120. Build an Online Album BEFORE YOU BEGIN 74 Import Photos from a Digital Camera 75 Scan In Photos
SEE ALSO 119 About Online Photo Services
If you're looking for the absolute easiest way to create an online photo album, use the Web Publishing Wizard built into Windows XP. When you use it, you'll create a photo album on Microsoft's MSN site. You'll get 3MB of storage space for your photos. The wizard will walk you through the free registration process. If you want more storage, you can pay $20 for a year to get 30MB of space. | 1. | Select the Folder with Pictures You Want to Publish Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that has the pictures you want to publish on the Web. To use the wizard to publish your pictures, the folder must be designated as a Photo Album folder. You'll know the folder is a Photo Album folder if the Print Pictures option appears in the Tasks list on the left side of the screen. NOTE You must be connected to the Internet to complete the wizard and publish your photos, so make sure you're connected before starting the wizard. If the folder is not a Photo Album folder, it's easy to turn it into one. Select View, Customize This Folder from the menu and click the Customize tab. From the Use This Folder File As a Template drop-down list, select Photo Album and click OK . 120. Build an Online Album | | 2. | Select Publish This Folder to the Web
Click the Publish This Folder to the Web link in the Tasks list on the left side of the window. The Welcome page of the Web Publishing Wizard appears. Click Next .
| | 3. | Select the Pictures to Publish
The Change Your File Selection page of the wizard appears, with thumbnails of all the pictures in the selected folder. Each thumbnail has its box checked. If there are any photos you don't want to print, disable their check boxes. When you've finished making your picture selections, click Next .
| | 4. | Select MSN Groups On the Where Do You Want to Publish These Files page of the wizard, choose the MSN Groups option. That's the best site for publishing photos from Windows XP. Click Next .To access the MSN site, you must log on with a Passport account. If you already have an account, log on. If you don't, follow the online instructions for setting up a Passport account. TIP You'll notice there are other options available, including Xdrive Plus and Yahoo! Briefcase . These services let you store files from your computer on an Internet site, but are not specifically photo sites for publishing photos. NOTE There are many other sites where you can publish your photos on the Web to share with others, such as www.shutterfly.com and www.flickr.com. But you can't publish your photos to those sites using the Web Publishing Wizard . However, it's still easy to publish photos to them. Go to the sites for instructions. After you log in to the MSN site, click the Create a New MSN Group to Share Your Files option on the wizard screen and click Next . You'll be asked whether you want to allow others on the Web to view the pictures, or whether you want to keep them private. If you want to share the pictures with others, click Shared . If you want to keep the pictures private, click Personal . When you've made your choice about how the files should be published, click Next . | | 5. | Name and Describe Your Group
On the Create Your New Group wizard page, type a name for your group, type your email address, select the Yes radio button indicating you've read and understand the code of conduct, and click on Next .
On the next screen that appears, type a description of your group. This description will be used when others are searching and looking for groups on MSN. If you want to list your group in the MSN Directory , select the Yes radio button. Doing this makes it easier for others to find your photo site. When you're done, click Next .
| | 6. | Finish the Wizard and View the Site
A screen appears, giving you the web address of your photo site. You don't have to write it down, though, because it will be emailed to you at the address you used for your Passport account.
You'll be asked whether you want to add the site to your Internet Favorites. If you want to do this, select Yes ; if not, select No . Then click Next .
A screen reminds you where your pictures can be found on the Web; click Next . The following screen gives you basic information about your photo site; click Next again.
Another screen asks whether you want to resize your pictures, and if so, what size you want them to be (small, medium, or large). Unless there is a specific reason you want to resize your imagesfor example, if they are very large, and it will take a long time for people to download them to view them when they visit your sitedon't resize the pictures, and so don't check any boxes. If you resize them, click the Yes box and select your preferred picture size.
Click Next . The wizard now uploads your pictures to the MSN site. After they're uploaded, you'll get confirmation. Click Next ; from the final page of the wizard, click Finish . Your photos are now available for anyone to see. Just email the web address for your MSN site to someone, and he can view all your pictures online in his browser.
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