My wife is a casual point-and-shoot photographer who took many great
family photos on film over the years. Today she has a digital camera
and, while giving it a good shot initially, takes hardly any pictures
any more. The reason is that it is too difficult for her.

What? Too difficult, you say? Nonsense, digital is easy.

But it's not, you know. Not for people who are not that technical and
were brought up on film. Before, she would drop off the roll of film
at the store and a couple hours later have a bunch of pictures. But
now... all she has is files on a card.

How to transfer them to the computer?
For that matter, which computer? (We have more than one)
And her pix need to be kept separate from mine, or at least she should
be able to find hers back without too much trouble.
How to make the files smaller for easy emailing?
How to fix some color or brightness issues?
Oops, she just over-wrote the original with the edited version...
Now that she has edited the picture, where the heck is it so it can be
shared or emailed?
And how to get real pictures..? I mean prints.
How to back all those files up?

The main objective here is to end up with good looking prints like in
the olden days, and pictures that can be emailed, with the picture
files adequately protected for possible future use.

There are tons of image editing programs out there, Irfanview,
Photoshop, Elements, ACDSee, Picasa, Lightroom, Paintshop Pro, and
many many more.. plus the proprietary progs that came with the camera.
Is there any single one of them that will manage the whole digital
problem for my wife in a way that is relatively easy? Does she need a
couple maybe?

There is a pretty good learning curve for every program and she is
definitely not going to try more than one or a couple. So if you guys
could recommend one, that would be real useful. Cost is no object.

(And if there is a good solution, I might use it too!)

Suggestions appreciated.

Gordon