Scanning Made Simple

Reader Rik Gobelle writes: I have a Dell 3000 with a Dell Photo All In One Printer 922. I'd like to know how to scan a photo, and be able to e-mail it to someone. I can scan fine, but being able to tranfer the scan to Windows XP for an outgoing e-mail has me completely stumped.

Today's scanners almost always feature a little button that says "SCAN" on it. Punch it, and the device may actually scan the picture, but then what happens?

In a perfect world, you were supposed to have installed the software that came with your scanner which would automatically transfer scanned files to your PC when you hit the scan button. But virtually no one installs this software (including me). Why? It's usually buggy, takes up tons of space, and comes packed with loads of applications you don't need.

I also have an all-in-one printer, and I didn't install the junk software that came with it either. Here's how I scan (along with most of the free world):

Your best friend is the ACQUIRE function. First you need to launch your favorite photo editor. (Many people love PhotoShop. I use LView and PhotoMeister. You might also try the free GIMP, an open source PhotoShop competitor, or Microsoft Paint if you're in a real bind.)

The Acquire command is universally found under the File menu. If your scanner is installed correctly, clicking Acquire will bring up a menu of scanning options: Just select color or black and white and the DPI of the scan, and fire away. (One note: In MS Paint, this command instead reads "From scanner or camera...") Your scanner will light up and bring the file into the image editing software. You can then resize, crop, and save the file to your hard drive. And once you've got it saved, you can email it wherever you'd like as an attachment.

Once you've befriended the Acquire function, you should find your scanning life much more powerful. Hope that helps!