$(cpicName) Help - Picture CD

's Picture CD creation tool allows you to effortlessly create Photodex Picture CDs complete with imaging software right on the CD. The Picture CD tool takes any number of selected files in any number of folders and burns them directly to a CD recorder, including software to view and manage the files from the CD-Rom. | --></phtml>

What is a Photodex Picture CD? A Photodex Picture CD is a CD-Rom that contains content (pictures), with all the software needed to view, manage, edit, share and use that content.

A Photodex Picture CD is more than just a disk full of images - is a complete package for working with content, all on CD-Rom.

Creating a Picture CD What You'll Need
In order to make a Photodex Picture CD, you need only a few things:

- A CD recorder (CDR). This special type of CD-Rom drive can
  write CD-Roms as well as read them.

- A blank CD-Rom. You'll need some blank CDs to create your
  Photodex Picture CDs on. You can find a variety of blank
  CDR media at your local computer store.

- Free space. You will need enough free hard drive space to store
  the temporary CD image file. This file is about the size of
  any content you are placing on the CD plus the size of the
  template directory.

Selecting the Content
Once you've got the right tools, you're just a few clicks away from having a Picture CD. You'll need to tell which files you'd like to include on the Picture CD. You can do this by simply selecting those files in the File List.

You can place any number of files on a Photodex Picture CD (you are limited only by the amount of space on the CD). You can even use files in different directories. Just select the directories which contain content you'd like to use in the Folder List, the select the files to include in the File List. will determine the most efficient way to recreate the directory structure on your Picture CD.

Creating the Picture CD
Once you have the desired content selected, you're ready to begin creating your Photodex Picture CD.

| 1. | Open the Picture CD dialog. Select Write Picture CD from the Picture CD/Floppy menu under File.
| 2. | Select the CD recorder to use for this Picture CD. If you have only one CDR in your computer, it will be selected by default.
| 3. | Specify the title for the Picture CD.
| 4. | Change any other options. Other options can easily be left at their default, or changed as desired (these are discussed in more detail below).
| 5. | Click 'Create Picture CD' to start the recording process. Be sure you have a blank CD in your CDR drive.

The amount of time needed to record a Picture CD will depend on the amount of content you are placing on the Picture CD. By default, the CD tray will open when the Picture CD creation process is complete.

Picture CD Options There are several options in the Picture CD dialog which allow you to customize how your Photodex Picture CD is created.

CD Writer Selection
The CD writer selection allows you to choose which CDR on your machine you would like to use for creating your Photodex Picture CD. supports writing up to 64 Picture CDs simultaneously - meaning you can write as many Picture CDs at once as you have drives to write them with.

CD Volume Name (Title)
The title of the CD will appear in many programs which might be used to read the CD, such as or Windows Explorer.

CD Template Directory
The CD template directory is used to specify the location of the 'master' for the Picture CD. Any files and folders contained in the template directory will be included along with the content on the CD. If you would like to use the default template, simply leave this option at it's default setting. To use your own CD template, point this option at the directory which contains the files you'd like to include.

CD Image Temporary Location
When creating a Picture CD, must create a temporary copy of final CD structure. This option allows you to specify where the temporary copy will be stored. Once the CD is completed, this temporary file will be deleted automatically. You must specify a location with free space greater than the size of the data you are placing on the disk.

Approximate Space Required
This area is not an option, but is included for your own information. In this area, will estimate the amount of space on the CD that will be used by the content you've selected. Note: the size of the master template files is not included in this total.

Joliet File System
Joliet is a standard for CD files currently supported by Windows 98/95 and some Linux systems. Joliet allows for up to 64 character filenames, but is still as part of the ISO-9660 standard.

Use Mode 2 (XA)
Mode 2 is an extended architecture specification for CD-Roms. Mode 2 allows for extra error correction information to be stored on the disk for high performance needs. Mode 2 is not commonly used for standard computing applications.

Support Long Filenames
Enables support for filenames longer than eight characters.

No Filename Version Numbers
Prevents file version numbers from being included on the disk.

Close Session
When information is burned onto a CD-Rom, it is done as a 'session.' By closing the session, you are finalizing the disk. CDs which have open sessions may not be readable by some CD-Rom drives.

Eject When Complete
When checked, this option will cause the new Picture CD to be ejected from the drive when the recording process is complete.

Test CD Writer (Doesn't Write)
When running in test mode, every step of creating a Picture CD is performed except for the actual recording. This allows you to ensure that everything is working properly without using up any CD-Rom media.

Using Picture CDs Using a Photodex Picture CD is very simple. With the default configuration, a Photodex Picture CD is created with three pieces of software:

- Autorun - This small program runs automatically on most computers when the Picture CD is loaded in the CD-Rom drive. From this startup screen, a user can run either of the other two programs, or get information about using the Picture CD.

- CompuPic - The standard version of CompuPic included on a Photodex Picture CD will allow a user to view the content on that CD.

- Photodex Photo Viewer- The Photodex Photo Viewer is a small, easy to use image browser and viewer which runs on Windows 3.x. The Photo Viewer provides only basic viewing and editing functions. Note: The basic viewer can only be used when all images placed on the CD come from a single source directory on your computer.

Related Topics:

- Selecting Files