My version of PE is 2.0, an older version so it may have changed. But this is what I do.

1 open picture in PE (look at the title bar of the picture and it will tell you what % of full size image is currently displayed)
2 click on "image" on the menu
3 click on "resize" on the submenu that opens
4 click on "image size"

in the dialog box that opens, click into where it says pixels and change it to percent, then click into the box to the left of percent and change - I ususally use 15-17 percent. Then click "OK"

The image then becomes quite small on your screen. Go to "View" on the menu and click on "View Actual Pixels". This will show you the picture in its actual size.

Also when saving your file, be sure to do a "Save As" and change the name of the file so that you do not write over the original high quality picture. (I usually just add the word SMALL to the file name) After changing the name of the file and clicking OK, another dialog box will appear. I usually change to a quality to 4 in this dialog box, this will keep the physical size of the file quite small for posting.

Hope this helps. If you have further questions, I will try to help.
Marylu

Thank you so much! That was *excellent* help. Your posting the view of the menus showed me that my problem was I needed to check the "Resample Image" box and THAT was why the upper data was not "live" as it was in the instruction book that failed to mention that little important point.

Anyhoo, I have now successfully shrunk a photo, so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

So glad it worked for you. Can't wait to see the photos you post!

After resizing of course :-)