Entering world of Digital SLR photography - please help!

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35mm film photography was so straightforward, but I'm finally moving into the 21 century and going digital. I want to start off on the right foot but am feeling daunted by the technology.
Should I shoot in JPeg or RAW?
Do I need anything special for keeping my pics on the PC? Is the My Pictures bit of Windows XP where I should store my photos - or is there another piece of software I should be using just for storing them?
Any good tips on not getting in a muddle with the files on computer?
There are different choices for numbering the pics on the camera - is it best to use the option that goes from 1 - 9999 even if you change the card?
Eventually I'd like to edit photos with Photoshop type thing - anyone got tips on what programmes are good - is the cheaper basic version of Photoshop good?
Camera arriving soon, point me in the right direction!

Oh, and is it true that if you shoot in RAW you can't send your photos off to get printed? That can't be right can it?
And on that subject, where's a good place to get photos printed up?
Thanks again!

Little darling, every pic I ever take is about 800 kb (???) and I can never send more than 3 or 4 attached to an email because they take forever to upload and sometimes can't be opened the other end or crash the recipient's inbox or something.

Is there any (easy, idiot-proof) way round this please?

You lost me at "Right click on the filename in Explorer"

Ooooh, no, I just did it!!!!

We have Microsoft Office Picture manager, assume that's the same thing? And then "predefined widthxheight"? Is that the way?

So I make them smaller and then save? And in the (unlikely) event I want to get them printed, I make them big again and send them to photobox or whoever?

Coo, that is really quite easy, thank you, Little - you are clever!

My friend's DH's camera automatically creates a folder using the date pics were taken in format 2008-04-03 and uploads the pics to it. I've started doing that with mine, altho I have to create the folder.

I upload everything using Picasa which also puts them into a folder in My Pictures and then I transfer the best ones to Picasa web albums to a) share with friends/family b) ensure there is a back up copy.

I am still trying to make the move to digital SLR though.

Paint Shop Pro is not bad, and you can usually find somewhere to download it for free.

You know, i've never read the manual for my DSLR, so I presume I just shoot in jpeg on the highest setting.

I always use Tesco to print mine as I used to work in one of their labs before I had Tom and moved to Scotland!

I was asked to take photos of a couple I know. I took my film SLR and DSLR and I way prefer my film camera to the digital. It just felt nicer in my hands. They are both Canons. EOS 55 & EOS 350d. Then again, I do also have a EOS 300 film camera as well, and the 55 is still way better. It's my preferred camera for doing Wedding photos.

All the photos on my profile are taken with the digital, except the top one. I can't wait to move somewhere bigger and have all my darkroom stuff out again!

I love the photo of your LO above the toast one.

The washing machine one is funny.

LL your thoughts re Picasa q interesting. Our getting old PC is starting to struggle.

On another point - Do you think mumsnet profile does justice to your pics? Don't they get re-jigged on upload? I've just uploaded some selected pics taken by me and DD (then 9yo or 10yo I think) on a compact Pentax Optio which is at the stage of making weird whirring noises and I don't think they look too bad.

But I know this camera has problems because when I was working at school I took lots of pics to use and the building went bendy due to curvature of the lens.

I generally shoot in RAW and only convert/resize them for friends/family.

Photoshop/iPhoto for fiddling around with them and iPhoto for storing/managing them on my mac.

Converted from RAW to JPG b&W image of my small monkey in my profile in a couple of minutes..

or rather there won't be a picture because file uploading seems to be broken...

500 Servlet Exception

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.nio.ch.FileChannelImpl
at java.io.FileInputStream.getChannel(FileInputStream.java:296)
at net.mumsnet.util.FileUtils.copyFile(FileUtils.java:116)
at net.mumsnet.util.FileUtils.copyFile(FileUtils.java:141)
at com.mumsnet.member.MemberImageUploader.loadFileWithCos(MemberImageUploader.java:188)
at com.mumsnet.common.AuthenticatedPage.loadData(AuthenticatedPage.java:68)
at com.mumsnet.common.CommonBasePage.doRequestHandling(CommonBasePage.java:193)
at com.mumsnet.common.CommonBasePage.handleRequest(CommonBasePage.java:212)
at org.apache.velocity.tools.view.servlet.VelocityViewServlet.doRequest(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.velocity.tools.view.servlet.VelocityViewServlet.doPost(Unknown Source)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:154)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:92)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletFilterChain.doFilter(ServletFilterChain.java:103)
at com.caucho.server.webapp.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:167)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletInvocation.service(ServletInvocation.java:226)
at com.caucho.server.hmux.HmuxRequest.handleRequest(HmuxRequest.java:424)
at com.caucho.server.port.TcpConnection.run(TcpConnection.java:477)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool$Item.runTasks(ThreadPool.java:591)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool$Item.run(ThreadPool.java:513)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

Sorry about that - we'll have a look at this over the weekend.

ooh thanks for all these replies - fab photos too! Will try to digest all of this. I've got the new Canon 450d. The screen is awesome and liveview is cool, even though I won't really use it. It's really really fabulous and I don't even know what I'm doing yet! I've discovered you can't shoot in RAW on any of the automatic programs anyway and I think when I'm in the "creative shooting modes" I'll do RAW and Jpeg, covering both bases and using up lots of card into the bargain.
I still think I'm confused about how and where to store photos - if I get a software package, do my photos still get stored in My Pictures in Windows?