In this section:
We all love pictures, whether they’re photographs that record the significant events in our lives, candid shots of people, pets, and places, or pictures we’ve drawn ourselves. And, of course, one of the things we love to do with our pictures is to share them with other people. Whether you want to send your pictures via e-mail to far-flung friends and relatives, add them to your Web page, or lend some color to your documents with an original drawing or two, Windows Vista provides all the tools you need for professional-looking results.
The Windows Photo Gallery is your best friend when you’re working with your pictures—it helps you sort and organize them so that you can find them easily, and you can even add captions, titles, and sequential numbering. You can use a wizard to move your digital camera pictures onto your computer, and then you can edit the pictures to improve them if necessary—cropping them, removing "red eye," and so on. You can create a dynamic slide show, with zooming, panning, and transitions as you move from one picture to another, and you can even include a video clip and a soundtrack.
You can create your own drawings or edit existing ones in the Paint program, using Paint’s tools to create the special effects you want. Even if you’re not a great artist, it can be a lot of fun!
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the proliferation of pictures on your computer, especially when they’re stored in a variety of locations. We’ve found that the best way to access and sort all those pictures and to organize them so that you can easily locate them is to use the Windows Photo Gallery. The Photo Gallery automatically includes all the pictures and photographs that are stored in your Pictures folder, as well as any that are contained in subfolders.
Click the Start button, type photo in the Search box, and click Windows Photo Gallery to start the Photo Gallery.
Scroll through the photos, noting that they’re grouped by date.
Point to a photo to see an enlarged version of it, along with other details.
To rotate a photo, click to select it, and then click the Rotate Clockwise or the Rotate Counterclockwise button.
To view the other photos in sequence, click the Next Image button (or press the Right arrow key); or to view the pictures in reverse order, click the Previous Image button (or press the Left arrow key).
Use the controls to change the magnification (zoom) of the image, to see additional photos, or to rotate the photo.
- Click the type of category you want to use to classify the photos, if the list isn’t already expanded.
- Click the category you want to use. If necessary, click any subcategories to expand them, and then select the category you want.
- If you want to find a specific photo within the selected category, click in the Search box, and start typing a name, file type, or tag (classification) for the photo.
Try This!
Click the Views button next to the Search box, and choose a different view of your photos. Click the button again, and choose a different way to group and then sort the photos. Click the button again, and choose to show the table of contents. If the Info pane is open, click Close to close it. Use the Zoom Control to change the size of your photos. Now use the Views button to restore grouping and sorting, the Info button to display the Info pane, and the Reset Thumbnails To Default Size button to undo your zooming.
