So you have a digital camera. Point, click and save. Very easy. But then you have to figure out how to upload images to the Web so you can share them with friends and family. And then you realize that you probably need some kind of cataloguing system, keeping related photos together. And then you miss your old 35mm and the photo albums in which you kept your favorite pictures.

If this sounds like you, check out FlipBook 4.0 for Windows. The $49 program (also downloadable as trialware from http://www.flipalbum.com/) creates a realistic-looking photo album on your screen, complete with 3-D pages that "flip" while you browse the pictures.

To include photos in your virtual album, set the program to open an image folder on your hard disk, and it quickly assembles your collection into a browsable album, complete with an index and a table of contents. You can view this album whenever you want (of course, the pages will never turn yellow, and you won't damage this album by spilling coffee all over it) or send it as an e-mail attachment or upload it to the Web. As FlipAlbum has a proprietary (that is, not straight HTML) format, your friends and family will need to download the free FlipBrowser from the same site to view your pictures.

You can also add sound effects, so you can hear the pages turn, and customize the display with "skins," borders, and clipart downloadable from FlipAlbum's site, as long as you're a registered user. The more photos -- and pages -- you add to your album, the thicker it'll appear. The realistic aspect of this product is stunning and should satisfy novices as well as war horses who are tired of creating HTML pages and uploading them whenever there's a new baby or puppy to show off.

There's also a page annotation tool (for example, "Summer 2001 roadtrip"), and you can create captions ("Clara in Yosemite, 6 months old") for individual photos.

Beware the PIF worm

With all the talk about dangerous e-mail attachments, it's surprising (actually, quite embarrassing) that one type of file has been flying under the radar for so long. If you remember, I've pointed out numerous times in this column that you should never open attachments that have the extensions .EXE, .COM, .BAT and .VBS, but here's another file format that should raise a red flag as soon as you see it as an attachment: PIF (personal information file), a Windows configuration file is just as dangerous, and becoming increasingly so.

One example is the PIF.Fable.Worm, which propagates itself via mIRC (an Internet chat program) and the Outlook address book.

This virus is usually called FABLE.PIF, and the e-mail subject line reads "Fable," "Something You Should Read" or "Very Important That You Receive This."

"Fable" creates several batch files in the root directory and the Windows folder, adds some Registry entries, and replaces the Registry editor (Regedit).

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, go to www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sircam.worm@mm.removal.tool.html to find out which Registry entries to remove, which files to delete, and how to reinstate Regedit. Otherwise, make sure your antivirus software is up to date, or check http://www.symantec.com/ or http://www.mcafee.com/ for a cleanup tool.

Yael Li-Ron has been writing about computers and the Internet for 15 years. A former magazine editor and the co-author of several how-to books, these days she keeps busy as a freelance writer and a user-interface consultant to software developers. Reach her through her site, http://www.tipx.com/