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Have you seen the hilarious video of the airliner landing on the I-405 freeway in Los Angeles? You would have if you had attended the recent Rotary club meeting I spoke at. I've used videos and images in my presentations for years, and I've uncovered some great tools for finding and managing them.

I really enjoy viewing things that make me laugh out loud. And after over 20 years running a user group, I know that showing a funny video or image grabs an audience by the collar. But more important than simply getting attention, pictures go a long way in helping to get your point across.

At the Rotary club, I used "405: The Movie" to show why some PCs can't play certain videos. (It's usually a codec problem.) Another example: To explain her job in risk management, my friend Elaine sprinkles her PowerPoint presentations with images of workers standing on three stacked buckets to paint a ceiling and doing other amazingly risky things. To see some yourself, peruse the U.S. Navy Safety Center's spellbinding collection of accident photos.

To import images in PowerPoint, choose Insert, Picture, From File, browse to and select the image, and click Insert. Or just drag and drop the photos into your presentation. For videos, select Insert, Movies and Sounds, and then click either Movie from File or Sound from File. To make a photo album fast, click Insert, Picture, New Photo Album, choose File/Disk, and navigate to and select the pictures you want to import. Click Insert, and the images load automatically with your moniker and "Photo Album" on the first slide.

I've accumulated a mountain of images and videos (my wife calls me Steve "Pack Rat" Bass). Good thing I've also accumulated a satchel full of tricks and free tools that help me find and manage them.

Picture Power

If I'm looking for a specific image, I use Google's Advanced Image Search site. It's remarkably comprehensive, if you use it correctly. Searching for long phrases doesn't do well, but searches for single words give you too many responses. As Goldilocks might say, experiment to get it just right. For instance, if you're looking for an image of a rotary phone, "phone" is too broad and "rotary phone" is better, but "vintage rotary phone" (entered in the 'related to all of the words' field) is best.

To avoid objectionable images, click use strict filtering under SafeSearch. If you have a Web site and don't want it included in Google's Image Search, you can remove it.

I use a supercool freebie called Picasa for viewing, editing, and managing my image files. The spyware-free download is handy for cropping, rotating, red-eye removal, and other minor changes, and it prints and e-mails images. It also helps you manage and view your videos: Click Tools, Options, File Types, and check Movies.

A Google search for "funny video" brings up roughly 5 million site links (I was expecting at least 100 trillion). Fair warning: Many of the sites offer videos as a way to coerce you into buying something, or as a ploy to get your e-mail address. Some of the sites have adult humor, while many others get your attention (and maybe your goat) with pop-ups. I use Google's Toolbar to block 'em--get your copy. And try StupidVideos.com, a (mostly) safe video site.

You may find a Web site with a single video or image you want to quickly download. If you click the link, your browser opens the image or sends the video to your player. Instead, right-click the link (or the image), choose Save Picture As (or Save as), navigate to the folder you keep your images in, and click Save.

To download several large files at once, try the free FlashGet utility from Amaze Software--it scarfs up ten such files at a time. (Pay $30 to remove ad banners and shareware reminders from the program.) A freebie that's almost as good is FreshDevices' Fresh Download. Get the picture?

Contributing Editor Steve Bass is the author of PC Annoyances, published by O'Reilly. Contact him at homeoffice@pcworld.com.