks Bill [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] That should certainly make things a lot more easier now [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

[disneymom9092]

Thanks Bill! I will have to try it! Maybe now it won't take me 5 hours to do 3 pictures [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img]

[Minnie Lor]

Thanks Bill! Now I can quit putting off doing my TR.

[chezp]

Thanks for posting this Bill - that's just made my life a lot easier! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

[poohbear.u.k.]

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] Bill, maybe now I can have a go at posting photos instead of having to wait for my DH to do it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]

[travismom]

Thanks Bill!! You're a life saver [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[loobyoxlip]

I have a question, Bill. If you choose 400 x 300, will it automatically change the pictures I've taken vertically, too? Or do I have to do those separately?

[JBARN105]

Thanks so much for the information - I've had such trouble getting my pix to upload to this site. I'm gonna give it another try - Thanks again - you provided a lot of detail!
[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[LizardCop]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a question, Bill. If you choose 400 x 300, will it automatically change the pictures I've taken vertically, too? Or do I have to do those separately?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not smart enough to realize you've rotated those, and will try to resize them as though they were still horizontal. You need to do a mass resize before you go through and rotate...

Or, I have also made a seperate directory for the vertical ones and when I rotate, I move them to that directory, then resize that directory only to 300 x 400...

[DrDolphin]

Dummy question - how do you know they've been resized??? I've used the tool - clicked ok - and NADA - no change in size, nothing?? Help!

[LizardCop]

Originally Posted by DrDolphin

Dummy question - how do you know they've been resized??? I've used the tool - clicked ok - and NADA - no change in size, nothing?? Help!

Try selecting a fewer number. Sometimes it does that to me when I select... say...1000, 2000, 3000, or more pics...

I usually run 500 at a time when resizing trip pics...

[DrDolphin]

I started with like 25.... NADA, then I tried ONE and nada.... ok I know it has to be user error - but I don't have a clue what the user is doing WRONG!