Micosoft freebie does geotagging

Microsoft isn't often linked to free software, but that isn't the case with Pro Photo Tools. PPT is a neat program to introduce geotagging into your photographic repertoire. Here are some of the things it will do for you.

• It will take photos with GPS information attached to them and add to them location data--street address, city, state or region and country.
• It will take location information attached to a photo and add GPS coordinates to the picture.
• It can take route information from a GPS receiver, match it to the date and time data attached to a photo and create GPS information for the picture.

When you load a route into the program, it will appear as a green line on a map within the software. Then you select the photos that correspond to the route and the application will take GPS information from the images and place them in their correct locations along the green line. Pretty nifty stuff.

If all this GPS palaver is befuddling to you, you can simply drag a photo from your hard drive to the thumbnail palette in the program, fill in some location information and watch a "pushpin" of the photo appear on the application's map. When you roll your cursor over the pushpin, a thumbnail of the photo will be displayed.

Although I initially had difficulty setting up the program because it demanded that I install Microsoft .Net 3.0 before installing Pro Photo Tools, once I surmounted those problems, I found the application relatively intuitive to learn and fun to use. If you're interested in geotagging your photos, this offering from Microsoft is worth a tryout.