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Note that the information in this document is in most cases specific to the Princeton U computer clusters and to the specific type and brand of digital camera used by the WWNF Teachers’ Institute.

Using the digital camera.
(Partially complete as of 10 Jul 99--the active links below indicate the completed portions of this page)


 

The digital camera will be an important contributor to your website. The cameras provided by the WWNF take pictures and store them on 3 ½" floppy disks formatted for the standard PC. (Macintoshes can read these disks as well, provided they are of the "power PC" class or later and that they are running the power PC control panel file—all of the networked macs in the Princeton clusters are so configured.)

Once you have taken your pictures, you will probably find it convenient to store the good ones on your H-drive—each 3 ½’ floppy holds only approximately 15 pictures. I suggest that you create a folder on your H-drive for your pictures—especially if you anticipate taking a lot of pictures.

A blank disk must be ‘set up’ before computer knows what to do with it. This process is known as formatting. When you format a disk, you remove all previously stored information from the disk. This lost information is completely irretrievable! (Some experts make a living out of retrieving irretrievable files. Sometimes they succeed in retrieving them, sometimes they don’t. All of these experts are verrry expensive.)

There are different ways to format your disk. One way involves using the camera, which is easy but will wear down the battery a bit quicker. Another way is to use the PC to format your disk. This tends to be really easy and is more efficient if you wish to format more than one floppy.

Formatting a disk using your computer

  1. Insert the floppy into the disk drive.
  2. Locate the My Computer Icon in the upper left-hand corner of the desktop—you may need to minimize some or all of your open files before you will be able to locate it.
  3. Double-click on the "My Computer" icon. A window will appear showing all of the drives available to you on that computer.
  4. Single(!) Click the icon for the 3 ½: floppy [A:] drive.

    5. Be absolutely sure not click on any other drive or else very bad things may happen in the next step.
  5. On the File menu, click Format. You’ll hear the clicks and whirs of a computer happily munching on a floppy disk.
Formatting a disk using the digital camera.
 
  This process involves opening the "my computer" window and telling it to display the files on your floppy and then opening a second "my computer" window to show your h-drive. Once you have both views you can drag the files from the A-drive into the H-drive.
  1. Insert the floppy containing your picture into the disk drive.
  2. Open "My Computer" from your computer’s desktop
  3. Click on the A: drive icon. (The A-drive is the 3 ½" floppy drive.) The files contained in your floppy should now appear in the "my computer" window.
  4. Open "My Computer" from your computer’s desktop again. You should now have a view of all of the drives accessible to your computer—including your H-drive. This new window is directly in front of the previously opened window and has to be moved so that you can view both windows simultaneously.
  5. To move this window, click and hold the blue bar at the top of the window. Move your mouse in the direction your wish to move your window. The hidden window should now be visible.
  6. Click and hold on the file you wish to copy. Drag the file to your H-drive icon in the left-hand window. A box should appear indicating that the file is being copied.
  7. Verify that the file has been copied by clicking on the H-drive. When it opens in the right-hand window, the file you just copied should be present. If you wish to drag it into a folder at this point, simply drag it into the desired folder.

  The digital camera saves images using a particular filename format. This format works well if you’re a camera, but it is not so helpful if you wish to look at a list of images and determine what is contained on each image. Let’s face it, MVC-001f.jpg is not nearly as informative as pond_test.jpg and can be the source of much frustration when you’re trying to find the correct image to load to your website.
  1. Locate the file whose name you wish to change.
  2. Right click on the icon.
  3. Select "Rename".
  4. Type the filename you wish to use. Remember to retain the three letter suffix (.jpg for any file made by the camera)
  5. Hit enter to accept the name.
This is an operation which requires Windows NT Explorer—a very useful application for any kind of folder or file management.
  1. Click on the "start" icon down in the lower left hand corner of the the screen.
  2. Point at the "program" menu. A pop out menu will appear showing all of the programs available through Windows NT.
  3. Click on the "Windows NT explorer" icon.
  4. In the left-hand window of Explorer, click on your H-drive. The files contained in your H-drive should appear in the right-hand window.
  5. Open the file menu.
  6. Point to "new". A menu should pop out to the side.
  7. Point to "new folder". A folder icon should appear in the right-hand window with the name "new folder" highlighted.

    8. a. If the name is still highlighted, simply type the name you wish to give to your new folder. Your typing will automatically replace the words that are highlighted.
    b.If the words are not highlighted, right-click on the folder name. Select "rename" and the name of the folder should highlight. Type the name you desire for your folder.
Your folder is now ready to start accepting files.

Viewing the pictures stored on your H-drive.
Viewing the pictures using the PCor mac  involves finding an application designed for that task. Princeton U has ten licenced copies of Adobe Photoshop which has some nice capabilities.
Opening Photoshop

  1. Double click on the "cluster applications" icon if you're on a PC and on the "cluster Mac HD" icon if you are on a mac on your desktop.  If you cannot see your desktop, minimize all of your open applications until  your desktop window is visible.
  2. Once your "cluster applications" window is open, locate the Adobe Photoshop icon.  Double click on this icon.  Photoshop will open, but it will not display any image file until it is told to do so.
Opening a file into photoshop
  1. In the photoshop file menu, select the "file" option. a menu will drop down.
  2. Select the "open" option.  A dialog box will appear.

    3. a . Open your H Drive (PCs) by clicking on the "look in:" field and selecting your H drive..
    b.  Open your macfiles drive (Macs), by clicking on the desktop button and clicking on macfiles.
  3. Locate the file you wish to open and click on it.
  4. Click on the "open" button.  Your file will now open in photoshop.
Written for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Teachers' Institute by Chris Davis,  10 July 99

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