Now that you've scanned all your old family photos and genealogical documents, here's a simple way to keep them organized in folders on your computer or in cloud storage. When your stuff is well-organized, it will be so much easier to make a genealogy book or upload to a website.

I use a color-coded filing method (developed by Mary Hill) for all my genealogical paper. I've been happily using this simple, logical method for years, so I have transferred the same method to my computer system. Here's how I did it.

We've all heard the adage, "you can't judge a book by its cover." That's a great philosophy, metaphorically speaking, but when it comes to actual, literal books -- we do judge, to a great degree, the worthiness of what's inside by the cover design.

Rewarding though it surely is, writing your life stories takes a lot of time and effort. You want your stories to be read and enjoyed after all that work. So it's important to put some thought into what you want the cover of your book to look like. It should be immediately interesting and not too complicated, inviting the reader to open the cover and discover more.

When it comes to JPEG compression, there's really only one thing to know:

Compression = BAD. Avoid it at all costs.

Now, there are those who will disagree with this statement: web designer geeks out there trying to make things load super fast for people with slow dial-up connections and they don't much care what the pictures look like.

But that's not you. You are a regular Joe/Jane who is going to make a photo book from your vacation pics or put a few scans in your personal history. So for your purposes, I'm going to show you how to NOT ruin your photos.