Automate photo uploads: Depending on which photo management software and online photo services you prefer, you may be able to upload new pictures automatically. LiveUpload to Facebook can publish from Windows Live Gallery, while Picasa can post anything you put in a Picasa Web Album on the Picasa Website. If you favor Flickr, try Foldr Monitr, which can watch a specific folder for newly added images and post them to your Flickr account. (For more on automating your media collection, see "Automate Your PC's Media Library.")
Tag photos from Windows: If you have a lot of photos on your PC, you'll probably want to organize them with a photo gallery app (such as Windows Live Photo Gallery or Picasa). But if you don't want to deal with an extra application, you can use Windows 7's built-in metadata support to maintain order among your photos by means of descriptive tags ("Kids" or "Vacation," for example). Just select the pictures in Windows Explorer, click Show More Details... at the bottom of the open window, click Tags, and type the tags you want to use (separate multiple tags with semicolons). Once you've tagged your photos, you can search for them by placing "tag:" in front of your search string.
Windows Notepad, Calculator, and Paint Tips
Notepad, Calculator, and Paint aren't the flashiest apps around, but they do have a few embedded secrets. Use these tips to get a little more use out of the accessories that come with every Windows installation; and don't forget to check out a few potential upgrades.
These tricks can come in handy when you need access to features typically found in higher-end apps that aren't on everyone's PC. Photoshop and Excel are great, but if you're on a friend's PC, Paint and Calculator just might save your bacon.
Track time with Notepad: Type .LOG (in all-capital letters) on the first line of a Notepad document, and Notepad will automatically stamp the current date and time in the doc every time you open it--handy for logging events or notes.
Use the new Calculator: Microsoft gave the humble calculator a makeover in Windows 7. Not only does the updated app have four different settings (Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and Statistics), but you can use new worksheets to calculate gas mileage, mortgage payments, and leasing prices, or to convert units of measure.
Switch to watercolors: Paint in Windows 7 includes a few new brushes that can add artistic effects to your scribbles. The Crayon brush leaves a bumpy, uneven texture; the Watercolor paintbrush introduces lighter streaks; and the Oil paintbrush has a notably thicker texture. Also, the Watercolor and Oil brushes will run out of paint if you hold down the mouse button for a particularly long stroke; click again to reload them.
Edit pixel-by-pixel in Paint: Need a little more precision in your Paint editing? Turn on the grid by pressing Ctrl-G. You'll need to zoom in to about 600% before the grid will show individual pixels.
Upgrade Your PC's Accessories
Windows' built-in accessories are nice, but eventually you may want something more. If so, check out these apps, which pack more useful features while managing to stay svelte.
Notepad++ is Notepad for advanced text wranglers. Most of the features in this application are aimed at people who work with raw code--Notepad++ supports HTML, XML, JavaScript, .ini files, and various flavors of C, among other languages and formats--but the tabbed document displays, macros, and in-document bookmarking features are useful for anyone who regularly works with plain text.
ZuluPad, on the other hand, focuses on the "note" side of the Notepad feature set. With ZuluPad (the Basic version is free; the Pro version costs US$15), you can pull in images, automatically link to your other notes while you type, and even sync your ZuluPad documents online.
Paint.net is a lightweight paint program that has been around forever--and with good reason. It's much more capable than Microsoft Paint (which falls short of most people's image-editing needs), and yet at the same time it's smaller and easier to use than professional-caliber applications such as Adobe Photoshop Elements and GIMP.