the easiest thing to do is use what comes on the pc, put your cd in the drawer, go to the photos you want on the cd right click on it and select copy to and the cd drive, or you can put all of the ones you want to put on cd into one folder and then just select to move the entire folder to the cd.
A flash thumb drive can be used instead of a cd if you were wanting to move them from say one pc to another or as a back up option.

this little tutorial shows you exactly how to do it step by step, however if you do not want to do the slide show part you do not have to download the power toy it tells about and in the last step you would simply choose No, write the cd normally.
cd photo
using this method to just do a cd of photos you do not have to add any programs to your pc.
The slide show powertoy by MS is a nice little freebie to have though should you want that.

I think you are making this too complicated for yourself. Take a blank CD and insert it into your CD burning drive. In a few seconds, you will probably have a window pop up that asks what you want to do. Pick something like "Burn files to disc," and proceed from there. You will end up in Windows Explorer, and you can just copy and paste any files you want to the CD...just like you would copy and paste any files. When you have copied all of the files you want, right-click on the name of the drive that holds the CD, and choose "Eject." At that point the computer will probably take a half minute or so to "finalize" the disc and then eject it. That's it. If you try this and it doesn't work like I explained, re-post and explain what is going on.

Thanks.

That sounds doable.

I bought some CDs; They are CD-RW. Is that the right kind?

Also would you explain "finalize" please?

Sue

CD-RW is ok. It is a type of disc that can be recorded to and then written over again a number of times if you want to change what is on the disc. However, if you do this several times, the quality of the files or pictures may start to degrade. For photo storage, I prefer the cheaper CD-R discs because the space on them can only be written to once, and you will thus be sure of having the highest quality.

Finalizing a disc is simply a process by which the computer indexes all of the files that you have written on the disc, and does a few other technical things to make sure the files can be read on other computers than your own. It doesn't mean that you can't put more files on the disc in the future. It just means that, each time you add files, you should "finalize" or "close" the disc. You can keep doing this as many times as you need until you run out of space on the disc.

This attempt will be good practice I think. If I decide to do more I'll get the CD-R discs.

I want to copy some old family photos and share them with younger family members.

I'll copy all the above and keep a hard copy as well as saving it in my Documents.

It may be a while before I actually get started; so often my have-tos get ahead of my want-tos.

I really appreciate the help from both of you. CompHelp has always been my best resource.

Sue

Sue,
What burning software are you using? Nero?

Urlee, haven't started the CD yet; still going through old albums and finding and deciding on pics.

The info above says I just use what is on the PC, no need to download anything.

Sue

right you can certainly use what you have with out getting any other programs especially for doing a photo cd, for those doing more burning jobs specific programs may be desirable but not essential.

My computer came with Nero so that is what I have been using all the time.
I didn't understand it at first cause I was so green but learned with use enough to get to burn ok.

The CD burning software that comes with XP is good. Use Windows Explorer and either drag and drop or copy and paste to the CD burner. You should get a dialogue box pop up offering to burn or you can right click on the CD burner and click to burn your data.

One more question that I thought of.

How about adding text, like names, dates, etc. with each picture?

Sue

Ah, yes you can do that easily enough providing you have a photo editing program. Even the free Irfanview will do that for you.

Alternately you can actually write on the back of the photos. This data will be stored and transferred along with the photo. To do this right click on a photo, click Properties, then I think it is 'Details' or similar, you may need to click the 'Advanced' tab to find the spot to give it a title and add comments too.

sue-
It can be done, but you will need other software to do that. Step one for you should be successfully burning a disc to master that skill. Then you can get fancier. And you are aware that each picture already has the date and time embedded in the file information, right? I personally am not a fan of adding text to most of my photos, so I simply rename any file with specific info if I feel the need to identify it more clearly.

My question about names and dates relates to the purpose of the CD. This will be for the DD of my deceased niece, whose father was my deceased brother. She has asked for pictures of her mother when she was young, along with other family members. Dates of birth and death would be included. I'm the last of that line. TMI?

I like to know as much as I can before starting on any new project, so there may be even more questions.

Thanks again.

Sue

If you don't want to "deface" the photos with captions, you can rename any file to include a name and dates.

You could of course create a data page with all that information on and include it on the CD.

A few years ago (Win 3.1 days) I created such a CD and distributed to family members. I made folders with each family group and included a data sheet in each folder.

As these are older photos I assume you will be scanning them? Practice a bit before going ahead full steam and be sure to create an image at least one megabyte in size or larger in case anyone may want to print any in the future.

How about adding text, like names, dates, etc. with each picture?

Sue

Do you mean something like this for each picture?

{{gwi:1472709}}

If so, that would involve more than just burning as is.

Maybe you would like to burn them as slides to view on your TV or portable DVD player?
I use two software programs to do things like that but you can burn slides with Windows Movie Maker that is free and usually comes with your computer.

Still reading all the above info and trying to digest it.

I think I will rename each pic as Kudzu suggests, and also create a data sheet like owbist said.

Urlee, I'm still in the "keep it simple" stage so won't be involving any thing extra.

I hope to be able to get started on this sometime this week, but maybe not.

Many thanks to all of you.

Sue