Working with My Pictures

The key to Windows XP's picture management is the My Pictures folder. This is a file folder like My Documents, but customized for image-related operations.

The default My Pictures folder, shown in Figure 12.1, displays all your image files as thumbnails. This is so much better than displaying image files as stock icons or file listings you can actually see the file that you're working with!

Figure 12.1. Windows XP's My Pictures folder all your image files are displayed as thumbnails.

Naturally, the My Pictures folder includes a custom Tasks list, like the one found in every Windows XP folder. But it also includes a special Picture Tasks list. These Picture Tasks are operations specific to image management, such as ordering photo prints and viewing the image files as a slide show.

The My Pictures folder also includes a number of viewing options that should appeal to people who work a lot with digital pictures. I'll discuss the various My Picture views in the "Different Views" section, later in this chapter.

NOTE

Windows XP can only track that information that was recorded by your digital camera. Most digital cameras collect this information (called EXIF information) and store it along with each picture file.