Katherine Murray

All the major Web-based email services have junk mail folders and spam filters that strain out obvious offenders. Categorizing messages and filtering out those you don’t want may help, but limits control. It would be nice just to tell your email program which messages you want to receive and when--and dump the rest. Windows Live Hotmail may be coming a step closer to that, with changes announced this week.

On the Inside Windows Live blog, Hotmail group program manager Dick Craddock said only 14 percent of the messages we receive are true person-to-person messages. The rest, which accounts for 75 percent of the mail we receive, is "graymail"--messages that you may or may not want. As part of the major Hotmail overhaul coming soon, users will be able to decide which graymail they want and which can be weeded out, making managing email flow easier.

Microsoft gave developers and the public the first in-depth preview of Windows 8 last week at its BUILD conference. Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live Division, delivered a fast-paced show full of color and connection, and wooed the audience with a free Windows 8 Samsung tablet loaded with the OS developer preview.

But as the pixie dust settles, unanswered questions emerge. What’s the big Windows 8 promise for small businesses? If you've upgraded to Windows 7 in the last year or so, what will make Windows 8 a must-buy decision (or not)?

With Microsoft's big BUILD conference right around the corner on September 12, people are buzzing about the Windows 8 news that's sure to come, and for the last couple of weeks, Microsoft has been parceling out information. So far, the features we’ve seen look colorful, fast, flashy, and flexible—but how much of a difference will they make for small business users?

Let's take a look at the Windows 8 features that have already been revealed and see what kind of an impact they could make--for better or for worse.

Sometimes you can wave a magic wand over a product and get just what you're looking for. When we reviewed iScrapbook 2.1.2 ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ) late last year, the program had many solid features-an easy-to-use interface, simple layouts, examples and templates, and enough flexibility and power to help you create cool effects for your digital scrapbook pages. Though the earlier version was a very good product in its own right, iScrapbook 3.0.4 skyrockets the software into a whole new realm by giving you a universe of free and enhanced templates, page and album designs, and artwork you can use to create your own great pages.

Many of the new features seem geared toward showering you with all the inspiration and visual assets you could ever want. Two of the biggest stars in the new feature lineup include Smart Templates and iScrapKits. Both of these elements help you build beautiful, compelling pages by providing page design and graphic elements-papers, frames, embellishments, and more-that add richness and texture to your pages. With the new version, you get free access to 16 complete iScrapkits. They are substantial, offering papers, embellishments, fonts, all kinds of items you might want for your pages. In the previous version, you could access the one iScrapkit that came with the program, but you had to buy anything else you wanted to use. This free access to professionally designed iScrapkits dramatically increases the design elements you can add to your pages.

In the Dr. Seuss book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, young Marco sees a simple horse-drawn wagon on his way home from school. As he thinks of a story to tell his dad about his day, he quickly weaves that single image into an epic adventure that includes an elephant, the mayor, a brass band, and an airplane dumping confetti all over the landscape. Talk about embellishment!

When you first begin designing a digital scrapbooking page, it all begins with an image that has some special resonance for you. Perhaps it's a great photo-a beautiful scene, great color, special lighting. Or maybe the photo captures something from a great day: winning first place at the chili cook off, watching your spouse cross the finish line in a triathlon, sharing a moment with friends or family as you watch a gorgeous sunset. You can use iPhoto '09 to browse through all the photos on your hard drive and choose the ones that have that special something or emotional spark. A great photo is the heart of your scrapbook page.

Maybe you've been experimenting with digital scrapbooking--a simple page here, some text and photos there--and you're thinking about ramping up your efforts and taking on a more creative project. Maybe your parents' 50th wedding anniversary is getting close, or you want to do something special to remember your trip to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Here are ten tips to help you bring a designer's eye to your pages.--

1. Know what you like. Keep your own scrapbook file folder or Internet folder of scrapbook pages you like. Notice the color scheme, the fonts used, the way embellishments are placed. Pay attention to small details and consider how the elements that jump out at you might add that special something to the pages you create.

Are there folders on your hard drive bulging with digital photos you never see? Perhaps you post one good photo on a blog, choose another one as a new profile picture, or e-mail a couple of good shots to friends and family. And maybe once in a while you print and frame a particularly meaningful photo. But most of your photos just sit on your computer or are stuck on your phone. Is that all you can do with the multitude of fine images you capture? Not at all: one option is to create a digital scrapbook that can showcase more of your pictures.

Digital scrapbooks differ from photo albums or photo sharing Websites because they enable us to tell the larger story behind a featured snapshot. By choosing a color scheme for the page background, a certain type of font for the text, and adding special creative touches (called embellishments in digital scrapbooking lingo), you can create a richer context for the photos you share. For example, you might create a series of scrapbooking pages about that great afternoon at the lake, using page backgrounds with blues or greens to evoke the feeling of the water and the shore, a relaxed, playful font for the text that reflects a friendly mood, and embellishments like water droplets or flowers to enhance the overall effect.

So you've just snapped some great pictures of your new puppy and you want to do something special with them. You could use your favorite photo editing tool--like Photoshop ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice ) or iPhoto ( Macworld rated 4 out of 5 mice )--to fix the color brightness and crop out the background noise, but then what? When you want to turn a good photo into a great story, PrintMaster Platinum 2.0 helps you put one or many of your favorite photos into an inviting layout that you can share easily with friends and family.

I review the Platimun version of this program, but there are two other less expensive versions that have similar capabilities: PrintMaster Gold (for $20) is essentially a starter kit with just the essential page layout features, while PrintMaster Express ($30), which offers a limited number of templates, is available for download only. While you may be happy for the wide range of assets that ship with the Platinum version, be aware that your hard drive will pay the price to the tune of 22GB.

Your photos are the centerpiece of your digital scrapbooking pages, giving your friends and family a sense of what you felt that day. The vibrant colors, the light on the faces, or the majesty of the landscape all tell aspects of the story you capture on the page.

Use an artist's eye to choose your photos. Think about the way you usually look through your photos. If you're a parent, you may look through photos of your kids with a sense of love and maybe laughter--enjoying the smiles, remembering specific moments. But when you're choosing the images for your scrapbooking page, concentrate on using your artist's eye. This means looking for photos that show the central image clearly and have a vibrant crispness. You choose a photo that includes the kids, but also offers an interesting angle, a pleasing light, or another distinguishing feature that brings color, visual interest, or lightness and humor to the mix.

The great thing about creating a digital scrapbooking page is that there's almost no limit to the ideas you can try. And with a little thought, you can easily go from digital to printed pages and back again. Here are some tips on preparing your scrapbooking page for printing, as well as ideas for scanning your traditional pages and using elements from the pages in your other projects.

From digital to print

These days, we can view and share photos almost as fast as we can capture them. With a quick click of a button, your photos can be stored and sent to friends, relatives, and social media sites. This type of image sharing is fun and fast-and everywhere-but for special occasions you may want to be able to tell a story with more color, creativity, energy, and style. Digital scrapbooking-creating electronic scrapbook pages you can share-gives you the best of both worlds, letting you gather favorite images quickly and then using them to create a layout that tells the larger story in a rich and meaningful way.

iRemember 2.5.1 is a digital scrapbooking program that is designed to help you gather, fine-tune, and share your favorite images in customizable page layouts that you can tailor to create a story larger than a single photo can tell. You can combine your favorite photos with other design elements-page backgrounds, clip art, formatted text, and more-to craft vibrant pages that showcase your pictures.

We've all heard that every picture tells a story, but as we amass digital photos from our cameras, cell phones, and friends, sooner or later that narrative starts to get lost. One easy and fun solution is to use some of your favorite photos--the ones that evoke meaningful memories--as the basis for digital scrapbooking pages you can share.

iScrapbook 2.1.2 from Chronos is a digital scrapbooking program that brings high-quality design, easy layouts, and a seemingly unlimited supply of scrapbooking bits and inspiration to your desktop as you create pages. You can showcase photos and artwork in a professional layout and add captions and stories to the pages. You can also include other small items (called embellishments) such as ticket stubs, sea shells, buttons, and brads that add to the lifelike quality of your pages.