How to download Microsoft office picture manager

Picture Manager is Microsoft's answer to simple image editing and organisation, and can handle most basic user needs when playing around with digital photographs. Here is how to get your hands on Picture Manager, and also some very worthy alternatives.

Downloading MS Picture Manager

Unfortunately, it is not possible to download MS Picture Manager as a standalone product, as it comes bundled with the MS Office suite and has done ever since Office 2003. How to install it? If you have Office 2003 or later, you will have the Microsoft image manager on the installation CDs. To install it, go to your control panel, select "Add or Remove Programs", choose Microsoft Office and click the "Change" button. Select "Add or Remove Features", click next and put a check next to "Choose advanced optimisation of applications". Click next, and scroll down to the bottom of the list on the next page. Expand the "Office Tools" category and you should see Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Click on the drop-down and choose "Run from My Computer". Click "Update" to begin the installation. Buying Office 2003 or later If you have not already got Office 2003 or later, you can buy and download the entire suite online from the Microsoft website. This will come with the Windows picture manager.

Free alternatives

There are some great free photo managers available as alternatives to the Office image software. Picasa One in particular, Picasa from Google, is packed with features which make MS Picture Manager seem antiquated. It is lightweight too, which means it will start and process quickly, without taking up too much CPU time. As one would expect from a Google application, images can be tagged, geo-tagged and uploaded to the Internet at the click of a button. Picasa can even help you organise images by who is in them, as well as the usual folder-based structuring. The basic fixes are great for erasing those unsightly blemishes, and there are loads of effects for jazzing up your snaps. IrfanView IrfanView is another freeware alternative which has a good reputation. It has been around for quite some time now. However, its low memory footprint means it is a favourite of anyone who wants to view images quickly and without long load times. You can also expand the functionality of IrfanView with some very advanced plug-ins, making it an unexpected choice for power users. For example, there is a plug-in which allows IrfanView to play flash animations, and another which turns it into an FTP client for uploading images to the web.