old photos in tif format

I got some old photos from a distant relative over the weekend. She has them saved as a "tif" in a MS Word program. Is there any way to convert them into a "jpeg" format so I can do regular photo things with them? Some of these are from 1939!

 

1) Do Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Paint to run MS Paint and minimize it.
2) Open the Word document and right-click on one of the pictures, then left click Copy
3) Restore Paint and do Edit -> Paste
4) Choose File -> Save As and you will have the option to save it as a JPEG.

Repeat the process for all of the pictures.

 

TIF (Tagged Image File) is a format which was original designed back in the mid 1980's.
Because (as the name implies) TIF's have all their information - such as size, definition, image data arrangement, and applied image compression options etc. - included within the file, they are often very large files.
They include the originial layering used in the image's construction as well.
Due to their large file size they have fallen out of favor in some circles, but are still used by graphics companies and many scientific organizations (NASA for example).
When coverting them into JPG or other more compressed image formats, you lose these tags, but other than that the image usually remains true.
TIF is now owned by Adobe (originally it was created by a company called Aldus).
Many graphics programs can manipulate TIF's but some don't associate them by default; you have to change the associations properties of programs such as Jasc's Paint Shop Pro, for example, to use it with TIFs.