Hi Carol Ann,
On the hunt for a clicker, eh? Maybe these pages will help. I found them all by Googling "digital camera buying guide"
This site is good; it has many side-by-side tests and comparisons that I find very useful:
The Imaging Resource
The following is also a site I recommend for beginners. Please note, Carol Ann, that it has a few pages:
Cnet's Digital Camera Buying Guide
Once you've learned a little bit about the various features of digital cameras, you can go to this site to find one that has those features that you want or need:
Digital Photography Review's Buying Guide Search Engine
Here's another useful site (that also extends for a few pages):
PC Magazine's Digital Camera Comparison Chart ($200-$300)
As Donna said, I think the prime consideration should be resolution and memory capacity. My camera, for example, is an older Canon PowerShot G2 with a 4.0 Megapixel resolution and a 1 Gigabyte removable memory card I purchased separately. Just to give you an idea of what this combination can do, here's a little chart:
At its lowest resolution setting (SMALL=640x480 pixels), its highest data compression setting (H), and in .jpeg format, I can store 8,663 low-resolution photos on my card. These photos aren't really meant for the printer, though, as they pixelate quite easily.
At its highest resolution setting (LARGE=2272x1704 pixels), its lowest data compression setting (L), and still in .jpeg format, I can store 477 high-quality, professional printer-ready photos.
In .raw format (the most uncompressed digital photo format possible), I can store 336 photos on my card. These photos are ready to be processed through the most sophisticated photo manipulation software available, as they're in extremely high resolution. However, not all user-friendly imaging software (such as Picasa, for example) can handle the .raw format. The most widely used format remains .jpeg because it compresses the digital data enough to enable people to transmit their photos to others over the internet without losing too much image quality in the process.
A word about pixels and megapixels.
A pixel is a unit of measurement that refers to an image's resolution. The word is a contraction of "picture element." A pixel is the basic building block of digital images. If you want to see what resolution does, try this little experiment:
Assuming you're using a Windows PC, right-click on any free area of your desktop; in the pop-up menu, select
Properties; on the window that appears, select the
Settings tab; find the
Screen Resolution box and move the slider to the left (in other words, lower your screen resolution, say, from 800x600 pixels to 480x640 pixels) and click
OK (make sure you slide it to the left, not to the right--your graphics card may not be able to support higher resolutions and you may crash your display, requiring a computer restart); your screen will now be in a lower resolution. Every icon on your desktop will appear a little bigger but also a little more fuzzy (check out the icons in the taskbar's tray area, too--they now look like crap)... low resolution = low quality image. This happens because there are now less pixels to work with in a given square inch of your screen. If you do the math, an 800x600 pixel display has a total of 480,000 pixels whereas a 480x640 pixel display has only 307,200 pixels. In order to regain your original screen resolution, just repeat the procedure, but this time sliding the bar to the right, back to its original position.
The point of all this is to illustrate what pixels are and what resolution means. Digital cameras work in exactly the same way. The higher the number of pixels it can "capture" when you take a photo, the better the quality and sharpness of that photo will be. In my case, as I said, I have a 4 Megapixel camera (mega = "million") so that means my camera can process a total of 4,000,000 pixels whenever I take a photo. You should be able, given your price range, Carol Ann, to find a 4, and possibly a 5, Megapixel camera with a few extra features, to boot.
As a person with some printing experience, you're no doubt aware that print shops usually require that .jpeg files handed to them have at least 275 or 300 ppi (or pixels per inch) in order for the printed product to come out as clear and as sharp as possible. And that's very much "at least" (I usually hand in .jpegs that are 400 to 600 ppi when I need them professionally printed). By contrast, the photos you see on your computer screen (including forum avatars and gallery shots) are usually, as Donna has said, in the 72 to 96 ppi range--enough to see clearly on a computer screen but not enough to make for a quality print. Even then, it's possible to "save" low-resolution pix by processing them through imaging software. Possible, but iffy. Best to start with high-res pix to begin with. And this is where your camera's resolution range will be of utmost importance.
Anyway, I hope some of this technical mumbo-jumbo helps you out a little. I'm sure others here will be able to help you out, as well. But be sure to check out some of those web sites.
Love,
CJ
,
. Hell I'll just buy a stink'in camera. 
