Hi Linda. I am using a photo editor to resize the pictures. The one I am using is corel but I suppose they all do the same thing.I resizt them to under 900 pixles. About the freeze, whenever I have a freeze problem, support always tells me to delete the temp. internet files and the cookies. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. I'm self taught too as you can probably tell, but I'm a stubborn yankee Happy Easter to you too and God Bless......Gary