46. Share a Slideshow Screensaver  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 45 Sign Up for .Mac
 SEE ALSO 87 About iPhoto and Digital Photography 104 Select a Screensaver
One of the easiest and most fun ways to get into the spirit of .Mac is to create a public slideshow screensaver. Anybody with a Mac can subscribe to your public screensaver and watch your published pictures fade and pan across their screens. Apple provides the infrastructure; you provide the pictures. All you have to do is publish them using a free downloadable application provided as part of your .Mac account. | 1. | Download the .Mac Slides Publisher Using your web browser, go to the .Mac website (http://www.mac.com). Click the Member Central link at left, then click the down-arrow link to the .Mac Slides Publisher installation file ( Mac_Slides_Publisher.dmg ). The file downloads to your computer, and the disk image mounts automatically in the Finder.  TIP If the disk image did not automatically mount after downloading, simply go to your Desktop (or wherever you downloaded the file) and double-click its icon to mount it. 46. Share a Slideshow Screensaver  | | 2. | Install the Publisher Application
Open the newly mounted disk image, if a window for it is not already open . Double-click the installer package, MacSlidesPublisher.pkg . The installation program begins; follow the on-screen instructions to install the application.
| | 3. | Find Slideshow in iPhoto or the Finder To make a slideshow, you need a collection of pictures. To make things easy, collect all the pictures you want to use in your slideshow in a single folder so that you can select them all at once. Alternatively, select a group of pictures from within iPhoto. NOTE The pictures you choose must be in JPEG format. JPEG image files can have up to 16.7 million colors, but are compressed to achieve a small file size ; this compression can result in degraded image quality. Because the compression/quality tradeoff is so flexible, JPEG is by far the most widely used image format on the Internet. | | 4. | Drag Pictures onto Publisher Icon
After selecting the pictures, drag them into the Finder window containing the .Mac Slides Publisher application, and release them on top of the icon. You'll know your mouse is positioned properly when the application icon darkens to show that it is capable of opening those files.
The Slides Publisher launches. Using your stored .Mac account information, the application connects to the .Mac server, processes the picture files one by one, and uploads them to the server. You will see a progress meter and thumbnail versions of each picture as it is processed . After the pictures have all been uploaded, the application quits.
| | 5. | Open Desktop & Screen Saver Preferences
Now you must do what any other user must do to view your slideshow: subscribe to your .Mac screensaver. To do this, open the System Preferences (under the Apple menu); click the Desktop & Screen Saver icon, and then on the Screen Saver tab to open the screensaver setup page. Click the .Mac option in the Screen Savers list; the Preview window shows the default .Mac slideshow screensaver, which is a series of promotional product photos.
| | 6. | Subscribe to Your Slideshow Click the Options button. A sheet appears that lets you subscribe to any .Mac member's slideshow. Type your own .Mac member name into the .Mac Membership Name field and select or deselect the check boxes next to the various display options to suit your taste. (You can always reopen this sheet later to tweak the options.) Then click OK . NOTE Your computer downloads all the pictures in the slideshow in the background; if you have a slow connection, it might take several minutes before all the pictures in the slideshow appear. Your slideshow appears in the Preview pane in the Desktop & Screen Saver Preferences window. To see the slideshow full-screen, click the Test button; the screensaver displays until you move your mouse again. The next time your screensaver activates as a result of your configured settings, it will use your slideshow pictures. | | 7. | Subscribe to Another .Mac Member's Slideshow
You can subscribe to another person's slideshow just as easily as you can your ownif you know his .Mac member name. In the Desktop & Screen Saver Preferences pane, click Options again to reopen the Subscriptions sheet, and enter the other person's .Mac member name in the .Mac Membership Name field. (Notice that your own .Mac member name now appears in the list at the top of the sheet, as another available slideshow from which you can choose.) Click OK ; your active screensaver is now your friend's .Mac slideshow.
| NOTE To delete a slideshow, you must delete the pictures from where they are stored on your iDisk. See 50 Connect to Your iDisk for more information about using your iDisk; simply drag the Public folder out of the Slide Shows folder inside Pictures on your iDisk, and put it in the Trash to remove your slideshow.
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