How To Use
The Scanner and Camera Wizard
in Windows XP
And Then Email The Scanned Item

Who Should Read This Page:

Anyone With A Scanner and Windows XP

Some printers come with scanning software which allows you to make many adjustments to something you've scanned; however, this software can be complicated and, at times, difficult to use.  For simple scans - like pictures, flyers and word documents which you do not want to edit, it's often best to use the built-in Windows Program - Scanner and Camera Wizard.  Here's how to use the program.

1)  Make sure your scanner is connected to your computer.

2)  In Windows XP, go to the START Menu and click on ALL PROGRAMS.  Next, go to ACCESSORIES.  On that menu, you should find "Scanner and Camera Wizard."  Click to activate the wizard.

3)  The wizard will first search for your scanner and when it successfully finds it, the following opening screen will appear:

Scan wizard

4)  After clicking the next button at the bottom of the screen, this is what you will see:

scan wizard 2

Notice on the left side you are asked to choose what type of scan you want, e.g., color picture, grayscale picture, etc.  In most cases, we have found that the best scan results come when you use the first choice - color picture, regardless of what you are scanning.

Once you have made your choice on the left, then click the PREVIEW button.

5)  The scanner will run and a preview will appear similar to the one pictured here.  Notice the dotted lines around the image - those lines can be moved to crop your image simply by using your mouse at any of the four sides - when the cursor turns to two arrows, you hold down the left mouse button and move the line where you want it.

Scan wizard 3

6)  Here's how we adjusted the dotted lines:

Scan wizard 4

7)  Once you are happy with the preview, click NEXT.  (By the way, if you aren't happy with how the preview looks, as an example, the scanned item is crooked on the scanner bed, you merely click BACK, adjust the item and hit preview again.)

8)  The following window will appear:

Scan wizard 5

The options which appear on this page are very important.  In number 1, you type a name for your scanned item.  In number 2, you select the format you want to save your item as.  Notice there is a small down arrow.  Click that for your options:

Scan wizard 6

Once you've chosen the format, go to item number 3: where do you want the scanned item to be stored.  You can use the BROWSE button to find the place on your computer for storage.

9)  Click NEXT.  After scanning your item and storing it as the format you wanted and in the place you requested, the following screen will show:

Scan wizard 7

10) Click NEXT.  The final screen of the wizard show.

Scan wizard 8

Notice that you can go directly to the scanned item by clicking the location listed on this window.  If you want to email your scanned item, click there.

11) In our example, we scanned a picture and placed it in "My Pictures."  After we click on the final screen shown above, we get a screen like this one:

Scan wizard 9

Two things to notice here: 1) the item we just scanned is outlined; and, 2) on the left side, there is an option "E-mail this file."

12)  Click "E-mail this file."

The following small window will pop up, usually in the upper left-hand corner of your screen:

Scan wizard 10

Generally speaking, it is best to choose the default option on this page which is to make all pictures smaller.

13) Click OK.  Your default email client will appear and you send an email as you normally do with the scanned item already attached.  Please not, if your email account is an online email like Yahoo, Hotmail, or G-mail, this method may not work - you may need to attach your scanned item directly instead of using the "E-mail this file" option shown above.

© 2013 Keystone Computer Concepts, Inc
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