Thanks everyone. I too would like to know why someone said not to use the camera's transfer ability; my camera came with a utility program & cable specifically for transferring photos. It has worked fine, knock on wood. As for the cards, I bought the same cards I always buy, but maybe they are making them differently now? not sure. Or maybe my card reader is malfunctioning. not sure. So I'll just keep transferring via EOS Utility for now. (which does not use up the battery that much, BTW--the transfer is fairly fast and the camera shuts itself off after it's done, if I have to let it go awhile/walk away from it)

It really doesn't seem that big of a deal of what always-bezzee did in getting that post to move. It couldn't be replied to so it couldn't be moved. It had sat there for almost 10 days and to me that was more annoying than the process to move it... which was a clever tip that might come in useful. On most forums there are admins that check their places everyday to move these things along. This isn't one of those places and I agree that post could have sat there for a much longer time.

Yes Mary, you are reading right. There are several softwares that allow you to download free or purchased designs from the internet to your computer. Then you transfer from computer to the 'cardwriting box/card' for using in your machine. The most popular is the Brother PED Basic that I mentioned above. It only writes .pes format, which is what the 270 uses, and can be bought...sometimes used, from ebay. Normally, you can find new there, as well as Walmart on line, Allbrands.com, and other sites. You may pay from $50to $100+. Then you can download a free software to change other design formats to .pes for your machine to use. There are many many free designs available and a good place to start is to join Sewforum.com. It is a forum for embroiderers, where you can ask questions, request someone create a design for you free or for fee. It is not very active now as the site is also on Facebook, but still, there are thousands of free designs still there. I hope I have explained-helped you. Good luck!

chisue - It may have become easier for Canadians but a few years ago it was a nightmare. That said (and I worked in a bank at one time) my boss in an M & A company used to just write U.S. $ on his Cdn. cheque and mail it off and it always cleared, but then I know that the Bank cleared it "by hand" - he was extremely well to do, which can make quite a difference as opposed to being a fee-paying middle class person. I remember before GardenWeb was taken over and I was going to join and pay the $15 US I think it was and the hoops I was going to have to go through - so I only looked at the "free" forums - wasn't worth buying a U.S. $ money order and paying the fee for that. Many Cdns. now have U.S. $ bank accounts so that might be helpful as well - we don't. And it used to be to get a U.S. $ credit card you had to have an address in the U.S. to have the statement delivered to. We are so similar yet when it comes to anything involving buying something ("shopping") we become international! Just ask any Cdn. ordering or trying to order something on-line from the U.S. - even if it is allowed, versus an American ordering from Canada. Big difference. By the way, I don't like PayPal - maybe because I almost signed up one day then changed my mind and even though it has been 5 years I keep getting e-mails regarding hacking into my account - spam of course - but rather alarming since I didn't even complete half of the application and of course did not submit it. It used to be that there was a bank in Wilmington, Delaware that could clear Cdn. cheques. When we were in NY last month I did see lots of TD Banks - we bank at TD in Toronto - but to do anything with my debit card I would have had to use the ATM machine - which thankfully had a PLUS sign - the way my day had been going I was expecting it not to. (I had just been trampled by a gaggle of teens who saw Jennifer Aniston and wanted to get to her.)