Thanks for the input. What I'm hoping to do is burn CD-Rs with the pictures AND some sound recording. That way the family viewer in the future can click on the picture or, if he/she has speakers, click on the sound file. I don't think there will be a problem with that if I just burn it all as data, but I can experiment on that.

I think Windows Media Player is pretty standard for playback on PCs now, and Macs can play it all.

I guess I need to know about file size. A compressed WAV file (playable on computer but not CD player?)--is there any way to calculate how many KB per second or minute for a compressed file? I need to decide if this is even practical before pursuing it.

Really am grateful. Already know a lot more than I did. I wasn't even sure if microphones came with USB plugs nowadays.

Any more guidance would be much appreciated.