I just got in fine ... although had to struggle through remembering my password again! and gawd I'm already changing my style again, lol! Helllllp ....

I was thinking about signing up a one-day pass, but I was wondering if one could save the images to my computer.

FWIW, you can almost always save an image to your computer by taking a screenshot of it, if a right-click and "save picture as..." isn't working. Use your PrtScr key (usually on the upper right side of the keyboard) to take the screenshot, open your Paint or other image editing program and click "paste" which will bring the screenshot up for editing. Crop off all the extraneous junk, bring the margins in to the edge of the picture, and save the file as a JPEG. I do this all the time and it works very well. About the only time this doesn't work is if it is a very large picture that requires scrolling to view the whole thing.

As for the Decorating Inspiration site, I think $25 for 3 months - $100 a year! - is rather a bit of a ripoff. There are plenty of places to get pictures for free, and that $100 could buy several nice decorating books (or many more if you go to a discounter like Hamilton Books or buy them used on Amazon Marketplace, Half.com, or a local used bookstore; I've purchased $50+ books for $5 including shipping and the only thing "wrong" with them is that they may have a remainder mark or the dust jacket is a little tired-looking). If you have a scanner you can scan photos from books onto your computer for ease of reference. A pretty good all-in-one printer/scanner/copier can be had for $99 now and it is SO convenient! Anyway, try a browser update if you're getting weird messages from some sites.

I think it was less when I signed up. I'm remembering $18 I think. You do get their magazine for free, too. I forget I have it most of the time, though :)

Another method of saving images is the ScreenPrint Platinum program. I just love that little thing. You can select an area on the screen to snapshot images.

johnmari .... thank you so, so much .... i have had a computer now for almost two years, but could not even begin to guess at how to save an image ... your directions sound very clear & concise ....

well, o.k., i will also have to admit that i will need to have my husband read your post cuz i still am totally flummoxed and bewildered by computer jargon ...(sigh)

thanks, phyl

I just learned a lot, thanks! What is "Amazon Marketplace?" I know amazon.com and half.com but never heard of that one.

I would be willing to pay up to $20 per year to see all the pictures for ideas but not as much as they wanted to charge me.

I also use Print Screen Deluxe to print on screen when the file print button will not work on a site. I also use it for printing out what I filled out for my tax return program when I am changing codes and want to make sure there is no problems when reentering information.

I was thinking about the one day, $5 deal because I have to stay with of a family member while they are sleeping off a surgery.

Johnmari- Yes, I love half-price. Great books there, but sometimes their decorating books are a bit dated.

Why pay to see pictures when you can put anything you are looking for and search in Yahoo and Google images and get almost anything you are looking for free?

If I pay I prefer magazines over the books but the hardest part is when the magazines are on the shelf you have to take them off and go through them to find what you are looking for. one day I am going to rip out all the pictures I like and keep an inspiration book like I think Oceanna has (at least I imagine she has done this). I do love christopher lowells decorating books especially the small spaces book. and don't buy the trading spaces book. seemed like a waste to me. I think the old books had more DIY ideas and I do have quite a few of them that I still enjoy (the apartment book especially). JMHO

I look at the bhg site as kind of like buying a monthly magazine. Though I usually do pass the $7.95 mags by unless there are some pics I really, really must have, there are always hundreds of worthwhile pics to look at on bhg.

Just browsed around and it is a very good book or magazine to look through :) and I can clip to file without destroying a magazine, which I hate to do!

There's always the library.

Squirrel's Heavenly Library is my favorite :) and so convenient!

(I'm not promoting the bhg thing. I forget why I eventually joined it, as I'm really not a paid-subscription kind of gal. It is most definitely pricey, like the $8 mags. But, there are far more pics available at any one time than in a magazine or book; and they are also current.)

FWIW, you can almost always save an image to your computer by taking a screenshot of it, if a right-click and "save picture as..." isn't working. Use your PrtScr key (usually on the upper right side of the keyboard) to take the screenshot, open your Paint or other image editing program and click "paste" which will bring the screenshot up for editing. Crop off all the extraneous junk, bring the margins in to the edge of the picture, and save the file as a JPEG. I do this all the time and it works very well. About the only time this doesn't work is if it is a very large picture that requires scrolling to view the whole thing.

An easier way is to save the page as a web page, then grab the picture out of the folder that saves along with it. Make sure you save it when the photo is blown up if it applies. If it opens in a new window without the "file" option on the window, downloading a browser called crazy browser will fix that, it will always open in a new tab.

oceanna, Amazon Marketplace is the place on Amazon.com where you buy and sell used books. You know on an Amazon item page where it says something like "87 used & new available from $4.89" with a clickable link? That takes you to Amazon Marketplace. I use it a lot because I'm too cheap to pay retail, I just can't see the point of spending $35 (most of these deco books are SO expensive!) for a book I can get for something like $6. I've been disappointed in the libraries in the last four towns I've lived in - one of the prices you pay for small-town living, I guess.

paint_chips, I have no idea what half-price.com is? I was referring to half.com, which is a non-bidding subsidiary of eBay that's pretty much all books and music. There's a lot of current stuff there as well as older things. Hamilton also has a surprising number of current books, more than one would expect of a remainders discounter.

I always found the rip-pages-out-of-magazines thing to be kind of messy and hard to organize even in binders - that is why I scan them. We needed a new printer and it was very nearly the same price for the all-in-one as it was for a plain printer, and it's been very much worth it to us for the copier function alone so I don't have to schlep off to Kinkos just to photocopy something! I can also scan my various inspiration-type pics from books without tearing apart the book (sacrilege!) or trying to remember which book has a certain picture. (I back them up on CD or a flash-drive every so often.) The standard setup of folders and subfolders makes it easier for me to keep track of what is where, and the thumbnail photos make it almost a no-brainer once you follow a logical cascade such as Home Decor -> Inspiration -> Kitchens -> Craftsman.

I've always had trouble with the tear-outs too. I know I'm gonna wreck a perfectly beautiful magazine and probably lose the darn photo forever, too. Post-it bookmarks and such -- too many things to note to really work for me. I've started scanning some of my favorites so it'll be easier to find them later. On the whole, though, scanning takes too long for my inspirational load :)