Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 is an easy to learn and easy to use collection of powerful organizational and amazing photo editing tools. It is a complete solution for finding, organizing, editing, and creating projects with your digital photos. It feels like magic when editing your pictures. Included is Photo Story 3 which allows you to create a video from your photos. Along with all this are thousands of templates you can use to satisfy your creative urge. There also is a print wizard which allows you to export selected photos directly to your favorite retailer to be printed and later picked up by you. This acquire, organize, edit, share, archive, create, and print program requires Windows XP, ME, 2000, or 98 operating system. It also needs 500 MB of hard disk space as well as 256 MB of RAM - 512 is recommended. Internet Explorer 6.0 is necessary and included. Quad speed or higher CD-Rom drive, super VGA monitor, 800 x 600, 16 bit color or better, are needed. It is compatible with most cameras, printers, scanners, and storage devices. The program installed very easily. You also need a magnifying glass to read the above information from the side of the box.

It comes on three compact disks, which include Photo Story 3. Photo Story 3 is also a free download from Microsoft. The suite costs approximately $39 to $89 with rebates. Microsoft's address is: Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond WA 98052-6399 USA.

The most confusing problem when working with your photos is finding them. Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 solves this. It is a powerful digital photo organizer providing fast photo entry together with powerful and flexible retrieval. Open MS Digital Library 10 and you can import your photos from a camera, compact disk, thumb drive or any removable media. Pictures in your My Pictures Folder and from any folder on your hard drive are automatically added to the Library. You can then view your pictures by date, by folder, by keyword, and by flags. The pictures can be viewed as thumbnails or as a full screen slide show.

One of the most powerful ways to organize and later select your pictures is to add keywords. Pictures can be saved using Keywords according to how they will be used. You create your own Keywords to identify the subjects of your photos, e.g.; family, animal, scenery, email, - your choice. You can add multiple keywords to one picture, and add simultaneously the same keyword to multiple pictures. There are six flags included with the keywords. They allow you to flag pictures to later review, touchup, share, print, and two miscellaneous choices. Keywords and flags can be added to pictures in the thumbnail view and the slide show view.

Now for the fun part. Pictures usually need some editing. Microsoft Digital Image Pro handles this job. Red eyes need to be removed, pictures can be lightened or darkened and color can be added or removed. This can be automatically done or manually accomplished. Extraneous objects - even people - can be removed or added. Pictures can be rotated and resized if necessary, even distorted. Borders and frames can be added. You can choose from 200 filters to artistically modify your photos. You can easily add text. Batch editing is a plus and will save you time.

I like the intelligent panoramic stitching. It is just amazing. You can use any number of related pictures and the program will place them together horizontally and vertically to create a panorama view of all the pictures. You can express your creative self by doing photo projects. You have a choice of thirteen projects. Some are calendars, cards, flyers/brochures, labels/stickers, postcards, albums and scrapbooks. Included are thousands of templates you can use with your photos.

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 comes with a hardcopy manual. Step-by-step guides show you exactly how to accomplish a specific task. Many of them are visual with screen shots or graphics showing you as well as telling you. Others are simply written steps. There is a product tour that automatically launches after installation. In addition other support options are available - Online FAQ, searchable Knowledge Base, User Manual, User Forum, andtechnical support that comes free for a limited time after your purchase.

The product website is very helpful. There are many online photo printing services available. This software can export your photos directly to these companies for printing and later pickup and retrieval. I recommend this program to first time users. It is easy to learn and fun to use. Professionals could also benefit from this program with its comprehensive array of powerful editing tools.