# Importing Vs. Copying Media



## lce_123 (Apr 20, 2007)

is there a difference between "importing" pics from an external device and copying/cutting pics from an external device? or is "importing" just a special way of giving nontechnical individuals a wizard that helps move/copy pics from there external device? is this the same from videos as well?


----------



## fairnooks (Oct 1, 2007)

Importing gives the program doing the importing time to offer a little more input and hand-holding maybe. Picasa3 for instance will index everthing it sees on a flashcard and let a person know what, if any of the photos were already imported, so I don't have to keep track of that; and for the ones that are new, the import window also lets one enter a file name and pathway to save them into, so I don't have to do that step beforehand and seperately. A few other little addon perks here and there. My Mom does indeed understand the import process much better than creating a folder where it's wanted and copy and pasting directly. Not so sure about video but if it comes from the same types of sources, sure, why not?


----------



## Hughv (Jul 22, 2006)

In addition, "Importing" or "Acquiring" is the only way I know of to get images from a scanner.


----------



## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Importing is where you are using some program that is well aware of where you place the images. So the next time you use THAT program and you want to see your images then those imported images are easily accessible.

When you copy the images over then it is you who must figure out, and remember where, you put the images. Your programs are not necessarily aware of where you placed any of your images, unless you tell it to search for them (like with Picasa).

Otherwise the overall task is the same.

Too often I have seen people copy over images or other files, and not pay attention to where they placed them. They just clicked the [OK] button, and not paid attention to the file explorer default locations. The import process generally avoids that.


----------

