Merrimack Online stores photos in a file format known as JPEG (for Joint Photographic Experts Group).  As such, these files are already efficiently compressed.  The files in their original format can  be opened by nearly every program like Microsoft Works, Word, Powerpoint, or any photoediting software you might have.

To get the pictures from your browser (usually AOL, Netscape, or Microsoft Internet Explorer) you can usually click on the picture (select it) and then select "file>>save as".  Save the files to your hard disk, then later open your favorite word processor (such as Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Works) or graphics application (We like to use Microsoft Powerpoint or MGI Photosuite) and insert the file you have saved.

AOL likes to compress pictures into a proprietary format called "ART".  Very few other programs can open these files, so you can't see the pictures once you've downloaded them, except by running AOL software.  This is frustrating for those of you who would like to print the pictures you see here, because AOL's software doesn't let you do much with the pictures.
 

You can make AOL stop reformatting the pictures, and it won't take any more time to download them. 

If you are using AOL 6.0, 
(1) Start up AOL, but you don't need to go online.
(2) Find the "Settings" tab on the menu bar. 
(3) Select "Preferences", then "Internet Properties (WWW)". 
(4) Find the  Web Graphics tab.  Select "Never Compress Graphics".
 

For those of you still using AOL 5.0,
(1) Start up AOL, but you don't need to go online.
(2)  Select "My AOL" from the menu bar, and pick "Preferences" from the drop down menu.
(3) Click on "WWW"
(4) Click on the Web Graphics  tab
(5) Uncheck the "use compressed graphics" box.

From now on you will be able to save the files directly from the web and use other software to print those you like